In Too Much Heaven, there is also an Archangel of Gravity by the name of Uriel. I needed someone with a certain, well, gravitas.
In the first draft, Uriel was a bus driver. By the fourth draft, he was an Egyptian jazz saxophonist with a deep voice and a penchant for expensive cigars. I can't imagine him being anything else, or looking like anyone other than Omar El Sharif.
I mean, look into those eyes. Don't you want him to tell you where you're going and how you're going to get there?