1962-03-05 ( 63 years old ) in Gonesse, Val d'Oise, France
Simon Abkarian (born 5 March 1962) is a French-Armenian actor.
Born in Gonesse, Val d'Oise, of Armenian descent, Abkarian spent his childhood in Lebanon. He moved to Los Angeles, where he joined an Armenian theater company managed by Gerald Papazian. He returned to France in 1985, settling in Paris. He took classes at the Acting International school, then he joined Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil.
Abkarian left the Théâtre du Soleil in 1993 and played in 2001 "Beast on the Moon" by Richard Kalinoski, directed by Irina Brook, a play about the life of a survivor of the Genocide of the Armenians, a role which won him critical acclaims and the Molière of the best comedian.
His first roles in cinema were proposed by French filmaker Cédric Klapisch, who asked him to play in several of his movies, notably in "Chacun cherche son chat" ("When the Cat is Away" (1996) and in "Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)" en 2003.
He was featured in Sally Potter's Yes (2004), in which he played the lead role.
Abkarian then played Mehdi Ben Barka in the thriller "J'ai vu tuer Ben Barka" by Serge Le Péron, about the kidnapping and the murder of the leader of the Moroccan opposition. He then played in "Prendre Femme" by Ronit Elkabetz which won him several interpretation prizes. Playing different roles and in different genres, he was featured in the adventure "Zaïna, cavalière de l'Atlas" by Bourlem Guerdjou, in the comedy "Le Démon de midi" by Marie-Pascale Osterriet. He has also appeared in Atom Egoyan's Ararat (2002), he was Albert in Almost Peaceful (2004) by French Director Michel Deville a film about Holocaust survivors, he was featured in "Your Dreams" (2005) by Denis Thybaud. He played the role of villain Alex Dimitrios in the James Bond film, Casino Royale. The character is a Government contractor and arms dealer working against Bond.
He was featured as Sahak in the thriller "Les Mauvais Joueurs" ("The Gamblers") (2007) by Frédéric Balekdjian. He has also been the voice of Ebi in the French version of the animated feature "Persepolis". Abkarian played the role of the eminent Armenian poet Missak Manouchianin in "Army of Crime" (2010) by Robert Guédiguian, a French filmaker based in Marseilles, who is also of Armenian parentage.
He has also played Dariush Bakhshi, the Iranian Special Consul, in the BBC drama Spooks MI-5.
Abkarian is known for his intensity in acting and for his ecclectism in the roles he choses.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Simon Abkarian, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia .
Movies
Comme des riches
2025-07-23
The 4th Wall
2025-01-15
Mémoires de Palestine
2023-12-19
Overdose
2022-11-04
The Way to Happiness
2022-06-15
Electre des bas-fonds
2022-05-01
Restless
2022-02-25
Cop Goes Missing
2022-02-23
Off-Season
2021-11-26
Permis de construire
2021-11-15
Black Notebooks
2021-07-07
The Damned of the Paris Commune
2021-03-16
Le dernier jour du jeûne
2020-12-17
The Audition
2019-11-06
Someone, Somewhere
2019-09-11
The Swallows of Kabul
2019-09-04
Ce soir-là et les jours d'après
2019-06-26
Rebels
2019-01-17
The Sonata
2018-11-15
Cyrano, My Love
2018-11-10
Journey from Greece
2017-08-09
Overdrive
2017-06-16
J'ai tué ma femme
2017-02-04
Scribe
2016-10-19
Chouf
2016-10-05
Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad
2015-11-11
Tehlirian on Trial: Armenia's Avenger
2015-04-28
1915
2015-04-17
The Cut
2014-10-16
Colt 45
2014-08-06
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
2014-06-25
Angelique
2013-12-18
The Marchers
2013-11-27
Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire de toi?
2012-12-19
Zarafa
2012-01-25
Force
2011-10-26
Les Amants naufragés
2011-06-13
Comme une ombre
2010-12-21
Turk's Head
2010-03-31
Rage
2009-09-24
Army of Crime
2009-09-16
Secrets of State
2008-12-10
The Wedding Song
2008-11-24
Le Menteur : La Pièce !
2008-11-20
A Day at the Museum
2008-11-19
Khamsa
2008-10-08
A World of Ours
2008-07-16
The Seven Days
2008-05-05
Minor Revelations
2008-04-09
L'Affaire Ben Barka
2008-01-21
Rendition
2007-09-07
New Délire
2007-07-04
Persepolis
2007-06-27
Trivial
2007-05-23
Casino Royale
2006-11-14
The Snake
2006-10-21
Armenia
2006-06-28
S.A.C. : Des hommes dans l'ombre
2005-11-29
I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed
2005-11-02
Zaina: Rider of the Atlas
2005-10-26
Yes
2005-08-05
The Demon Stirs
2005-06-22
Les mauvais joueurs
2005-04-20
In Your Dreams
2005-04-13
To Take A Wife
2004-06-01
Not For, or Against (Quite the Contrary)
2003-03-05
The Legend of Princess Parva
2003-02-12
Almost Peaceful
2002-12-18
Aram
2002-11-27
The Truth About Charlie
2002-10-25
Ararat
2002-05-20
Lila Lili
1999-01-06
Tempest in a Teapot
1997-12-10
J'irai au paradis car l'enfer est ici
1997-10-01
The Silence of Rak
1997-07-09
When the Cat's Away
1996-04-03
Ana El Awan
1994-01-02
Le Poisson rouge
1994-01-01
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