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Simon Abkarian

Simon Abkarian

Birthday: 1962-03-05 | Place of Birth: 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 .

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2022
Restless

as    Antoine Marelli

2022
The Way to Happiness

as    Saül Birnbaum

2022
Cop Goes Missing

as    Tristan

2021
Off-Season

as    Anthony

2021
Permis de construire

as    Müller

2021
Les Damnés de la Commune

as    Narrateur (voice)

2020
Wonderland

as    Tony

2019
Cyrano, My Love

as    Ange Fleury

2019
The Swallows of Kabul

as    Atiq (voice)

2019
2019
Someone, Somewhere

as    Mansour

2019
The Audition

as    Philippe

2019
Rebels

as    Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father

2018
The Sonata

as    Charles Vernais

2017
Overdrive

as    Jacomo Morier

2015
Zarafa

as    Hassan (voice)

2015
1915

as    Simon

2014
Colt 45

as    Commander Luc Denard

2014
The Cut

as    Krikor

2013
Angelique

as    L'avocat François Desgrez

2011
Force

as    Jimi Weiss

2010
Turk's Head

as    Le veuf

2009
Rage

as    Merlin

2009
Army of Crime

as    Missak Manouchian

2008
Secrets of State

as    Al Barad

2008
The Seven Days

as    Eliyau

2008
Persepolis

as    Marjane's Father (voice)

2008
The Wedding Song

as    Raoul

2007
Trivial

as    Pierre

2007
Rendition

as    Said Abdel Aziz