Simon Abkarian

Biography

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 .

Known For

Pierre

La Disparue de Deauville

Marjane's Father (voice)

Persepolis

Sam

Le serpent

Missak Manouchian

L'Armée du crime

Eliyahoo

ולקחת לך אישה

Carlos

Chacun cherche son chat

Freddy

Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)

He

Yes

Eliyau

שבעה

Müller

Permis de construire

Merlin

Rage

Daniel Prat

Overdose

Anthony

Basse saison

Alex Dimitrios

Casino Royale

Albert

Un monde presque paisible

Le veuf

Tête de Turc

מחברות שחורות

Arshile Gorky

Ararat

Al Barad

Secret Défense

Raoul

Le Chant des mariées

Antoine Marelli

Sans répit

Sarkis Arabian

Le Voyage en Arménie

Sahak

Les mauvais joueurs

Hassan (voice)

Zarafa

Julien Cestac

Le Démon de midi

Jimi Weiss

De force

Saül Birnbaum

Le Chemin du bonheur

Aram

Aram

Milo Garavan

Les Amants naufragés

Charles De Gaulle

De Gaulle – Partie 2

Charles De Gaulle

De Gaulle – Partie 1 : La France Libre

Customer

Le silence de Rak

L'avocat François Desgrez

Angélique

Simon

Lila Lili

Abraham Drucker

Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire de toi?

Elisha

גט: המשפט של ויויאן אמסלם

Ana El Awan

Marwan

Le Quatrième mur

Omar

Zaïna, cavalière de l'Atlas

Dieu reconnaîtra les siens

Krikor

The Cut

Commander Luc Denard

Colt 45

Mehdi Ben Barka

J'ai vu tuer Ben Barka

Narrator (voice)

Mémoires de Palestine

Simon

1915

Hovannès Alexandrian

Une histoire de fou

Vincent

Comme une ombre

Cesari

S.A.C. : Des hommes dans l'ombre

Gunter (voice)

New Délire

Swami (voice)

La légende de Parva

L'oncle de Noé (voice)

Un Monde à nous

Self

Il était une fois... « Le procès de Viviane Amsalem »

Lakhdar

Chroniques d'un indic

Petites révélations

Simon

J'irai au paradis car l'enfer est ici

Jacomo Morier

Overdrive

Le patron du café

J'ai tué ma femme

Kakourgos

Djam

Le libanais

Chouf

Wilson

Dans tes rêves

Charles Vernais

The Sonata

Gerfaut

La Mécanique de l'ombre

Ange Fleury

Edmond

Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father

Rebelles

Philippe

Das Vorspiel

Mansour

Deux moi

Atiq (voice)

Les Hirondelles de Kaboul

Karan

Ce soir-là et les jours d'après

Lieutenant Dessalines

The Truth About Charlie

Lelio

Le Menteur : La Pièce !

le général Oufkir, ministre marocain de l'intérieur

L'Affaire Ben Barka

Tempête dans un verre d'eau

Said Abdel Aziz

Rendition

Le père de Farid

La Marche

Le dernier jour du jeûne

Narrateur (voice)

Les Damnés de la Commune

Customer

Le Poisson rouge

Narrator

La vengeance des Arméniens, Le procès Tehlirian

Khamsa's Father

Khamsa

Gilles Paulin

Musée haut, musée bas

Tristan

Selon la police

Electre des bas-fonds

Le lièvre

The Father

Playground