Person Details

Birthday: 1962-03-05 00:18:08

Aliases: Simone Abkarian

Gender: Male

Place of birth: Gonesse, Val d'Oise, France

Homepage:

Movie Involvements: 57

TV Involvements: 7


Most Famous Work

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 .

Most Famous Work

Spooks
Average
8

Spooks

(2002) Dariush Bakhshi
Casino Royale
Average
8

Casino Royale

(2006) Alex Dimitrios
Overdose
Average
7

Overdose

(2022) Daniel Prat
Overdrive
Average
6

Overdrive

(2017) Jacomo Morier
Restless
Average
6

Restless

(2022) Marelli
Tony's Revenge
Average
6

Tony's Revenge

(2011) Tony Roucas
Persepolis
Average
8

Persepolis

(2007) Marjane's Father (voice)
The Truth About Charlie
Average
5

The Truth About Charlie

(2002) Lieutenant Dessalines

Acting

Year Character Movie/Tv
2023 Narrator (voice)
2022 Daniel Prat
Max
Saül Birnbaum
Marelli
Tristan
2021 Anthony
Müller
N/A
Narrateur (voice)
2020 N/A
Tony
2019 Philippe
Mansour
Atiq (voice)
Karan
Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father
2018 Charles Vernais
Ange Fleury
2017 Kakourgos
Jacomo Morier
The Father
Le patron du café
2016 Gerfaut
Le libanais
2015 Thomas Rotman
Hovannès Alexandrian
Narrator
Simon
2014 Krikor
Commander Luc Denard
Elisha
2013 L'avocat François Desgrez
Le père de Farid
2012 Abraham Drucker
Colonel Amanullah
Hassan (voice)
2011 Jimi Weiss
Milo Garavan
Tony Roucas
2010 Le veuf
2009 Nadir Zainoun
Merlin
Missak Manouchian
2008 Al Barad
Raoul
Lelio
Gilles Paulin
Khamsa's Father
Eliyau
N/A
le général Oufkir, ministre marocain de l'intérieur
2007 Said Abdel Aziz
Marjane's Father (voice)
Pierre
Gunter (voice)
Sam
2006 Alex Dimitrios
Sarkis Arabian
2005 Cesari
Mehdi Ben Barka
Omar
He
Julien Cestac
Sahak
Wilson
2004 Eliyahoo
2003 Freddy
Swami (voice)
2002 Albert
Aram
Lieutenant Dessalines
Arshile Gorky
Dariush Bakhshi
1999 Simon
1997 N/A
Customer
1996 Carlos
1994 N/A
Customer
Charles De Gaulle
Charles De Gaulle
N/A
Marwan
Year Character Movie/Tv

Writing

Year Role Movie/Tv
2020 Writer
Year Role Movie/Tv

Crew

Year Role Movie/Tv
1995 Thanks
Year Role Movie/Tv

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