Simon Abkarian (born 5 March 1962) is a French-Armenian actor.
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 .
External links
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/nm0008787
Wikipedia: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1255329
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Filmography (Movies)
De Gaulle: The Sovereign Edge (Film 2)
Character:Charles De Gaulle
Release Date:03/07/2026
De Gaulle: Tilting Iron (Film 1)
Character:Charles De Gaulle
Release Date:10/06/2026
Chroniques d'un indic
Character:Lakhdar
Release Date:28/08/2025
The 4th Wall
Character:Marwan
Release Date:15/01/2025
Mémoires de Palestine
Character:Narrator (voice)
Release Date:19/12/2023
Overdose
Character:Daniel Prat
Release Date:04/11/2022
The Way to Happiness
Character:Saül Birnbaum
Release Date:15/06/2022
Electre des bas-fonds
Character:
Release Date:01/05/2022
Restless
Character:Antoine Marelli
Release Date:25/02/2022
Cop Goes Missing
Character:Tristan
Release Date:23/02/2022
Off-Season
Character:Anthony
Release Date:26/11/2021
Permis de construire
Character:Müller
Release Date:15/11/2021
Black Notebooks
Character:
Release Date:07/07/2021
Les Damnés de la Commune
Character:Narrateur (voice)
Release Date:16/03/2021
Le dernier jour du jeûne
Character:
Release Date:17/12/2020
The Audition
Character:Philippe
Release Date:06/11/2019
Someone, Somewhere
Character:Mansour
Release Date:11/09/2019
The Swallows of Kabul
Character:Atiq (voice)
Release Date:04/09/2019
Ce soir-là et les jours d'après
Character:Karan
Release Date:26/06/2019
Rebels
Character:Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father
Release Date:17/01/2019
The Sonata
Character:Charles Vernais
Release Date:15/11/2018
Cyrano, My Love
Character:Ange Fleury
Release Date:10/11/2018
Journey from Greece
Character:Kakourgos
Release Date:09/08/2017
Overdrive
Character:Jacomo Morier
Release Date:16/06/2017
J'ai tué ma femme
Character:Le patron du café
Release Date:04/02/2017
Il était une fois... « Le procès de Viviane Amsalem »
Character:Self
Release Date:29/11/2016
Scribe
Character:Gerfaut
Release Date:19/10/2016
Chouf
Character:Le libanais
Release Date:05/10/2016
Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad
Character:Hovannès Alexandrian
Release Date:11/11/2015
Tehlirian on Trial: Armenia's Avenger
Character:Narrator
Release Date:28/04/2015
1915
Character:Simon
Release Date:17/04/2015
The Cut
Character:Krikor
Release Date:16/10/2014
Colt 45
Character:Commander Luc Denard
Release Date:06/08/2014
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Character:Elisha
Release Date:25/06/2014
Angélique
Character:L'avocat François Desgrez
Release Date:18/12/2013
The Marchers
Character:Le père de Farid
Release Date:27/11/2013
Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire de toi?
Character:Abraham Drucker
Release Date:19/12/2012
Zarafa
Character:Hassan (voice)
Release Date:25/01/2012
Force
Character:Jimi Weiss
Release Date:26/10/2011
Les Amants naufragés
Character:Milo Garavan
Release Date:13/06/2011
Comme une ombre
Character:Vincent
Release Date:21/12/2010
Turk's Head
Character:Le veuf
Release Date:31/03/2010
Rage
Character:Merlin
Release Date:24/09/2009
Army of Crime
Character:Missak Manouchian
Release Date:16/09/2009
Secrets of State
Character:Al Barad
Release Date:10/12/2008
The Wedding Song
Character:Raoul
Release Date:24/11/2008
Le Menteur : La Pièce !
Character:Lelio
Release Date:20/11/2008
A Day at the Museum
Character:Gilles Paulin
Release Date:19/11/2008
Khamsa
Character:Khamsa's Father
Release Date:08/10/2008
A World of Ours
Character:L'oncle de Noé (voice)
Release Date:16/07/2008
The Seven Days
Character:Eliyau
Release Date:05/05/2008
Minor Revelations
Character:
Release Date:09/04/2008
L'Affaire Ben Barka
Character:le général Oufkir, ministre marocain de l'intérieur
Release Date:21/01/2008
Rendition
Character:Said Abdel Aziz
Release Date:07/09/2007
New Délire
Character:Gunter (voice)
Release Date:04/07/2007
Persepolis
Character:Marjane's Father (voice)
Release Date:27/06/2007
Trivial
Character:Pierre
Release Date:23/05/2007
Casino Royale
Character:Alex Dimitrios
Release Date:14/11/2006
The Snake
Character:Sam
Release Date:21/10/2006
Armenia
Character:Sarkis Arabian
Release Date:28/06/2006
S.A.C. : Des hommes dans l'ombre
Character:Cesari
Release Date:29/11/2005
I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed
Character:Mehdi Ben Barka
Release Date:02/11/2005
Zaina: Rider of the Atlas
Character:Omar
Release Date:26/10/2005
Yes
Character:He
Release Date:05/08/2005
The Demon Stirs
Character:Julien Cestac
Release Date:22/06/2005
Les mauvais joueurs
Character:Sahak
Release Date:20/04/2005
In Your Dreams
Character:Wilson
Release Date:13/04/2005
To Take A Wife
Character:Eliyahoo
Release Date:01/06/2004
Not For, or Against (Quite the Contrary)
Character:Freddy
Release Date:05/03/2003
The Legend of Princess Parva
Character:Swami (voice)
Release Date:12/02/2003
Almost Peaceful
Character:Albert
Release Date:18/12/2002
Aram
Character:Aram
Release Date:27/11/2002
The Truth About Charlie
Character:Lieutenant Dessalines
Release Date:25/10/2002
Ararat
Character:Arshile Gorky
Release Date:20/05/2002
Lila Lili
Character:Simon
Release Date:06/01/1999
Tempest in a Teapot
Character:
Release Date:10/12/1997
J'irai au paradis car l'enfer est ici
Character:Simon
Release Date:01/10/1997
The Silence of Rak
Character:Customer
Release Date:09/07/1997
When the Cat's Away
Character:Carlos
Release Date:03/04/1996
Ana El Awan
Character:
Release Date:02/01/1994
Le Poisson rouge
Character:Customer
Release Date:01/01/1994
La nuit miraculeuse
Character:
Release Date:13/12/1989
Television Appearances
Vanished
Character:
Notre-Dame
Character:Max
Wonderland
Character:Tony
Playground
Character:The Father
Malaterra
Character:Thomas Rotman
Kaboul Kitchen
Character:Colonel Amanullah
Tony's Revenge
Character:Tony Roucas
Pigalle, la nuit
Character:Nadir Zainoun
House of Saddam
Character:Qais
Spooks
Character:Dariush Bakhshi
Images
