Simon Abkarian
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1962-03-05 (63 years old)
Place of Birth
Gonesse, Val d'Oise, France
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
Acting
De Gaulle - Partie 1 : La France Libre
as Charles De Gaulle
De Gaulle – Partie 2
as Charles De Gaulle
Playground
as The Father
(2025)
The 4th Wall
as Marwan
(2025)
Chroniques d'un indic
as Lakhdar
(2023)
Mémoires de Palestine
as Narrator (voice)
(2022)
Overdose
as Daniel Prat
(2022)
Restless
as Antoine Marelli
(2022)
Cop Goes Missing
as Tristan
(2022)
The Way to Happiness
as Saül Birnbaum
(2022)
(2021)
(2021)
Off-Season
as Anthony
(2021)
Les Damnés de la Commune
as Narrateur (voice)
(2021)
Permis de construire
as Müller
(2020)
(2019)
Someone, Somewhere
as Mansour
(2019)
Rebels
as Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father
(2019)
The Swallows of Kabul
as Atiq (voice)
(2019)
The Audition
as Philippe
(2019)
Ce soir-là et les jours d'après
as Karan
(2018)
The Sonata
as Charles Vernais
(2018)
Cyrano, My Love
as Ange Fleury
(2017)
Overdrive
as Jacomo Morier
(2017)
J'ai tué ma femme
as Le patron du café
(2017)
Journey from Greece
as Kakourgos
(2016)
Scribe
as Gerfaut
(2016)
Chouf
as Le libanais
(2016)
(2015)
Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad
as Hovannès Alexandrian
(2015)
1915
as Simon
(2015)
Tehlirian on Trial: Armenia's Avenger
as Narrator
(2014)
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
as Elisha
(2014)
Colt 45
as Commander Luc Denard
(2014)
The Cut
as Krikor
(2013)
Angelique
as L'avocat François Desgrez
(2013)
The Marchers
as Le père de Farid
(2012)
Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire de toi?
as Abraham Drucker
(2012)
Zarafa
as Hassan (voice)
(2011)
Force
as Jimi Weiss
(2011)
Les Amants naufragés
as Milo Garavan
(2010)
Turk's Head
as Le veuf
(2010)
Comme une ombre
as Vincent
(2009)
Army of Crime
as Missak Manouchian
(2009)
Rage
as Merlin
(2008)
A Day at the Museum
as Gilles Paulin
(2008)
A World of Ours
as L'oncle de Noé (voice)
(2008)
The Seven Days
as Eliyau
(2008)
Secrets of State
as Al Barad
(2008)
L'Affaire Ben Barka
as le général Oufkir, ministre marocain de l'intérieur
(2008)
Khamsa
as Khamsa's Father
(2008)
The Wedding Song
as Raoul
(2008)
(2008)
Le Menteur : La Pièce !
as Lelio
(2007)
Persepolis
as Marjane's Father (voice)
(2007)
Rendition
as Said Abdel Aziz
(2007)
New Délire
as Gunter (voice)
(2007)
Trivial
as Pierre
(2006)
Casino Royale
as Alex Dimitrios
(2006)
The Snake
as Sam
(2006)
Armenia
as Sarkis Arabian
(2005)
Zaina: Rider of the Atlas
as Omar
(2005)
Les mauvais joueurs
as Sahak
(2005)
In Your Dreams
as Wilson
(2005)
Yes
as He
(2005)
I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed
as Mehdi Ben Barka
(2005)
The Demon Stirs
as Julien Cestac
(2005)
S.A.C. : Des hommes dans l'ombre
as Cesari
(2004)
To Take A Wife
as Eliyahoo
(2003)
The Legend of Princess Parva
as Swami (voice)
(2003)
(2002)
The Truth About Charlie
as Lieutenant Dessalines
(2002)
Almost Peaceful
as Albert
(2002)
Aram
as Aram
(2002)
Ararat
as Arshile Gorky
(1999)
Lila Lili
as Simon
(1997)
(1997)
The Silence of Rak
as Customer
(1997)
(1996)
When the Cat's Away
as Carlos
(1994)
(1994)
Le Poisson rouge
as Customer
(1989)
Crew
(2022)
Electre des bas-fonds
Scenario Writer
(2020)
Le dernier jour du jeûne
Writer
(1995)
Dead Man Walking
Thanks