Simon Abkarian

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1962-03-05 (62 years old)

Place of Birth Gonesse, Val d'Oise, France

Also Known As Simone Abkarian, Симон Абкарян

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

Actor

De Gaulle – Partie 2

as Charles De Gaulle

Indic

as Lakhdar

2025
The 4th Wall

as Marwan

2023
Mémoires de Palestine

as Narrator (voice)

2022
Overdose

as Daniel Prat

2022
The Way to Happiness

as Saül Birnbaum

2022
Restless

as Antoine Marelli

2022
Cop Goes Missing

as Tristan

2022
Notre-Dame

as Max

2021
Off-Season

as Anthony

2021
2021
Les Damnés de la Commune

as Narrateur (voice)

2020
Wonderland

as Tony

2019
The Audition

as Philippe

2019
2019
The Swallows of Kabul

as Atiq (voice)

2019
Rebels

as Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father

2018
The Sonata

as Charles Vernais

2018
Cyrano, My Love

as Ange Fleury

2017
Journey from Greece

as Kakourgos

2017
Overdrive

as Jacomo Morier

2017
J'ai tué ma femme

as Le patron du café

2017
Playground

as The Father

2016
Scribe

as Gerfaut

2016
Chouf

as Le libanais

2015
Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad

as Hovannès Alexandrian

2015
1915

as Simon

2015
Malaterra

as Thomas Rotman

2014
The Cut

as Krikor

2014
Colt 45

as Commander Luc Denard

2013
Angelique

as L'avocat François Desgrez

2013
The Marchers

as Le père de Farid

2012
2012
Zarafa

as Hassan (voice)

2012
Kaboul Kitchen

as Colonel Amanullah

2011
Force

as Jimi Weiss

2011
Les Amants naufragés

as Milo Garavan

2011
Tony's Revenge

as Tony Roucas

2010
Comme une ombre

as Vincent

2010
Turk's Head

as Le veuf

2009
Rage

as Merlin

2009
Army of Crime

as Missak Manouchian

2009
Pigalle, la nuit

as Nadir Zainoun

2008
Secrets of State

as Al Barad

2008
2008
A Day at the Museum

as Gilles Paulin

2008
Khamsa

as Khamsa's Father

2008
A World of Ours

as L'oncle de Noé (voice)

2008
The Seven Days

as Eliyau

2008
L'Affaire Ben Barka

as le général Oufkir, ministre marocain de l'intérieur

2007
Rendition

as Said Abdel Aziz

2007
Persepolis

as Marjane's Father (voice)

2007
Trivial

as Pierre

2007
New Délire

as Gunter (voice)

2006
Casino Royale

as Alex Dimitrios

2006
The Snake

as Sam

2006
Armenia

as Sarkis Arabian

2005
I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed

as Mehdi Ben Barka

2005
Yes

as He

2005
The Demon Stirs

as Julien Cestac

2005
2005
In Your Dreams

as Wilson

2004
To Take A Wife

as Eliyahoo

2003
2002
Almost Peaceful

as Albert

2002
Aram

as Aram

2002
The Truth About Charlie

as Lieutenant Dessalines

2002
Ararat

as Arshile Gorky

2002
Spooks

as Dariush Bakhshi

1999
Lila Lili

as Simon

1997
The Silence of Rak

as Customer

1996
1994
Le Poisson rouge

as Customer

Crew

1995

Writer