Cheky KaryoFrench actor who starred in the film by Luc Besson. Woman Nikita, headed the series Batiste and had more than 100 other film and television roles during a 40-year screen career, died Friday of cancer. He was 72.
His wife, actor Valerie Cheruzore, and their children reported his death to the French news agency AFP.
Karyo was born on October 4, 1953 in Istanbul and moved with his family to France at a young age. He was almost 30 when he began landing film roles and was nominated for a Cesar Award for Most Promising Actor for one of his first films. Scale (1982).
He began working steadily in the 1980s, and his big break came in 1990 when writer-director Besson cast him in the key role of Bob, a member of a secret government organization who mentors Nikita (Anne Parillaud) as she transforms into a trained assassin.
After this, Karyo would play mostly supporting roles in dozens of films in the 1990s, starting with Besson's film. Joan of Arc, Michael Bay Bad boysRidley Scott 1492: Conquest of Paradise and a photo of James Bond by Pierce Brosnan Golden Eye To Addicted to love, Babel and Besson The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.
As the millennium turned, Karyo continued to work consistently in films until the first half of the 2010s, appearing in Pieces of Me, Requiem for a Killer, A Man and His Dog and much more. Along the way, he began acting in French TV series, including Section zero And No limit. Among his most famous was the role of detective Julien Baptiste in the British TV series. Missing, for which he was nominated as Best Actor in a Miniseries at the 2015 Monte Carlo Television Festival. The show aired on BBC One in the UK and Starz in the US.
From that point on, Karyo focused mainly on television. He appeared in several episodes of the series War with the Beasts, The Name of the Rose And ZeroZeroZero before landing the lead role in his own series. He reprized his role from Missing in the spin-off Batiste2019–2021 crime drama airing on BBC One.
Karyo continued to appear on the big and small screens until his latest role in the 2025 film. Faster.
