French actor and comedian Tchéky Karyo, who has appeared in approximately 80 films, including Nikita, Bad boys etc. Patriotdied aged 72, his manager Elizabeth Tanner told AFP.
“Valerie Cheruzore, his wife and their children are saddened by the news of the disappearance of Cheky Karyo, who died of cancer this Friday, October 31,” his family said in a press release sent to AFP.
Cheky Karyo was born in Istanbul in 1953 and became known to the general public in the late 1980s, playing a leading role in Bearwhich was a big hit in theaters and garnered nearly nine million views, where he portrayed a remorseful plantigrade hunter.
In 1990, the piercing-eyed, square-jawed actor had another success with the controversial role of a recruiter in Nikita, a formidable hitwoman played by Anne Parillaud in front of Luc Besson's camera.
The career of this polyglot, who speaks French, English, Spanish and Arabic, began in French auteur cinema, most notably in front of the camera of Chantal Akerman in 1982 for All night and ahead of Eric Romer in 1984 in Full moon nights.
His eclectic filmography brought him together with Jean-Pierre Jeunet in The fairytale fate of Amelie Poulain (2001) and introduced him to foreign filmmakers, in particular the Brazilian Walter Salles (Alien land1995) or American Ridley Scott in 1492: Christopher Columbus together with Gerard Depardieu.
Tchéky Karyo also had a long career on stage and notably performed at the Avignon Festival in the south of France in the early 1980s.
“This work has helped me become a better person. Dramatic art is a way to enter the reserved and magical space into which we enter in the company of other people who also need this impulse and, perhaps, take a step back from themselves,” he noted in 2017 in the newspaper columns. Free afternoon.
