He was one of the outstanding faces of French cinema: Chec Cariot left us at the age of 72

His agent announced the sad news to AFP Western FranceFrench actor Cheki Cariot died this Friday, October 31, at the age of 72 from cancer. Nominated for a César for Most Promising Actor for The Balance, he has been one of the unforgettable faces of French cinema for the past 40 years.

A promising debut on the stage

Born in Istanbul, Cheki Cario spent his youth in Paris and studied comedy at the Cyrano Theater before joining Daniel Sorano’s company. Entering the National Theater of Strasbourg, he performed in the great classics (Tartuffe, Macbeth, Othello), as well as in modern works. In 1982, Cheki Cario made his first film appearance in Chantal Akerman’s Tout une nuit.

Nominated for Caesar

That same year, he was awarded (along with Jean-Paul Comar) the César for Best Newcomer. scales. Since then, the actor specialized in violent roles: a gangster in Le Marginal (1983), he killed Sophie Marceau in L’Amour braque (1985). At the same time, Cheki Carió plays more sophisticated characters, such as Remy, the husband abandoned by Pascal Ogier in Nights of the Full Moon (1984), or Etienne de Bourbon, the heretic-stalking abbot, monk and magician (1987).

In 1988, the role of the hunter in the film “The Bear” opened the door to stardom. The general public then identified him with Anne Parrillo’s mentor in Nikita (1990). He would reunite with director Luc Besson for The Need for Joan of Arc in 1999 and in one of his plays, The Dragon’s Deadly Kiss, in 2001.

international turn

The recognition he gained in France in the 1990s allowed him to take his career internationally. Appearing alongside Gérard Depardieu in 1492: Christopher Columbus (1992), Cheki Cario meets Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as a dangerous criminal in Bad Boys (1995).

He also plays a corrupt policeman in Crying Freeman (id.), a Russian defense minister in GoldenEye (id.), a French soldier helping Mel Gibson in Patriot (2000), a scientist in Fusion – The Core (2003) or even a policeman, Nick Nolte’s accomplice, in Man from the Rivi.

He also ventured into romantic comedy with Griffin Dunne’s Addicted to Love (1997) and regularly toured Italy (Coup de lune (1995), Terre distant (id.), Albergo Roma (1996)). Back in France, Cheki Cariot hunts Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci in Jan Koonen’s Doberman (1997) and in turn plays Nimrod in the fantasy film Babel (1998) as well as Moliere in Gérard Corbio’s Le Roi danse (2000).

After a detour to Montreal opposite Angelina Jolie in the thriller Destins Violés (2004), he returned to Europe to join Castings From the drama Utopia (id.), from Arthur Joffe’s comedy Don’t give up! (id.) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s historical drama A Long Engagement Sunday (2004). In 2005, he played a knight in an adaptation of the adventure novel Jacquou Le Croquant.

Both in cinema and on TV

After the Franco-Italian co-production Le Mas des Allouettes (2007), he toured with Jane Birkin in Boxes (id.). In 2008, he devoted himself to both television productions with L’Affaire Bruay-en-Artois and the horror-comedy films Les Dents de la nuit and A Man and His Dog, which marked Jean-Paul Belmondo’s return to the big screen.

In 2009, television continued to care for him: he appeared as a war leader in 7 episodes of the Alexandre Astier series, Camelot. In 2011, after 11 years NikitaHe again plays the role of mentor, assassin Melanie Laurent in Requiem for an Assassin, then he joins the special forces with Benoit Magimel before becoming part of the Lyon gang with Gerard Lanvin.

If in 2012 the actor was quite cautious in front of the cameras, 2013 was a happier year, as we saw him on the poster of the successes of Christian Duguay’s Jappeloup and Nicolas Vanier’s Belle et Sébastien. The actor also continues to work in auteur cinema directed by Nolven Lemesl in Pieces of Me alongside debutant Adele Exarchopoulos. But above all, Cheki Karyo is increasingly appearing on television, playing a gangster in the second season of No Limit, as well as a police officer in the English series The Missing.

A committed thriller actor

Inseparable from a certain French thriller movement, Cheki Karió counts Olivier Pancho’s very dark De guerre lasse and Fred Grivois’s La Resistance de l’air among his most recent films. He continues to explore this register in the tandem of Paul Kruchten and Frank Hoffman, while reprising his role as Caesar in Belle and Sebastian: The Adventure Continues and Belle and Sebastian 3: The Final Chapter.

He then joined the series Section Zéro before appearing alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara in Marie Madeleine. He then played Pope John XXII in the series adaptation The Name of the Rose (2019) and for two years starred in the BBC detective series The Baptist, created by Fleabag producers Jack and Harry Williams.

Hard at work, in 2022 he is in the credits of three series (I3P, Les Disparus de la Forêt-Noire and Les Combattantes), while starring in Thibaut Seguin’s romantic comedy. In 2024, we can see him in the remake of Assassin with Omar Sy and this year in the action film Rapide with Paola Locatelli and Alban Lenoir.

Among his projects, he was to be cast in the TV series Berlin and Kaya, and notably to star in Jeremy Banster’s A bras le coeur.