Overview
- Agent Élisabeth Tanner confirmed his death on Friday, with a family communiqué stating cancer as the cause.
- He broke through to wide audiences with standout roles in Jean‑Jacques Annaud’s L’Ours and Luc Besson’s Nikita.
- AFP cites roughly 80 screen credits while Le Parisien reports about 100, reflecting differing counts of his filmography.
- Born in Istanbul in 1953 and raised in Paris, he trained in French theatre before moving into film.
- A polyglot, he worked with Chantal Akerman, Éric Rohmer, Jean‑Pierre Jeunet, Walter Salles and Ridley Scott, and performed at the Festival d’Avignon.