Jacky Nercessian

Jacky Nercessian — Biography

Jacky Nercessian is one of the Armenian-born character actors of French cinema and television. His name is most closely tied to the role of Apkar in Henri Verneuil's Mayrig, a character he played again in the sequel 588 rue paradis. His career, now more than three decades long, is still going: in recent years he has appeared in productions such as Les Vengeances de Maître Poutifard and Bernadette.

He was born in Saint-Étienne and graduated from a theology department. In the theatre he spent a season at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and then toured, and in 2009 he starred in Everybody Loves Juliet at the Splendid Theatre. In cinema, the 1990s opened with Mayrig and 588 rue paradis; La Soif de l'or, Colonel Chabert, The Bait, The Three Brothers and Les Parasites are among the films of that decade. In the 2000s the miniseries Napoléon, alongside Gérard Depardieu and Christian Clavier, brought him a wide audience, and he also appeared in The Butterfly, Quartier V.I.P., Comedy of Power and Let's Dance. Playing Mustapha in Büyük Yolculuk (2004) remains one of his best-known roles of those years.

In 2010 he appeared in Luc Besson's The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. Later credits include Unutma beni İstanbul, Waiting for You and the television series Genius. He shared the cast of Les Vengeances de Maître Poutifard with Christian Clavier again.