Tchéky Karyo, The Unmistakable Face From La Femme Nikita, Bad Boys, and GoldenEye, Dead at 72
Tchéky Karyo, the charismatic French actor who lit up La Femme Nikita, GoldenEye, Bad Boys and The Missing, has died at 72, according to JoBlo.
This one stings. Tcheky Karyo has died at 72 after a battle with cancer. His wife, Valérie Keruzoré, and their children shared the news. If the name does not click right away, the work will: he was Bob in Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita and, for a lot of us, the definitive French detective on TV as Julien Baptiste in The Missing.
From Istanbul to Paris, then everywhere
Karyo was born in Istanbul and moved to Paris when he was young. He broke through with La Balance, which earned him a César nomination for Most Promising Actor. From there, he became one of those faces you recognized instantly, whether he was mentoring assassins, chasing bad guys, or grounding big movies with that calm, watchful presence.
The hits you have definitely seen him in
- La Femme Nikita (as Bob, one of Nikita's handlers)
- Vincent and Me
- The Bear (one of the film's few human roles)
- 1492: Conquest of Paradise
- Nostradamus
- Bad Boys
- GoldenEye
- Operation Dumbo Drop
- To Have & To Hold
- The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
- The Patriot
- Kiss of the Dragon
- The Core
- A Very Long Engagement
- Mary Magdalene
- ...and plenty more
Julien Baptiste: the role that stuck
When I think of Karyo, I think of Baptiste. The Missing is a legit great mystery series I would absolutely recommend, and Karyo's French detective is the heartbeat of it. In season 1, he helps Tony Hughes (James Nesbitt) and Emily (Frances O'Connor) as they search for their kidnapped son; the show keeps jumping between timelines over more than a decade, and Karyo anchors the whole thing. He returned in season 2, because of course he did.
The character got so popular that creators Harry and Jack Williams built a spin-off, Baptiste, which ran for two seasons. Karyo loved playing him, and you can tell.
"What I love about him is he's a man of action, but he's also a deep thinker," Karyo told the BBC. "It's interesting because even when he's in a moment of action, he never forgets to think or to express something about the situation. For him... to follow these monsters who did these unspeakable crimes, it's not a risk, it's a responsibility."
What happens to that world now
Earlier this summer, the Williams brothers hinted they were cooking up more in that universe. If that moves forward, it will now do so without Karyo, which is a tough reality for a character so tied to his voice and presence.
Condolences to Karyo's family and friends. A quietly towering screen presence, gone far too soon.