Eriq Ebouaney (born 3 October 1967) is a French actor. He is best known for his portrayal as the Congolese Prime Minister

Patrice Lumumba Patrice Émery Lumumba (; 2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as the Republic of the Congo) from June u ...

in the 2000 film '' Lumumba'', as "Blacktie" in

Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...

's '' Femme Fatale'' and as "Ice" in the 2008 action film ''

Transporter 3 ''Transporter 3'' (French: ''Le Transporteur 3'') is a 2008 English-language French action-thriller film. It is the third and final installment in the original trilogy of the '' Transporter'' franchise. Both Jason Statham and François Berléand ...

'' in which he starred opposite

Jason Statham Jason Statham (; born 26 July 1967) is an English actor. He is known for portraying characters in various action-thriller films who are typically tough, hardboiled, gritty, or violent. Statham began practising Chinese martial arts, kickbox ...

Early life

Ebouaney was born in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

, France, the son of

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

ian immigrants. As a child he didn't show an interest in acting and was set on becoming a businessman. However, at the age of 30, he joined a theatre company and left his job as a sales manager to become a professional actor.

Career

He made his film debut in 1996 in the

Cédric Klapisch Cédric Klapisch ( ; born 4 September 1961) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. Life and career Klapisch was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine. He is from a Jewish family; his maternal grandparents were deported to Ausc ...

directed film '' Chacun cherche son chat''. He landed a leading role in the 2000 film Lumumba in which he portrayed Prime Minister

. The film was shot in Beira, Mozambique. In 2002, he starred in

's '' Femme Fatale'' alongside Antonio Banderas. In 2004, he played the character of Jean Claude in Mark Bamford's debut feature '' Cape of Good Hope''. In 2005 he starred in the award-winning Ridley Scott film, '' Kingdom of Heaven'', in which he starred alongside

Michael Sheen Michael Christopher Sheen OBE (born 5 February 1969) is a Welsh actor, television producer and political activist. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s with stage rol ...

Liam Neeson William John Neeson (born 7 June 1952) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He has received several accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Tony Awards. In 2020, he was placed 7th on ''The I ...

, Orlando Bloom,

David Thewlis David Wheeler (born 20 March 1963), better known as David Thewlis (), is a British actor, author, director and screenwriter. Thewlis rose to prominence when he starred in the film ''Naked'' (1993), for which he won the Cannes Film Festival Awa ...

, Martin Hancock and Nathalie Cox. In 2006, he starred in '' The Front Line'' and La piste. In 2008, he played a supporting role in the critically acclaimed Australian film ''

Disgrace ''Disgrace'' is a novel by J. M. Coetzee, published in 1999. It won the Booker Prize. The writer was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature four years after its publication. Plot David Lurie is a white South African professor of English wh ...

'' featuring American actor

John Malkovich John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Aw ...

, a small role in the Italian film '' Bianco e nero'' and later was cast as "Ice" in ''

'', featuring

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

actor

Filmography

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ebouaney, Eriq 1967 births Living people French male film actors French people of Cameroonian descent Male actors from Paris Cameroonian male actors 20th-century French male actors 21st-century French male actors People from Angers