Kevork Malikyan

Kevork Malikyan (born 2 June 1943) is an English-Armenian actor and teacher. He is known for his roles as Kazim in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Max Papandrious in the television sitcom Mind Your Language (1977–1979) and Rady in the film Flight of the Phoenix (2004) and Parvus in paytaht Abdülhamid (2017) Career Malikyan made his first television appearance in an episode of the British Historical drama The Portrait of a Lady in 1968 playing the role of ‘servant’. Through out the last years of the 1960s Malikyan made other numerous television appearances including Doctor Who, The Saint, and The Avengers. Malikyan got his big break in the British film The Man Who Haunted Himself in 1970, starring Roger Moore, in which Malikyan played Luigi the butler of the Pelham family. In 1977 Malikyan embarked on his most notable role on British television, in the ITV sitcom Mind Your Language, which was about an Adult education centre and followed the story to the ‘English as a foreign language’ class. In the series Malikyan played Maximilian (Max) Papandrious, a Greek shipping worker from Athens. The show was very successful and at its height attracted 18 million viewers, Malikyan appeared in 29 episodes from 1977 to the series conclusion in 1979. Although the series was briefly revived in 1986 he did not make any appearances in it. Malikyan's next big film role came in the 1978 prison film Midnight Express, in which he played the part of the prosecutor at Billy Hayes's trial. The film was directed by Alan Parker and starred Brad Davis, Irene Miracle and Bo Hopkins. The film was very popular and went on to win two Academy Awards. His performance did not go unnoticed, one director who especially noticed him was Steven Spielberg. Malikyan tried to audition for the part of Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but was prevented from doing so by heavy traffic. In 1988 Spielberg cast Malikyan in the third in the Indiana Jones series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in which he played Kazim, the leader of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, an organization that protects the Holy Grail. Throughout the 1990s Malikyan appeared in various television programs including the sitcom Birds of a Feather, and The Final Cut. In 2002 he featured alongside Steven Seagal in the American Action film, Belly of the Beast but the film was not well received by the critics.