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Med Hondo
Med Hondo.jpg
Born
Mohamed Abid Hondo

(1935-05-04)4 May 1935
Atar, Mauritania
Died 2 March 2019(2019-03-02) (aged 82)
Paris, France
Occupation
  • Actor
  • producer
  • screenwriter
  • film director
Years active 1967–2013

Med Hondo (born Mohamed Abid Hondo; 4 May 1935 – 2 March 2019) was a famous director, producer, writer, and actor. He was born in Mauritania and later became French. Many people see him as a very important person in African cinema.

He was known for making films that talked about important topics. These included how people of different races got along and the history of colonization. His first film, Soleil O (1970), was highly praised. It won the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival. In 2019, it was chosen to be restored by the African Film Heritage Project.

Another important film was West Indies (1979). This was the first African film musical. It was also the most expensive African film made at that time. Later in his career, Med Hondo became well-known for lending his voice to many Hollywood movies. He helped dub films like Shrek, The Lion King, and The Nutty Professor into French.

About Med Hondo's Life

Med Hondo was born in 1936 in Atar, Mauritania. His mother was from Mauritania, and his father was from Senegal. In 1954, Hondo moved to Rabat, Morocco. There, he trained to become a chef at a special hotel school.

He moved to France in 1959. He worked in different jobs, like a cook, farm worker, waiter, and delivery person. He found it hard for African immigrants to get jobs in their chosen fields. They also often got paid less than French workers. These tough experiences and the racism he faced later inspired his films. Two of these films were Soleil O and Les Bicots-nègres, vos voisins.

Starting in Theater and Film

Med Hondo began taking acting and directing classes. He learned from a famous French actress named Françoise Rosay. He acted in classic plays by writers like Shakespeare and Molière. However, he felt he could not fully express himself in these traditional plays.

So, in 1966, he started his own theater company. He created it with a Guadeloupean actor named Robert Liensol. The company was first called Shango, and later Griot-Shango. They performed plays that shared the experiences of Black people.

In the late 1960s, Hondo started getting small acting roles in TV shows and movies. He learned about filmmaking by carefully watching how others worked. Soon, he began working behind the camera.

Making His First Film

Med Hondo started working on his first film, Soleil O, in 1965. He made this movie with a small budget of $30,000. He earned the money for the film by dubbing American movies into French.

Soleil O was shown at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. It was highly praised by critics there. It also won a Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival. In 1981, he was part of the jury at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival.

Voice Acting Work

Med Hondo also worked a lot as a voice actor. He dubbed many English-language films into French. He was the voice for characters played by actors like Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, and Ben Kingsley.

He also voiced characters in several Eddie Murphy films. These included The Nutty Professor (1996). He was also the voice of Donkey in the movie Shrek (2001) and its sequels.

Later Projects and Legacy

Med Hondo had a long-term project to make a film about Toussaint Louverture. Louverture was a very important leader in the Haitian Revolution. Hondo died in Paris on 2 March 2019, at the age of 82.

Med Hondo's Filmography

Films Med Hondo Directed

  • 1967: Soleil O
  • 1975: Sahel la faim pourquoi
  • 1977: Nous aurons toute la mort pour dormir
  • 1979: West Indies
  • 1986: Sarraounia
  • 1994: Lumière noire (Black Light)
  • 1998: Watani, un monde sans mal
  • 2004: Fatima, l'Algérienne de Dakar

Films Med Hondo Acted In

  • 1964: Les verts pâturages (TV Movie)
  • 1965: Belphégor (TV Mini-Series) as Gaillac
  • 1965: Seule à Paris (TV Series)
  • 1965: Bob Morane (TV Series) as Notomi, le guide indien
  • 1966: Retour à Bacoli (TV Movie) as Un tirailleur
  • 1967: Un homme de trop as Florent
  • 1968: Tante Zita as James
  • 1969: A Walk with Love and Death as Entertainer
  • 1974: Aux frontières du possible (TV Series) as Le docteur Sosian Cisse
  • 1975: Jo Gaillard (TV Series) as Carlos
  • 1977: The Ambassadors as Med
  • 1978: Safrana ou le droit à la parole as Récitant / Narrator (voice)
  • 1989–1991: Commissaire Moulin (TV Series) as Max
  • 1990: 1871 as Karl Marx
  • 1997: La divine poursuite as the pilot
  • 2000: Antilles sur Seine as Horace
  • 2003: Funky Cops (TV Series) as Ace (French version, voice)
  • 2006: Incontrôlable as Rex (voice)
  • 2006: Asterix and the Vikings as pirate lookout (voice)

Films Med Hondo Dubbed

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Med Hondo para niños

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