Med Hondo

Med Hondo (born Mohamed Abid; 4 May 1935 – 2 March 2019) was a Mauritanian-French actor. Considered a founding father of African cinema, he is known for his controversial films dealing with issues such as race relations and colonization. His critically acclaimed 1970 directorial début feature, Soleil O, received the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival and was chosen in 2019 by the African Film Heritage Project for restoration. His 1979 film West Indies was the first African film musical and, at $1.3 million, the most expensive production in African film history.

Biography Hondo was born in 1935 in Atar. His mother was Mauritanian and his father Senegalese. In 1954, Hondo went to Rabat, Morocco, to train to become a chef at the International Hotel School there. He emigrated to France in 1959 and found work first in Marseille and then in Paris, variously as a cook, farm labourer, waiter, dockworker and delivery man.

He began to take classes in acting and directing, and studied under French actress Françoise Rosay, acting in classic plays by Shakespeare, Molière and Racine.

In the late 1960s, Hondo started taking small acting roles in television and films. As he learned the craft of film making by careful observation of the work of others, he began to get work behind the camera. Made on a $30,000 budget, it was financed by Hondo's work dubbing American films into French. Soleil O played during International Critics' Week at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, where it received critical acclaim. Soleil O received a Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival. In 1981, Hondo was a member of the jury at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival.

Hondo also worked frequently as a voice actor. He worked on the dubbing of many English-language films into French, voicing characters played on screen by Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and Danny Glover (on the rare occasions when Glover was not dubbed by Richard Darbois).

Med Hondo explained on his website that he met with Danny Glover in 1991 and presented his then-current project to him: a biopic of Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture. According to Hondo, an enthusiastic Glover voiced his interest in the lead role, and in taking part in the production side of the film, but then cut all communication with Hondo and co-writer Claude Veillot. Hondo claimed that Glover's own Louverture biopic project, financially backed by Hugo Chavez, was inspired by his original screenplay, and addressed an open letter to Glover in which he denied assertions from Glover's "Louverture Films" company that the script was a commission paid by Glover to Hondo. Hondo also mentioned his meeting with Glover in an English-language interview on French international news channel France 24.

Hondo died in Paris on 2 March 2019, aged 83.

Filmography Director 1967: Soleil O 1974: Les Bicots-nègres, vos voisins (Arabs and Niggers, Your Neighbours) 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

Actor 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 2002–2004: Funky Cops (TV Series) as Ace (French version, voice) 2006: Incontrôlable as Rex (voice) 2006: Asterix and the Vikings as pirate lookout (voice)

Dubbing 1982: Gandhi as Ben Kingsley's Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 1984: Beverly Hills Cop as Eddie Murphy's Axel Foley 1984: Best Defense as Eddie Murphy's Lieutenant T.M. Landry 1994: The Lion King as Rafiki 1995: Se7en as Morgan Freeman's Detective Lt. William Somerset 1996: The Nutty Professor as Eddie Murphy's Sherman Klump 2001: Samurai Jack as Aku 2001: Shrek as Eddie Murphy's Donkey 2003: Xiaolin Showdown as Dojo 2004: Shrek 2 as Donkey 2007: Shrek the Third as Donkey 2010: Shrek Forever After as Donkey

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