Art Malik
Athar ul-Haque Malik, known as Art Malik, is a British-Pakistani actor. He achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and supporting roles in assorted British television serials and films. His breakout role was as Hari Kumar in the television serial The Jewel in the Crown, which earned him a British Academy Television Award nomination for Best Actor.
Malik starred as Zubin Khan on the BBC One medical drama Holby City, Francesc Gacet on Borgia, and Bunny Latif on Homeland. He is also well-known for his roles as Kamran Shah in the James Bond film The Living Daylights and the villain Salim Abu Aziz in the action comedy film True Lies.
Early life and education
Malik was born Athar ul-Haque Malik on 13 November 1952 in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, the son of Zaibunisa and Mazhar ul-Haque Malik, a doctor who worked as an ophthalmic surgeon in Britain. When his father got a job as a surgeon in Moorfields Eye Hospital, Malik was brought to London in 1956, aged three. From the age of eleven, he attended Bec School in Tooting.Following an unsatisfactory stint of business studies and a term studying acting at The Questors Theatre, he won a scholarship to Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Before long, he was working with The Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare companies.
Career
In 1982, five years after leaving Guildhall, Malik was cast as Hari Kumar in the Granada Television production of The Jewel in the Crown, based on Paul Scott's Raj Quartet.In 1987, he played Kamran Shah, an Afghan mujahideen leader who allies with James Bond and leads a raid against Soviet invaders in the 007 film The Living Daylights.
Malik played the role of the son of an Indian mobster in the 1992 film City of Joy and, in 1993, narrated Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories on BBC television's Jackanory.
In 1994, Malik played his first big screen villain, Salim Abu Aziz, a stereotypical Islamist, opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies. Malik accepted the role, which he described as "a hoot", at a time when he had been 14 months without work and was being pursued by the Inland Revenue for £32,000. Following his appearance in True Lies, Malik was offered several roles in other action films, but turned them down, later explaining, "I didn't want to do action movies that weren't as good." He instead accepted a role in the film Clockwork Mice. Malik took the lead role in the West End production of Tom Stoppard's 1995 play Indian Ink.
In 1999, Malik played the supporting role of Olympos, the court doctor to Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, in the ABC miniseries Cleopatra.
In 2001, he narrated the television documentary Hajj: The Journey of a Lifetime for broadcast on BBC Two and in 2002 he narrated the three part television mini-series The British Empire in Colour for TWI/Carlton Television.
He also played Milkha Singh's father in the 2013 Hindi language film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, his first appearance in a film produced in India. Malik had a starring role in Tom Fontana's historical television series Borgia, which ran from 2011 to 2014.
In 2014, Malik played Bunran "Bunny" Latif, a retired Pakistani general in season four of Homeland, returning in the same role in season eight in 2020.
In 2017 he appeared in the first series of Bancroft.
Malik appeared in the second episodes of both series 8 of the show Doc Martin in 2017 and series 11 of Doctor Who, "The Ghost Monument" in 2018.
Personal life
By Malik's account, the sudden success he enjoyed in 1984 resulted in his excessive drinking. "I was surrounded by people who admired me and I took all of that home with me" he said when interviewed in 2003. "I paid lots of attention to my ego, and not enough to my spirit. It was totally unhealthy, like an illness". The result was a strain on his marriage, leading to his wife leaving him. He also ran up high bills on his credit card, and by 1993 he owed £55,000 to the bank and £32,000 to the Inland Revenue, and was on the verge of being declared bankrupt when he got the lucrative part of Salim Abu Aziz, a terrorist, in James Cameron's True Lies. He and his wife reunited.Malik played a big role in fundraising for relief work for victims of the Gujarat earthquake in 2001, and also appeared on the DEC Pakistan Floods Appeal advertisement in 2010. He lives with his wife Gina Rowe, a fellow student at the Guildhall, whom he married in 1980. They have two daughters, Jessica and Keira. Although from a Muslim background, and having insisted that his character on Holby City should be a Muslim, Malik describes himself as "not a practising Muslim. I'm probably an apostate, and liable for any right-minded Muslim fundamentalist to put me on a list of people to stamp out".
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1978 | Mixed Blessings | Fred | Episode: "The Loneliness of the Long Term Unemployed" |
| 1978 | ' | Doctor | 2 episodes |
| 1979 | ITV Playhouse | Dave | Episode: "The Reaper" |
| 1981 | Crown Court | Aziz Ul Haque | Episode: "Freedom to Incite: Part 1" |
| 1982 | ' | Turk | Episode: "Be Lucky Uncle" |
| 1983 | Bergerac | Ravi Chavan | Episode: "A Miracle Every Week" |
| 1983 | Chessgame | Farouk | Episode: "Digging Up the Future" |
| 1984 | ' | Zarin | 2 episodes |
| 1984 | ' | Hari Kumar | 6 episodes |
| 1984 | Minder | Shamy | Episode: "What Makes Shamy Run?" |
| 1985 | ' | Julius Court | 5 episodes |
| 1986 | Harem | Tarik Pasha | Television film |
| 1986 | West of Paradise | Sam McBride | Television film |
| 1986 | ' | Farouk | Television film |
| 1986 | Death Is Part of the Process | Indres | Television film |
| 1988 | Hothouse | Dr. Ved Lahari | 7 episodes |
| 1989 | After the War | Jerome LeBlanc | 2 episodes |
| 1989 | Shadow of the Cobra | Charles Sobhraj | 2 episodes |
| 1990 | Stolen | Salim | 6 episodes |
| 1990 | Boon | Alex Cavendish | Episode: "The Tender Trap" |
| 1991 | ' | Orpheus | Episode: "Orpheus & Eurydice" |
| 1992 | Covington Cross | Salim | Episode: "Revenge" |
| 1993 | Jackanory | Reader | Episode: "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" |
| 1993 | Age of Treason | Pertinax | Television film |
| 1994 | ' | Karim Jackson | 2 episodes |
| 1996 | Kavanagh QC | Ashok Prasad QC | Episode: "Job Satisfaction" |
| 1996 | Peak Practice | Mr. Hussain | Episode: "Heart and Soul" |
| 1997 | Turning World | Shams | 3 episodes |
| 1997 | Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing | Ramzi Yousef | Television film |
| 1998 | Big Women | Jemal | Episode: "Well, I'm Sorry" |
| 1998 | Colour Blind | Hassan | 2 episodes |
| 1998, 2015 | Goodness Gracious Me | Various | 2 episodes |
| 1998–1999 | Unfinished Business | Tam | 7 episodes |
| 1999 | Vicious Circle | Harrison | Television film |
| 1999 | ' | Taita | 3 episodes |
| 1999 | Life Support | Dr. Kamran Blake | 6 episodes |
| 1999 | Cleopatra | Olympos | 2 episodes |
| 2000 | In the Beginning | Ramesses II | 2 episodes |
| 2000 | Second Sight: Hide and Seek | Faiz Ahmed | Television film |
| 2001 | Hotel! | Radochek Zeigler | Television film |
| 2001 | Messiah | D.C.S. Emerson | 2 episodes |
| 2001 | ' | Narrator | Television film |
| 2002 | Fun at the Funeral Parlour | Duke of Hypnotism | Episode: "A Pocket Full of Gravel" |
| 2002 | Murder in Mind | Paul Asher | Episode: "Flashback" |
| 2003 | Messiah 2: Vengeance Is Mine | D.C.S. Emerson | 2 episodes |
| 2003–2005 | Holby City | Zubin Khan | 94 episodes |
| 2005 | ' | Saaman "Sam" Sahar | Television film |
| 2006 | ' | Marcus Illingworth | Episode: "Late of This Parish" |
| 2006 | Dalziel and Pascoe | Aahil Khan | Episode: "A Death in the Family" |
| 2006 | ' | Colonel Raymond Malik | 2 episodes |
| 2008 | 10 Days to War | Abdul Aziz al-Hakim | Episode: "$100 Coffee" |
| 2008 | Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures | Abbot Absolute | Episode: "The Skull of Sobek" |
| 2009 | Lewis | Professor Hamid Jassim | Episode: "Allegory of Love" |
| 2010 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Sir Bartholomew Strange | Episode: "Three Act Tragedy" |
| 2010 | Ben Hur | Sheikh Ilderim | 2 episodes |
| 2010 | ' | Nicolaus | 4 episodes |
| 2010–2012 | Upstairs Downstairs | Mr. Amanjit Singh | 9 episodes |
| 2011–2014 | Borgia | Francesc Gacet | 32 episodes |
| 2012 | Masterpiece Mystery | Sir Bartholomew Strange | Episode: "Poirot XI: Three Act Tragedy" |
| 2013 | New Tricks | Jonathan Epstein | Episode: "The Little Brother" |
| 2014–2020 | Homeland | Bunny Latif | 7 episodes |
| 2015 | Arthur & George | Rev Shapurji Edalji | 3 episodes |
| 2015 | Undercover | Raffi | Episode #1.6 |
| 2016 | Indian Summers | Maharajah | 2 episodes |
| 2016 | Cold Feet | Eddie Zubayr | 7 episodes |
| 2017 | Sherlock | Prison Governor | Episode: "The Final Problem" |
| 2017 | Doc Martin | John Rahmanzai | Episode: "Sons and Lovers" |
| 2017 | Bancroft | Alan Taheeri | 4 episodes |
| 2018 | ' | Erasmus Nash | 5 episodes |
| 2018 | Doctor Who | Ilin | Episode: "The Ghost Monument" |
| 2019 | Silent Witness | Arthur Pujari | Episode: "Betrayal" |
| 2019 | ' | President Quan | 3 episodes |
| 2020-2025 | Man Like Mobeen | Uncle Khan | 6 episodes |
| 2020 | Penance | Fr. Tom Hayes | all 3 episodes |
| 2024 | Renegade Nell | Henry Taplow | 1 episode |
| 2024 | The Famous Five | Sir Lincoln Aubrey | Episode: "The Eye Of The Sunrise" |