Alon Aboutboul, the Israeli actor best known to U.S. audiences for appearances in “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Rambo III,” died suddenly Tuesday after collapsing on a beach in Tel Aviv. He was 60.
Aboutboul had just walked out of the water and told nearby bystanders he didn’t feel well when he collapsed, Israeli website Ynet reported. Emergency responders attempted to revive him for an hour before he was declared dead.
Though his Hollywood roles were relatively minor, Aboutboul was a prolific star in Israeli films, and he won an Ophir Award (Israel’s version of the Oscars) in 2003.
“I was deeply pained to hear of his sudden death,” Israel’s cultural minister, Miki Zohar, wrote on social media. “The passion for the profession that radiated from him was evident even after so many years in the field.”
In the U.S., Aboutboul portrayed doomed nuclear scientist Dr. Pavel in “The Dark Knight Rises,” who is kidnapped and later killed by the villainous Bane. He also played the main antagonist of the 2016 action film “London Has Fallen,” and had a small role in “Rambo III.”
On Tuesday, Aboutboul was swimming in a dangerous area at Tel Aviv’s HaBonim Beach before he stepped out and collapsed, according to witnesses.
“He went into the water and everything looked fine. A few minutes later, he came out saying he felt unwell,” one witness told Ynet. “He collapsed right there on the sand. Only when he got out of the water did people recognize him.”
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