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Andrew Divoff

Andrew Divoff has built a screen career around characters who bring danger into the room. Frequently cast as antagonists, he gives those roles a physical confidence shaped by his preference for performing his own stunts and a vocal authority strengthened by his multilingual background. Born on July 2, 1955, in San Tomé, Anzoátegui, Venezuela, Divoff spent part of his childhood in Caracas before moving to northern California at age 10. Spanish was his first language, and the difficulty of entering an American school with a heavy accent helped spark a lasting interest in languages. He later lived in Spain, attended the University of Barcelona and continued studying languages and linguistics at Georgetown University. Divoff took acting lessons while working as a limousine driver in California. His first television role came in a 1986 episode of Misfits of Science, while Neon Maniacs gave him his first film part that same year. His major break arrived with the outlaw biker Cherry Ganz in Another 48 Hrs., the film that allowed him to leave limousine work behind and concentrate on acting. Action films soon made productive use of Divoff’s controlled menace. He played antagonists in Toy Soldiers and A Low Down Dirty Shame, while Running Cool and Interceptor offered rarer opportunities to take the heroic side. In Air Force One, he appeared as a Russian terrorist henchman and performed his own stunts. For horror fans, Divoff is most closely associated with the Djinn in Wishmaster and Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies. The role gave him space to combine theatrical threat with a cool, deliberate presence, creating a villain driven as much by language and manipulation as physical force. His television work has been equally comfortable with dangerous, elusive figures. He played Mikhail Bakunin on Lost, Ivan Sarnoff on CSI: Miami and Karakurt on The Blacklist. Across action, horror and television, Divoff’s career shows how a performer can turn linguistic skill, physical commitment and an outsider’s edge into a durable screen identity.