The Dark Knight Rises star Alon Aboutboul dies aged 60 ‘after collapsing on beac
The Israeli actor, 60, was one of the country's best-known stars, spending two decades mainly appearing in Israeli productions before being cast in Hollywood blockbusters like Munich, The Dark Knight Rises and London Has Fallen.
However, it's now been reported he's died after going swimming at a beach.
The publication N12 has reported that he was found dead on HaBonim Beach in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning. His representative later confirmed his death to Metro.
According to Ynet, a beachgoer said: 'It happened in an instant. He went into the water and everything seemed perfectly fine. After a few minutes, he suddenly came out of the water, approached people and said he wasn't feeling well, and then they called for help.'
'Everyone was really scared, he came out of the water and collapsed on the beach. Everyone wanted to help, and they recognised who it was when he came out of the water. This is a terrible tragedy here this morning, everyone here is in a big shock.'
After he collapsed on the beach, Aboutboul received CPR but could not be revived.
His cause of death is not immediately known.
Soon after Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar paid tribute to the actor, posting on X: 'I was deeply pained to hear of his sudden death.
'Last night I watched an interview with him, where he talked about filming a movie he recently participated in, and the passion for the profession that radiated from him was evident even after so many years in the field.
'Alon was an Ophir Award and Television Academy Award winner and over the years portrayed a wide range of characters to which he brought depth and emotion, leaving a deep mark on Israeli culture. May his memory be blessed.'
Born in Kiryat Ata to parents of Algerian and Egyptian descent, Aboutboul had over 100 film and TV credits to his name.
After graduating from high school in 1983, his first screen role came three years later – in the 1986 movie, Ricochets.
Other films he went on to feature in included Two Fingers from Sidon, Every Time We Say Goodbye and Makom L'Yad Hayam.
It was in 1988 that Hollywood came calling, with Aboutboul playing Nissem in Rambo III.
Subsequent American movies he was seen in were Killing Streets, Deadly Heroes and The Order.
In 2005 he appeared in Steven Spielberg's Munich – a film about the Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
Then, in 2008, he acted alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's Body of Lies.
In 2012 he appeared in another blockbuster – playing Dr. Leonid Pavel in The Dark Knight Rises.
Since then Aboutboul had been seen in Septembers of Shiraz with Salma Hayek and Adrien Brody, in which he played a revolutionary guard.
The next year he played an arms dealer turned terrorist mastermind alongside Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman in London Has Fallen.
On the small screen he also appeared in shows including the Israeli programmes Shabbats and Holidays, Harem, and Sirens, as well as Homeland, Snowfall, Twin Peaks, The Leftovers, and FBI: International. More Trending
Earlier this year he also announced the release of new music.
Just last night he'd reposted a photo of a beach on his Instagram account.
Aboutboul is survived by his wife, Shir Bilia, and their four children. They lived in Israel and Los Angeles.
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42 minutes ago
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3 hours ago
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Five months after they first met, when the nation was still in the grips of Covid, Cate moved from Ware into Joseph's flat in central London. With strict restrictions still in place, they spent their first Christmas cosy, alone and happy, with Joseph cooking the turkey and Cate playing on her new PlayStation game. They listened to jazz, ate too much, and the next day it started to snow. 'I suggested we went for a walk and we found ourselves standing outside the London Eye in the middle of the day in the snow, with no one around. It was just magical,' remembers Joseph, who says he knew then that Cate was the woman he wanted to marry. However, as Covid fell away, the mental illness that had dogged Cate all her life, started to re-emerge. 'She always said she had a brain funk, but didn't really delve into it,' Joseph explains. It wasn't until he started to witness her having panic attacks, that he realised something more serious was going on. 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I was an absolute wreck. And she was like, 'I've got you.' I will always thank her for the happiest day of my life. We had such a good day,' Joseph remembers. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In the months afterwards, the couple attended three other weddings of close friends and colleagues, but after they returned from their honeymoon in Turkey, Cate's struggles deepened. She would lament that her 'brain was broken' and that she wasn't getting the right help. 'She had tremendous anxiety and was having panic attacks. First of all, I would think: 'Oh my god. What do you need, what can I do?' But that is completely the wrong thing to do. You learn it is about being with them, distraction techniques, breathing next to them heavily so they can hear your breath and get into a rhythm themselves and having no questions, no shame, no blame about what was happening.' Joseph scoured the internet for ways to help Cate and became her rock, supporting through her panic. He also believes that Cate was experiencing the symptoms of undiagnosed ADHD, because she would swing wildly from excitability to a complete crash. When she went to see the doctor in 2024, she was given anti-depressants, and after endlessly waiting for NHS therapy, the family eventually paid for private help. 'She was flying high in her career, working as an administrator at the Food and Drink Federation and they absolutely adored her. She was so good at the job, but sometimes she'd work from home, because going into the office would give her anxiety. 'If we went out and if it was too busy, she would have panic attacks where she would literally be on the floor struggling to breathe, which would then trigger depression. Cate just looked so sad and tired and would spend a lot more time inside,' Joseph remembers. Despite her fragile mental state, Christmas 2024 was a fun time for Cate, he says. The newlyweds saw friends and family and made plans for the following year. 'We were going to move back to Ware to get out of central London. We were thinking about buying in Tunbridge Wells. We wanted to own a little cabaret space and Cate wanted to get a bridal shop called Catherine's. We were going to get a dog, and start a family,' he says. Joseph believed his wife would feel better when the therapy started to bed in and she got the answers she needed from a private ADHD assessment. Cate had spoken about feeling suicidal, which he was concerned could be a side effect of the antidepressants, so went back to their GP for support. When he talks about the last day of Cate's life, Joseph's voice remains thick with disbelief. After spending most of 30 December apart, he had assumed they would meet back at home later in the day. Then Cate's mum called asking Joseph where her daughter was. 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It actually does the opposite. So I want to use Cate's voice to get people talking – and listening. People are suffering and if we don't check in with each other, you don't know what people are up to behind closed doors. 'And if you are struggling, go and speak to your GP. Go and call the Hope Line. Tell your friends and family. You don't have to go through this alone.' ● Listen to them. Let them know that their thoughts and emotions are important and that you are there to support them. ● Remember that it is essential to be supportive, non-judgmental and to validate their feelings ● Tell them you care: Offer to spend time with them, go for a walk or engage in activities they enjoy. Tell them they are not alone and you are there for them. ● Encourage them to seek professional help: This could be in the form of therapy, counselling or medication. ● Contact a professional suicide prevention helpline: If the person appears to be in immediate danger contact the PAPYRUS HOPELINE247. The service is available round-the-clock for those who are having thoughts of suicide and for anyone who is worried about a person who may be struggling with life. HOPELINE247 is staffed by trained professionals, offering free, confidential help and support. Call 0800 068 4141, text 88247 or email pat@ MORE: World's first gonorrhea vaccination programme to be rolled out in England MORE: Risk and reward, Trump's Mini-Me and planting trees for the planet MORE: Oasis fan dies after falling from stands at Wembley Stadium concert
Metro
3 hours ago
- Metro
The tragic story of the little girl who 'haunts' the castle in Wednesday s2
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One of the spots the production used to film scenes was Harriet's staircase, named after an 8-year-old girl who tragically fell to her death there. Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you. The story goes that the youngest daughter of the third Earl of Charleville, who once upon a time owned the castle, was asked by her governess to go upstairs and wash her hands before a meal. On the way back down the gloomy three-story staircase, Harriet is said to have clambered up onto the bannister to slide down. She slipped and fell to her death on the flagstone tiles below. A brass guard was subsequently installed on the bannister to stop those who might have a similar idea. Since then, the staircase has become one of the castle's hotspots for so-called activity, of the paranormal kind. The goings-ons are straight out of a horror film. Bonnie Vance, 75, who helped form a charitable trust to restore the castle after it fell into disrepair and lives there with her son, said she has only seen the ghosts 'occasionally', but often hears them. What is it that she's heard? Children giggling, voices talking, the scrapping sounds of furniture being moved in rooms that stand empty. She later learned the jangle of children playing was coming from a room that had once been a nursery. Guests at the castle have heard who-knows-what move in the night and asked to switch rooms – which makes you wonder why they might have wanted to stay in the first place. Most of the spectral racket takes place in the small hours from 2am to 3am. One unassuming bedroom – an imposing bed decked out in scarlet red covers, next to arched windows that don't come with curtains attached – is supposed to be a hub of ghoulish hinjinks, with a door that has been reported to lock people in and out at will. Bonnie shut the door when we were inside, leaving everyone with a brief but queasy feeling before we were released. 'My official statement on the ghosts is I don't believe in them,' says Bonnie's son Jonathan, the only one of her three children who stuck around to help manage the castle, 'but I won't say it loud enough for them to hear me.' Bonnie insists she isn't scared of the ghosts ('They're friendly') and speaks very tenderly of late Harriet. What the Wednesday cast made of all these eerie tales, we don't know. They were spared an overnight stay, instead setting up in the nearby town Tullamore. But Ortega and co did get on very well with the castle's black cat, Mirka, who was known to take up residence on their hot water bottles. (The castle has no central heating and hit-and-miss power supplies). The castle was one of the locations Wednesday director Tim Burton signed off on, as the production had the double duty this season of not only finding a whole new roster of Irish locations, but ones that would pass for their predecessors in Romania. The reason for the swap? Locations manager Maria O'Connor, who's been in the screen locations biz for over 30 years and worked with Wednesday's showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar on Into The Badlands, said they chose Ireland because the creators have loved working there in the past. The country isn't spoiled for choice of gothic castles, so Charleville was an easy decision. As were many of the picks, Maria said, since the Edward Scissorhands director isn't one to hum and haw. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it sounds like Tim's company is not of the dull variety. When scouting out the building that would become Nevermore Academy's exterior (with an ornate new canopy digitally plonked on top in post-production) Tim tasked Maria with scrambling up ladders to get onto the roof for a proper looksee. This building sits within Powerscourt Estate, the other chief location used, beside Ashford Studios for the interior scenes, and owned by the Slazenger family (of the sporting gear). A mossy foliage-covered graveyard was one of the spots, with smoke machines pumping away during moody night shoots, just inches from the Slazenger family's own private graveyard in the corner. The 19 hectare County Wicklow estate has swanky gardens, a dramatic nearby waterfall and a 36-hole golf course – which avid golfer Catherine Zeta Jones made full use of while filming. There was less of a requirement for this part to fit into the mould of what had gone before, since it serves as the home of new cast addition Joanna Lumley's character Hester. Whether the location changes will be picked up by ardent Wednesday fandom (of which suggested names online have included Woes, Outcasts and Thursdays – because it follows Wednesday…) remains to be seen. The episodes we have seen certainly look more lush than previously, but County Wicklow is referred to as the Garden of Ireland after all. More Trending The attention to detail has certainly been paid, down to replicating the exact same tree layout as that shot in Romania. Not that Maria overly hypes how hard it all was, simply describing it as 'tricky'. But Wednesday is now in Ireland to stay. Filming for the third season kicks off this November and the Addams family car has stayed in situ in the meantime. As has the Nevermore Academy chandelier, with head-sized orbs of light that hang over the main staircase in Charleville Castle. It was a gift from the production. Although, you almost feel they've done enough. The castle might have claims of otherworldly visitations, but if anything, that will only make the curious Wednesday loyalists – who were devout enough to visit Romania in droves – even more eager to take a look in. View More » Wednesday season 2 launches on August 6, with the second part arriving on September 3. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Netflix hit watched 250,000,000 times returns — and 6 more shows to binge in August MORE: Netflix show watched 11,000,000 times in one weekend suddenly axed MORE: WWE injury exposed as fake in 'ruse of the century' at SummerSlam
