Menu
Caret Down
Browse
Home
Free to me
Movies
TV shows
Sports
News
Live TV
Store
Subscriptions
Channels
Browse all
Caret Right
Home
Free to me
Movies
TV shows
Sports
News
Live TV
Channels
Subscriptions
Store
Store
Search
Clear
EN
Caret Down
Bahasa Indonesia
Bahasa Melayu
Dansk
Deutsch
English
Español
Español Latinoamérica
Français
Italiano
Magyar
Nederlands
Norsk
Polski
Português (Brasil)
Português (Portugal)
Română
Suomi
Svenska
Türkçe
Wikang Filipino
Čeština
Ελληνικά
Русский
עברית
العربية
हिन्दी
தமிழ்
తెలుగు
ไทย
日本語
简体中文
繁體中文
한국어
Categories Remaster
Your account
Sign In
Help
Join Prime
Menu
Caret Down
Home
Free to me
Movies
TV shows
Sports
News
Live TV
Store
Categories
Join Prime
Channels
Subscriptions
Search
Clear
EN
Caret Down
Bahasa Indonesia
Bahasa Melayu
Dansk
Deutsch
English
Español
Español Latinoamérica
Français
Italiano
Magyar
Nederlands
Norsk
Polski
Português (Brasil)
Português (Portugal)
Română
Suomi
Svenska
Türkçe
Wikang Filipino
Čeština
Ελληνικά
Русский
עברית
العربية
हिन्दी
தமிழ்
తెలుగు
ไทย
日本語
简体中文
繁體中文
한국어
Your account
Sign In
Help
Michael Lonsdale
Actor, Writer
Born May 24, 1931 in Paris, France
Tall, bearded, heavy-set Anglo-French character actor, best known internationally for playing Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel in The Day of the Jackal (1973) and Bond villain Hugo Drax in Moonraker (1979). The son of an English army officer (Edward Lonsdale-Crouch) and a Franco-Irish mother (Simone Béraud), he was born in Paris and spent his early childhood in England. The family moved to Morocco in 1939 where Edward found work in the fertilizer trade (he was later imprisoned by the Vichy government for political reasons). Michael returned to France in 1947 where he met actor/director Roger Blin who awakened his interest in the dramatic arts. Following acting studies, Michael made his theatrical debut at 24 and appeared on screen for the first time a year later, for much of his career billed as 'Michel' Lonsdale. Having toiled for over a decade in smallish supporting roles, he received his first major critical acclaim in two films by François Truffaut (The Bride Wore Black (1968) and Stolen Kisses (1968)). Though primarily active in French cinema, the bilingual Lonsdale made occasional (but often memorable) forays into English-language productions, his first as a reporter in Fred Zinnemann's Behold a Pale Horse (1964). Subsequent parts have included a titled landowner who sets in motion the Caravan to Vaccarès (1974), a CIA agent in Enigma (1982) and a Swiss banker in The Holcroft Covenant (1985). James Ivory cast him in two of his films consecutively as a French delegate in The Remains of the Day (1993) and as King Louis XVI in Jefferson in Paris (1995). Lonsdale also had a prominent role as The Abbot who commissions the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) to investigate the murder of a monk in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Italian-German-French co-production of Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose (1986) . By and large, it is for his powerhouse performance as Roger Moore's megalomaniacal antagonist Sir Hugo Drax in Moonraker for which Lonsdale is likely to be most remembered. He received a BAFTA nomination for his role in The Day of the Jackal but only achieved major acting honors in 2011, winning a César Award as best supporting actor for Of Gods and Men (2010). Lonsdale's career could well be described as eclectic. In 1972, he co-founded (with French composer Michel Puig) the Théâtre musical des Ulis, a musical theater company which was subsidised by the French government. The soft-spoken actor also lent his voice to radio recordings and audio books. He had a reputation as a painter of some renown and authored or co-authored more than twenty works of fiction and non-fiction.
Imdb
Top titles
Arrow
Arrow
The Day of the Jackal
Munich
Moonraker
Ronin
Maigret (English subtitled)
The Remains of the Day
The Name of the Rose
Special Section
The Trial
Stolen Kisses
Of Gods And Men
Nelly and Mr. Arnaud
The Bride Wore Black
Arrow
Arrow
Filmography
Latest
Caret Down
Arrow
Arrow
2014
Rosenn
2011
Titeuf
Free men
2010
Hitler In Hollywood
Of Gods And Men
2009
Agora
2007
The Last Mistress (English Subtitled)
2006
Goya's Ghosts
2005
Munich
Bye Bye Blackbird
2004
5x2
1999
A Monkey's Tale
1998
Ronin
1995
Jefferson In Paris
Nelly and Mr. Arnaud
1993
The Remains of the Day
1991
Maigret (English subtitled)
1986
The Name of the Rose
1985
The Holcroft Covenant
1982
Enigma
1981
Chariots Of Fire
1979
The Passage (1979)
Moonraker
1975
The Romantic Englishwoman
Galileo
Special Section
Mad Enough to Kill
1974
Successive Slidings of Pleasure
Caravan To Vaccares
The Phantom of Liberty
1973
The Day of the Jackal
1969
Hibernatus
1968
The Bride Wore Black
Stolen Kisses
1965
Hail Mafia
1964
Behold A Pale Horse
1962
La Dénonciation
The Trial
Arrow
Arrow
Connections
Joseph Losey
Darry Cowl
François Maistre
Genres
