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Michael Lonsdale

Michael Lonsdale

Actor · 1931 – 2020 · Paris, France

Michael Edward Lonsdale Crouch (24 May 1931 – 21 September 2020), commonly known as Michael Lonsdale and sometimes as Michel Lonsdale, was a French-British actor and author who appeared in over 180 films and television shows. He is often known in the English-speaking world for his roles as the villain Hugo Drax in the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker, deputy police commissioner Claude Lebel in The Day of the Jackal (1973), The Abbot in The Name of the Rose (1986) and Dupont d'Ivry in The Remains of the Day (1993). Lonsdale was born in Paris, the natural son of British Army officer Edward Lonsdale Crouch and Simone Calderon (née Béraud). He was brought up initially on the island of Jersey, then in London from 1935, and later, during the Second World War, in Casablanca, Morocco. He returned to Paris to study painting in 1947, but was drawn into the world of acting instead, first appearing on stage at the age of 24. Lonsdale was bilingual, and appeared in both English-language and French-language productions. He appeared in a starring role with Roger Moore in the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker. and with Sean Connery, in the 1986 film The Name of the Rose. He would later appear in Munich (2005), a film that also starred another Bond, Daniel Craig. In February 2011, he won a César Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Of Gods and Men. Lonsdale was also the author of ten books. A practising Roman Catholic, he was close to the Emmanuel Community. In his 2016 memoir Le Dictionnaire de Ma Vie, Lonsdale revealed he had fallen for Delphine Seyrig, having met her as a student in Tania Balachova's acting classes at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in 1947. He wrote that "it was her or nothing", which was why he never married. Lonsdale died in Paris on 21 September 2020, aged 89. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Lonsdale, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies24

  • Movie7.5

    The Name of the Rose

    1986 · 3.4K votes

  • Movie6.2

    Moonraker

    1979 · 2.3K votes

  • Movie7.1

    Munich

    2005 · 3.1K votes

  • Movie7.5

    The Day of the Jackal

    1973 · 711 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Ronin

    1998 · 2.8K votes

  • Movie7.4

    The Remains of the Day

    1993 · 1.6K votes

  • Movie7.0

    Agora

    2009 · 1.6K votes

  • Movie7.3

    Baisers volés

    Stolen Kisses

    1968 · 471 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Paris brûle-t-il?

    Is Paris Burning?

    1966 · 229 votes

  • Movie6.6

    Goya's Ghosts

    2006 · 549 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Le Souffle au cœur

    Murmur of the Heart

    1971 · 220 votes

  • Movie7.5

    Le Fantôme de la liberté

    The Phantom of Liberty

    1974 · 340 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Mr. Klein

    1976 · 296 votes

  • Movie6.4
  • Movie6.7

    Des hommes et des dieux

    Of Gods and Men

    2010 · 424 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Hibernatus

    1969 · 526 votes

  • Movie7.4

    Le Procès

    The Trial

    1962 · 586 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Les Acteurs

    Actors

    2000 · 107 votes

  • Movie7.0

    A Londoni férfi

    The Man from London

    2008 · 112 votes

  • Movie6.0

    The Passage

    1979 · 56 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Stavisky...

    1974 · 127 votes

  • Movie7.1

    La mariée était en noir

    The Bride Wore Black

    1968 · 297 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Eréndira

    Erendira

    1983 · 18 votes

  • Movie5.4

Series11

  • TV6.0
  • TV8.0

    Le Grand Échiquier

    1972 · 3 votes

  • TV5.0

    Ciné regards

    1978 · 1 votes

  • TV6.0

    Samedi soir

    1971 · 1 votes

  • TV7.9

    Maigret

    1991 · 26 votes

  • TV7.7

    Smiley's People

    1982 · 56 votes

  • TV10.0
  • TV10.0

    Out 1 : Noli me tangere

    Out 1

    1971 · 2 votes

  • TV4.3

    Le Tiroir secret

    1986 · 4 votes

  • TV4.8
  • TV9.0

    Le Génie du faux

    1985 · 1 votes