Michael Lonsdale

Acting

Born May 24, 1931

From Paris, France

Died Sep 21, 2020

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.

Michael Lonsdale

Known For

Moonraker

The Name of the Rose

Munich

The Day of the Jackal

Agora

Ronin

The Remains of the Day

Murmur of the Heart

Mr. Klein

Is Paris Burning?

Filmography — Acting

Moonraker

The Name of the Rose

Munich

The Day of the Jackal

Agora

Ronin

The Remains of the Day

Murmur of the Heart

Mr. Klein

Is Paris Burning?

Goya's Ghosts

To Each His Own Cinema

Of Gods and Men

The Trial

Jefferson in Paris

The Phantom of Liberty

Kaena: The Prophecy

Souvenir

The Bunker

The Holcroft Covenant

The Passage

Hibernatus

Stolen Kisses

The First, the Last

Enigma

Five Times Two

Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud

A Monkey's Tale

Good King Dagobert

The Last Mistress

Stavisky...

The Romantic Englishwoman

Out 1

Don Juan

The Mystery of the Yellow Room

Galileo

The Bride Wore Black

Under a False Name

There Once Was a Cop

The Devil in the Box

Titeuf

Crime Does Not Pay

The Accuser

Special Section

Actors

India Song

Sculpt

Erendira

Speaking of Buñuel

Behold a Pale Horse

The Man in the Buick

The Old Maid

Caravan to Vaccarès

The Games of Countess Dolingen

Aloïse

The Perfume of the Lady in Black

The Abbey of Crime: Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'

Successive Slidings of Pleasure

The Track

Serious as Pleasure

The Stud

The Suspects

Out 1: Spectre

The Buddies

Mauvais Genre

Delphine Seyrig, portrait d'une comète

Papa, the Lil' Boats