Michael Lonsdale | |
---|---|
Born | 24 May 1931 Paris, France |
Died | 21 September 2020 89) Paris, France | (aged
Other names | Michel Lonsdale |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1955–2016 [3] |
Michael Edward Lonsdale Crouch [1] (24 May 1931 – 21 September 2020), commonly known as Michael Lonsdale and sometimes as Michel Lonsdale, was a French actor and author who appeared in over 180 films and television shows. [4] He is best known in the English-speaking world for his roles as the villain Hugo Drax in the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker , [5] the detective Claude Lebel in The Day of the Jackal , The Abbot in The Name of the Rose and Dupont d'Ivry in The Remains of the Day .
Lonsdale was born in Paris, the natural son of British Army officer Edward Lonsdale Crouch and Simone Calderon (née Béraud). [6] [1] He was brought up initially on the island of Jersey, [7] then in London from 1935, and later, during the Second World War, in Casablanca, Morocco. [8]
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. [8] [9] 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 . [10] and with Sean Connery, in the 1986 film The Name of the Rose . He would later appear in Munich , 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 . [4]
Lonsdale was also the author of ten books. [4]
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. [11]
Lonsdale died in Paris on 21 September 2020, aged 89. [12] [4]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(September 2020) |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1982 | Smiley's People | Anton Grigoriev | TV miniseries | [15] |
1986 | Le Tiroir secret | TV miniseries | ||
1991 | Maigret et la Grande Perche | Monsieur Serre | TV series | |
2001 | Maigret et la Croqueuse de Diamants | Sir Lampson | TV series | |
2013 | Marguerite Yourcenar, alchimie du paysage | The Narrator | TV documentary | |
Le tourbillon de Jeanne | L'homme | TV series |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon | Henri Crousteau | Voice-over | |
2012 | 007 Legends | Hugo Drax | Voice-over | [19] |
Moonraker is the third novel by the British author Ian Fleming to feature his fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. It was published by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1955 and featured a cover design conceived by Fleming. The plot is derived from a Fleming screenplay that was too short for a full novel, so he added the passage of the bridge game between Bond and the industrialist Hugo Drax. In the latter half of the novel, Bond is seconded to Drax's staff as the businessman builds the Moonraker, a prototype missile designed to defend England. Unknown to Bond, Drax is German, an ex-Nazi now working for the Soviets; his plan is to build the rocket, arm it with a nuclear warhead, and fire it at London. Uniquely for a Bond novel, Moonraker is set entirely in Britain, which raised comments from some readers, complaining about the lack of exotic locations.
Sir Roger George Moore was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1973 and 1985. Moore's seven appearances as Bond, from Live and Let Die to A View to a Kill, are the most of any actor in the Eon-produced entries.
Richard Dawson Kiel was an American actor. Standing 7 ft 2 in (218 cm) tall, he was known for portraying Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979). Kiel's next-most-recognized role is the tough but eloquent Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore (1996). Other notable films include The Longest Yard (1974), Silver Streak (1976), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), Cannonball Run II (1984), Pale Rider (1985), and Tangled (2010).
Michael Gregg Wilson, is an American-British screenwriter and film producer, best known for his association with the James Bond film series.
Jaws is the nickname of a fictional henchman in the James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), played in both films by actor Richard Kiel. The character is known for his towering height 2.18 m and his metal teeth.
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Corinne Cléry, also known as Corinne Piccolo, is a French actress. She is known for the films Moonraker (1979), The Story of O (1975), Hitch-Hike (1977) and Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983).
Karl Sigmund Stromberg is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Stromberg was portrayed by Curd Jürgens. The character Stromberg was created specifically for the film by writer Christopher Wood. Ian Fleming's novel The Spy Who Loved Me was not told from Bond's perspective, but, rather, a Bond girl who is in love with him. The entire plot of the film has actually nothing to do at all with the plot of the novel. This was at Fleming's request; when he sold the rights to his novel to Eon Productions he requested only the title be used.
James Bond and Moonraker is a novelization by Christopher Wood of the James Bond film Moonraker. Its name was changed to avoid confusion with Fleming's novel. It was released in 1979.
James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me is the official novelization of the 1977 Eon James Bond filmThe Spy Who Loved Me, which was itself inspired by the 1962 novel of the same title by Ian Fleming.
Derek Meddings was a British film and television special effects designer. He was initially noted for his work on the "Supermarionation" TV puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the 1970s and 1980s James Bond and Superman film series.
Michael Billington was a British film and television actor. He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England.
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Sir Hugo Drax is a fictional character created by author Ian Fleming for the 1955 James Bond novel Moonraker. For the later film and its novelization, Drax was greatly altered from the novel by screenwriter Christopher Wood. In the film, Drax is portrayed by English/French actor Michael Lonsdale. In both the novel and film, Drax is the main antagonist.
The James Bond series of films contain a number of repeating, distinctive motifs which date from the series' inception with Dr. No in 1962. The series consists of twenty five films produced by Eon Productions featuring the James Bond character, a fictional British Secret Service agent. The most recent instalment is No Time to Die, released in UK cinemas on 30 September 2021. There have also been two independently made features, the satirical Casino Royale, released in 1967, and the 1983 film Never Say Never Again.
Anne Lonnberg is an American actress and singer of Swedish descent.
007 Legends is a first-person shooter video game featuring the character of British secret agent James Bond. It was developed by Eurocom and first released by Activision on October 2012 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with Microsoft Windows and Wii U versions releasing later that year. Wii U release of the game was cancelled in Australia and the game was removed from all digital storefronts in January 2013.
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