Photo of Michael Lonsdale
Acting

Michael Lonsdale

Profession
Acting
Born
May 24, 1931 · Paris, France
Died
September 21, 2020

Biography

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.

Known for

The Name of the Rose poster
The Name of the Rose
Film · 1986 · ★ 7.5
Munich poster
Munich
Film · 2005 · ★ 7.1
Ronin poster
Ronin
Film · 1998 · ★ 7.0
Moonraker poster
Moonraker
Film · 1979 · ★ 6.2
Agora poster
Agora
Film · 2009 · ★ 7.0
The Remains of the Day poster
The Remains of the Day
Film · 1993 · ★ 7.4
The Day of the Jackal poster
The Day of the Jackal
Film · 1973 · ★ 7.5
The Trial poster
The Trial
Film · 1962 · ★ 7.4
Goya's Ghosts poster
Goya's Ghosts
Film · 2006 · ★ 6.6
Hibernatus poster
Hibernatus
Film · 1969 · ★ 6.7
Stolen Kisses poster
Stolen Kisses
Film · 1968 · ★ 7.3
Of Gods and Men poster
Of Gods and Men
Film · 2010 · ★ 6.7

Filmography