Michael Lonsdale

Michael Lonsdale — Biography

French-British actor, author and painter Michael Lonsdale, whose full name was Michael Edward Lonsdale Crouch, was born in Paris on 24 May 1931 and died there on 21 September 2020. Holding both French and British citizenship, he was credited in films as Michel Lonsdale until 1977 and was known under that name above all in French-language productions. He appeared in more than 180 productions across cinema, television and the stage.

His career began in the mid-1950s and lasted more than half a century, until his death. During the 1960s and 1970s he worked with the leading directors of French cinema, appearing in François Truffaut's Stolen Kisses (1968), Luis Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty (1974) and Marguerite Duras's India Song (1975). In the same years he also played in productions such as Mr. Klein (1976). He never lost his attachment to the theatre; besides acting he also worked as a stage director.

International fame came to him through his roles in English-language productions. In the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal he played the deputy police commissioner Claude Lebel, and in the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker the villain Hugo Drax. These were followed by the abbot in The Name of the Rose (1986) and Dupont d'Ivry in The Remains of the Day (1993). Over the course of his career he repeatedly took on the parts of clergymen.

He went on working through the 2000s and 2010s, appearing in Steven Spielberg's Münih (2005), Alejandro Amenábar's Agora (2009) and Manoel de Oliveira's Gebo and the Shadow (2012). For the Trappist monk he played in the 2010 film released in Turkey as Tanrılar ve İnsanlar he won the César Award for Best Supporting Actor; he was nominated twice more in the same category. A Globes de Cristal award, the Medal of the City of Paris and the Prix Marguerite Duras are also among the honours he received. Özgür Adamlar (2011) is one of the late films of his that reached Turkish cinemas.

Alongside acting he lent his voice to radio dramas and to a large number of audiobooks, recording texts such as Nietzsche's Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra and the Confucius collection Confucius - Entretiens du maître avec ses disciples. He was also engaged with painting. He died on 21 September 2020 at the age of 89 in Paris, the city where he was born.