Michael Lonsdale

Michael Edward Lonsdale-Crouch (24 May 1931 – 21 September 2020), commonly known as Michael Lonsdale and sometimes billed as Michel Lonsdale, was a British-French actor who appeared in over 180 films and television shows. He is best known in the English-speaking world for his roles as the villain Hugo Drax in the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker, the detective Claude Lebel in The Day of the Jackal, and M. Dupont d'Ivry in The Remains of the Day.

Lonsdale was born in Paris, the son of English Army officer Edward Lonsdale-Crouch and his half-French, half-Irish wife Simone Béraud, and brought up initially on the island of Guernsey, then in London in 1935, and later, during World War II, 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- and French-language productions.

On 25 February 2011, he won a César Award, his first, as a Best Supporting Actor in Of Gods and Men.

Lonsdale was also the author of ten books.

Lonsdale died 21 September 2020, aged 89 in Paris.

Film

Television

Video games