by Conan Simmons – September 22, 2020 – 8:18 pm
Internationally famous character actor Michael Lonsdale has passed away. Born May 21, 1931 in Paris, France he spent some time growing up in Casablanca, Morocco during World War 2 while the Nazi’s occupied France. He went on to become an award winning actor with a career spanning more than half a century.
Appearing in the war drama ‘Is Paris Burning?’ in 1966 alongside an all-star cast of European actors, he worked with top directors in the early 1970’s, ‘Murmur of the Heart’ (1971) directed by Louis Malle and ‘The Phantom of Liberty’ (1974) directed by Luis Bunuel. It was his BAFTA nominated performance as supporting actor in 1973’s action-adventure thriller ‘The Day of the Jackal’ that led to his being cast as the villainous Hugo Drax in 1979’s ‘Moonraker’ alongside Roger Moore’s 007.
He narrated the avant-garde animation film ‘Chronopolis’, directed by Piotr Kamler, in 1981. The same year he appeared in the Oscar winning film ‘Chariots of Fire’. In 1986 he took part in the medieval mystery ‘The Name of the Rose’ based on the novel by Umberto Eco and starring Sean Connery.
Continuing strong in the 1990’s his appearances included 1993’s ‘The Remains of the Day’ and the popular all-star action-adventure ‘Ronin’ in 1998.
In 2005 he worked with director Steven Spielberg in ‘Munich’. He finally won a supporting actor trophy at the Cesar Awards in 2010 for the Algerian Civil War set ‘Of Gods and Men’.
Michael Lonsdale passed away September 21, 2020 in the city he was born, Paris, France.