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 o...
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.
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Movies (Cast)
India Song
The Track
The Trial
Stolen Kisses
Murmur of the Heart
Ronin
Galileo
The Day of the Jackal
Erendira
Stavisky...
Special Section
Maestro
Moonraker
Le Furet
The Buddies
Hibernatus
Good King Dagobert
Enigma
Goya's Ghosts
The Bride Wore Black
The Phantom of Liberty
There Once Was a Cop
Of Gods and Men
The Passage
Agora
Adorable Liar
Is Paris Burning?
Mr. Klein
The Remains of the Day
Out 1
Sculpt
Actors
Snobs!
Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud
The Cardboard Village
Don Juan
The First, the Last
The Holcroft Covenant
Munich
Scrambled Eggs
The Name of the Rose
Invisible
Jefferson in Paris
The Itchy Palm
Souvenir
Aloïse
It Happened in Aden
The Left-Handed Woman
No Pockets in a Shroud
The Judge
The Big Wash
Gebo and the Shadow
Five Times Two
Hitler in Hollywood
The Stud
To Each His Own Cinema
The Pink Telephone
You'll Miss Me
Kaena: The Prophecy
Serious as Pleasure
Titeuf
Crime Does Not Pay
Hail! Mafia
Behold a Pale Horse
Your Money or Your Life
Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure
Heartbeat Detector
The Romantic Englishwoman
Order of the Daisy
The Last Mistress
A Whale That Had a Toothache
A Monkey's Tale
Jaloux comme un tigre
Le Renard jaune
Gentille
The Accuser
The Suspects
The Tribulations of Balthazar Kober
Papa, the Lil' Boats
Free Men
Under a False Name
Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert
Mauvais Genre
Bye Bye Blackbird
A Bullet in the Gun Barrel
Noise of Love and War
The Truth About the Imaginary Passion of an Unknown