Michael Lonsdale
Acting • Born 1931-05-24 – Died 2020-09-21
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.
Filmography
208 credits
The Name of the Rose
Movie • 1986
The Abbot
Stolen Kisses
Movie • 1968
Georges Tabard
Munich
Movie • 2005
Papa
Moonraker
Movie • 1979
Hugo Drax
Film sur Georges Perec
Movie • 1990
Self
Les amants cinéma
Movie • 2008
Self
Hibernatus
Movie • 1969
Edouard Loriebat
The Last Mistress
Movie • 2007
le vicomte Prony
Jean-Sans-Terre
Movie • 1980
Jean Papeuil
The Bride Wore Black
Movie • 1968
Morane
Enigma
Movie • 1982
Bodley
My Life Is Hell
Movie • 1991
Gabriel
Law Breakers
Movie • 1971
Inspector Bertrand
The Day of the Jackal
Movie • 1973
Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel
The Door Slams
Movie • 1960
Georges
The Old Maid
Movie • 1972
Monod
Five Times Two
Movie • 2004
Bernard
The Phantom of Liberty
Movie • 1974
The Hatter
It Happened in Aden
Movie • 1956
Sinclair
Ronin
Movie • 1998
Jean-Pierre
Right to the city
Movie • 1974
Narrator
La nuit du beau marin peut-être?
Movie • 1976
Boris
Agora
Movie • 2009
Theon
Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud
Movie • 1995
Dollabella
The Suspects
Movie • 1974
Judge Souftries
Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure
Movie • 2007
Bartleby (voice)
The Bunker
Movie • 1981
Martin Bormann
The Romantic Englishwoman
Movie • 1975
Swan
Murmur of the Heart
Movie • 1971
Father Henri
The Perfume of the Lady in Black
Movie • 2005
Professor Stangerson
Heartbeat Detector
Movie • 2007
Mathias Jüst
Stavisky...
Movie • 1974
Docteur Mézy
Titeuf
Movie • 2011
Le psy (voice)
Good King Dagobert
Movie • 1984
Saint Eloi
Aloïse
Movie • 1975
le médecin
No Pockets in a Shroud
Movie • 1974
Raymond
Under a False Name
Movie • 2004
David
Of Gods and Men
Movie • 2010
Luc
Invisible
Movie • 2005
Le gardien
Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert
Movie • 1976
The Vice Consul of Lahore
Destroy, She Said
Movie • 1969
Stein
Actors
Movie • 2000
Man walking down the street
Woyzeck
Movie • 1993
Le capitaine
Le Furet
Movie • 2003
Don Salvadore
The Passage
Movie • 1979
Renoudot
Un troisième
Movie • 1970
Le réalisateur
Les Trois Sœurs
Movie • 1960
Andreï Prodarov
There Once Was a Cop
Movie • 1972
Commissioner Lucas
Adorable Liar
Movie • 1962
Albert
Jeanne, à petits pas
Movie • 2006
Louis
The Track
Movie • 1975
David Sutter
The Buddies
Movie • 1965
Lamendin
Free Men
Movie • 2011
Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit
Out 1
Movie • 1990
Thomas
Successive Slidings of Pleasure
Movie • 1974
The Judge
India Song
Movie • 1975
Le Vice-Consul de Lahore
Delphine Seyrig, portrait d'une comète
Movie • 2000
Self
The Man in the Buick
Movie • 1968
L'inspecteur Farjon de la P.J.
Mr. Klein
Movie • 1976
Pierre
Gentille
Movie • 2005
Jean
The Cardboard Village
Movie • 2011
Old Priest
Special Section
Movie • 1975
Pierre Pucheu - le ministre de l'intérieur
The Pink Telephone
Movie • 1975
M. Morrison, président de la Fielding
Your Money or Your Life
Movie • 1966
Speaker at the shy people's club
Snobs!
Movie • 1962
Charles Dufaut
Les années Lumière
Movie • 1972
Narrator (voice)
Gebo and the Shadow
Movie • 2012
Gebo
Le revolver et la rose
Movie • 1970
Philippe de la Tour / Dimitri Korkesky
The Nail Clippers
Movie • 1969
Le mari
Cygne II
Movie • 1976
Narrator (voice)
Adieu
Movie • 2004
Serge
Galileo
Movie • 1975
Cardinal Barberini (later Pope Urban VIII)
Le Renard jaune
Movie • 2013
Jean Virno
The Games of Countess Dolingen
Movie • 1981
Bertrand Haines-Pearson
Mauvais Genre
Movie • 1997
Honoré de Balzac
Hail! Mafia
Movie • 1965
Hyman
Sweet Inquest on Violence
Movie • 1982
Ash, the financier
Spring
Movie • 1971
L'homme qui fuit
Le Petit Nicolas
Movie • 1964
The father
The Little Misses
Movie • 1964
L'elève
Crime Does Not Pay
Movie • 1962
Acteur
Dieu sait quoi
Movie • 1994
Narrator
Kaena: The Prophecy
Movie • 2003
Opaz (voice)
The Girl with the Cello
Movie • 1973
Philippe Lariel
Let There Be Light!
Movie • 1998
Monseigneur Loublié
Erendira
Movie • 1983
Senator Onésimo Sanchez
The Big Wash
Movie • 1968
Delaroche
Don Juan
Movie • 1998
Don Luis
The Mystery of the Yellow Room
Movie • 2003
Stangerson
A Dirty Story
Movie • 1977
The voyeur
Caravan to Vaccarès
Movie • 1974
Duc de Croyter
Maestro
Movie • 2014
Cedric Rovère
Der Madonna-Mann
Movie • 1987
Tanzmann
N: The Madness Of Reason
Movie • 2014
Narrator
The Outsider
Movie • 2023
Narrator (Voice)
The Remains of the Day
Movie • 1993
Dupont D'Ivry
Film sur Hans Bellmer
Movie • 1974
Narrator
Jefferson in Paris
Movie • 1995
Louis XVI
The Judge
Movie • 1984
Le docteur
Jean-Marie Serreau, découvreur de théâtres
Movie • 2016
Self
The Accuser
Movie • 1977
Abéraud
Les grands sentiments font les bons gueuletons
Movie • 1973
Stéphane
Those Facing Us
Movie • 2001
Mikaël
The Itchy Palm
Movie • 1960
Nobert
Chronopolis
Movie • 1983
Narrator (voice)
La Grande Paulette
Movie • 1974
Paul
Goya's Ghosts
Movie • 2006
Inquisitor General
Jean Eustache's Wasted Breath
Movie • 1997
(voice)
Trompe-l'oeil
Movie • 1982
Self (voice)
The Devil in the Box
Movie • 1977
Georges Aubert
Scrambled Eggs
Movie • 1976
The President of the Republic
The Holcroft Covenant
Movie • 1985
Ernst Manfredi
Winter
Movie • 1969
Julien & Marc
Bartleby
Movie • 1976
L'Huissier
Ève avait l'éclat métallique de l'été
Movie • 1979
Souvenir
Movie • 1989
Xavier Lorion
The First, the Last
Movie • 2016
Jean-Berchmans
Les Filles au Moyen-Âge
Movie • 2016
Daniel
Out 1: Spectre
Movie • 1973
Thomas
Alone
Movie • 1981
Ludovic
Papa, the Lil' Boats
Movie • 1971
Hippolyte the brother of Marylène
Bye Bye Blackbird
Movie • 2005
Robert
The Left-Handed Woman
Movie • 1978
The Waiter
Autumn
Movie • 1972
Julien, le réalisateur
The Risk of Living
Movie • 1978
narrator
The Ghostly Rental
Movie • 1965
Kernan
The Tribulations of Balthazar Kober
Movie • 1988
Cammerschulze
Is Paris Burning?
Movie • 1966
Debu-Bridel (uncredited)
The Truth About the Imaginary Passion of an Unknown
Movie • 1974
Le reporter TV / Ponce Pilate
The Insomniac on the Bridge
Movie • 1985
Antonie
Cela s'appelle l'amour
Movie • 1989
Self
Noise of Love and War
Movie • 1997
The director
Jaune, Le Soleil
Movie • 1971
Un juif
La Plante Humaine
Movie • 1996
Michel
L'air d'aimer
Movie • 1986
Raymond
Chut !
Movie • 1972
Sergel
J.R.R. Tolkien: Designer of Worlds
Movie • 2014
(voice)
Concerto for an Exile
Movie • 1968
Un acteur au théâtre
Hitler in Hollywood
Movie • 2011
Michael Lonsdale
The Authentic Trial of Carl Emmanuel Jung
Movie • 1967
L'Avocat de la Défense
Bazin's Film
Movie • 2017
Narrator
You'll Miss Me
Movie • 2009
Max
Jaloux comme un tigre
Movie • 1964
The grimacing motorist
Mad Enough to Kill
Movie • 1975
Stephane Mostri
Né
Movie • 1975
Self
The Trial
Movie • 1962
Priest
L'ordre du jour
Movie • 1993
Stark
To Each His Own Cinema
Movie • 2007
The old blind man (segment "Le Don")
The Colour of Words
Movie • 1984
Self
Veilleurs dans la nuit - Une journée monastique à l'Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux
Movie • 2011
Narrateur
The Immoral Moment
Movie • 1962
Mercier
A Whale That Had a Toothache
Movie • 1975
Le peintre
Earthen Man
Movie • 1989
(voice)
Vroum-vroum
Movie • 1995
Rosenn
Movie • 2014
(voice)
Order of the Daisy
Movie • 1967
Lastac / Lataque, expert en écritures / Le juge (voice)
Judoka-Secret Agent
Movie • 1967
Thomas Perkins
A Bullet in the Gun Barrel
Movie • 1958
Serious as Pleasure
Movie • 1975
Inspecteur Fournier
Comédie
Movie • 1966
L'homme (M)
Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff
Movie • 2020
Self
The Stud
Movie • 1970
Commissioner Donald Both
Is Dead - Portrait incomplet de Gertrude Stein
Movie • 2000
Narrator (voice)
Degas and I
Movie • 2019
Edgar Degas
Inside 'Moonraker'
Movie • 2000
Self
The Mysteries of Paris: Jacques Rivette's Out 1 Revisited
Movie • 2016
Self
The Abbey of Crime: Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'
Movie • 1986
Self
A Monkey's Tale
Movie • 1999
Maître Flavius (Voice)
Salvador Dalí: Génie tragi-comique
Movie • 2019
Narrator
Rendez-vous manqués
Movie • 1986
Moralès
Un paquebot dans la tête
Movie • 1981
Roland
The Visit
Movie • 2015
Self
Une jeunesse
Movie • 1983
Béjardy
La Fenêtre
Movie • 1970
Bracquemont
Mersonne ne m'aime
Movie • 1982
Commissioner Bancau
Les Mains d'Andréa
Movie • 2006
The Separation
Movie • 2005
Paul Doumer
Speaking of Buñuel
Movie • 2000
Self
The Boulugres
Movie • 1983
Le roi (voice)
Billy Ze Kick
Movie • 1985
Commissaire Bellanger
Les Écrans déchirés
Movie • 1976
Michael
Sculpt
Movie • 2016
Seul face au crime
Movie • 1991
Procuratore
African Glory
Movie • 2024
Christopher Columbus
Le Mythe Cathare
Movie • 2002
Narrator
Le bureau des mariages
Movie • 1962
Aurais dû faire gaffe... le choc est terrible
Movie • 1977
Le rose et le blanc
Movie • 1982
Léon
Behold a Pale Horse
Movie • 1964
Reporter
La Rényon lontan
Movie • 1983
Narrator (voice)
The Life of Mirrors
Movie • 2025
Zoo Story
Movie • 1968
Peter
Emile Reynaud
Movie • 1986
Narrator
The Memory of the Eye E.J. Marey
Movie • 1986
Narrator
An Oral History of: The Name of the Rose
Movie • 2022
Self (archive footage)
Le Génie du faux
TV • 1985
Constantin Escher
Maigret
TV • 1991
Guillaume Serre
Out 1
TV • 1971
Thomas
Le Tiroir secret
TV • 1986
Philippe Jolivet
Le Grand Échiquier
TV • 1972
Self
Le Silence de l'épervier
TV • 2008
Antoine Carsac
Samedi soir
TV • 1971
Self
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
TV • 1975
Self
Au siècle de Maupassant, contes et nouvelles du XIXe
TV • 2009
Le Grand Loustalot
La Confession d'un enfant du siècle
TV • 1974
Smith
Les Cent Livres des Hommes
TV • 1970
Socrates
Maigret
TV • 1991
Sir Lampson
Smiley's People
TV • 1982
Anton Grigoriev