Michael Lonsdale (1931 - 2020)

[brianvds]

Noticed in the news today that he has passed away:

Actor and Bond villain Michael Lonsdale, 89, dies | Life

Michael Lonsdale, most widely recognised as the villain opposite James Bond in Moonraker, has died.

www.news24.com

I have always had this idea that he would have been perfect in the title role of a Debussy biopic.
Well. He was great as Bond villain, and perhaps even better as the slightly sinister "Papa" in Munich.

 

[Maybenartist]

I remember him from 'The day of the Jackal' which was a great book and film in the 70's. He was also in a film 'The Holcoft Covenant' from the book by Robert Ludlum. Way before the Bourne series. However, like all Ludlum books being plot driven, a more modern setting was required (probably why they waited until the 21st century to film the bourne series). Shame because it was a good story, badly made.
I liked him, he was well casted in films.

 

[stlukesguild]

RIP

 

[Hermes2020]

He already made an early impression on me as the priest in Louis Malle's Le souffle au coeur.

 

[musket]

He was a chameleon. How could characters be any different than Inspector Lebel in Day of the Jackel, Grigoriev in Smiley's People and Jean-Pierre in Ronin?

That last is one of my favorite Lonsdale roles. It's a small part, but he quietly and effortlessly steals the scenes from DeNiro and Reno.

RIP.

 

[brianvds]

He was a chameleon. How could characters be any different than Inspector Lebel in Day of the Jackel, Grigoriev in Smiley's People and Jean-Pierre in Ronin?

That last is one of my favorite Lonsdale roles. It's a small part, but he quietly and effortlessly steals the scenes from DeNiro and Reno.

RIP.

Yes, indeed: another role in which he is sort of fatherly but clearly not a man to be trifled with. The film was pretty good too, and contained some of the very best car chase scenes ever filmed.