Michael Lonsdale: James Bond star who played villain Hugo Drax in Moonraker dies
The star's agent says Lonsdale died peacefully at his Paris home of old age.
Tuesday 22 September 2020 09:24, UK
Michael Lonsdale, best known for his role as James Bond villain Hugo Drax, has died at the age of 89.
He worked with some of the world's top directors in an acting career that spanned 60 years.
From his role in the 1979 Bond film Moonraker, to that of a French monk in Algeria in the 2011 movie Of Gods And Men, Lonsdale acted under the likes of Orson Welles, Steven Spielberg, Francois Truffaut and Louis Malle.
The child of a French mother and British father, he made more than 100 films and performed on stage.
His final performance was in a short film last year for the Opera of Paris, Degas et Moi (Degas And Me).
Lonsdale died peacefully at his Paris home of old age, his agent of 20 years, Olivier Loiseau, told The Associated Press.
"It was kind of expected... He was tired. His spirit was alive but his body was tired," he said.
The French daily Le Parisien quoted him as saying in an interview in 2016 that he had no anxiety about dying: "I give myself a reason. It's life."
Lonsdale never married and had no children.