British-French actor and 'Bond' villain Michael Lonsdale diesLonsdale, who was bilingual, chalked up more than 200 roles over a six-decade careerPARIS - Michael Lonsdale, the British-French actor with a far-ranging film and theatre career but most widely recognised as the villain opposite James Bond in "Moonraker", died on Monday aged 89, his agent told AFP. Lonsdale, who was bilingual, chalked up more than 200 roles over a six-decade career, equally at ease in experimental arthouse productions as in big-budget crowd-pleasers. For the role Lonsdale won his first and only Cesar award -- France's version of the Oscars -- for best supporting actor in 2011. Yet for millions of people he was the sadistic industrialist Hugo Drax in the 1979 Bond film "Moonraker" starring Roger Moore, with a plot to destroy Earth's population with nerve gas while he escaped into space. His breakthrough came when French film director and New Wave innovator Francois Truffaut hired him for "The Bride Wore Black" and "Stolen Kisses," both in 1968.

Source: Bangkok Post September 21, 2020 15:45 UTC