Born on 24 May, 1931, in Paris to an English military officer father and a French mother, he caught the acting bug in his mid-teens just after the second world war.
After taking a theatre course, his screen break came during the Nouvelle Vague of French cinema.
He appeared as Clément Morane in Francois Truffaut's 1968 film La Mariée était en noir which also starred Jeanne Moreau and Michel Bouquet.
He also featured in Baisers volés, the second instalment of Truffaut’s films following the adventures of Antoine Doinel.
Michael Lonsdale interviewed by RFI's Philip Turle
Highlights
His Hollywood apogee came in 1979 as the sadistic industrialist Hugo Drax in the James Bond blockbuster Moonraker.
His performance in The Day of the Jackal earned him a supporting actor BAFTA nomination.
RIP #MichaelLonsdale (24 May 1931 – 21 September 2020)
— Sergio Rodríguez (@Sergiofordy) September 21, 2020
The Day of the Jackal, 1973, directed by Fred Zinnemann.
Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale, Adrien Cayla-Legrand and Philippe Léotard.
“Assassination Attempt” scene. pic.twitter.com/QKyyQbsqn4
But arguably the highlight of his career arrived 30 years later when he played a Trappist monk in Of Gods and Men.
Based on true events, Xavier Beauvois' film recounts the story of seven French monks who were murdered after being kidnapped from their monastery in Algeria in 1996 during the country's civil war.
Lonsdale won his first and only César award - the French equivalent of an Oscar - for best supporting actor in 2011.
In his 2016 book Le Dictionnaire de ma vie, he addressed the question as to why he never married. "I experienced a great heartache and my life was very affected by it," he wrote.
"The person I loved was not free...I could never love anyone else. It was her or nothing and that's why, at 85, I'm still single! Her name was Delphine Seyrig."
