Famed French actor Michael dies at 89

Paris: Michael Lonsdale, a giant of the silver screen and theater in France who worked with some of the world's top directors in an acting career that spanned 60 years, died on September 21, his agent said. He was 89.

From his role as a villain in the 1979 James Bond film 'Moonraker' to that of a French monk in Algeria in the 2011 movie 'Of Gods and Men', Lonsdale acted, often in brilliant second roles, under top directors including Orson Welles, Steven Spielberg, Francois Truffaut and Louis Malle.

The child of a French mother and British father, Lonsdale, with a soft voice, was a man consumed by his art. 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," the late actor's agent of 20 years, Olivier Loiseau, told 'The Associated Press'.

He added, "It was kind of expected He was tired. His spirit was alive but his body was tired."

Lonsdale was a man of faith and played several roles reflecting his Christian beliefs, from monk Brother Luc in the real-life drama 'Of Gods and Men', destined to die with fellow monks at the hands of Islamist extremists or a priest in Orson Welles' 1962 film 'The Trial'. 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 is life," the famed French actor had said in the interview.