Jean Reno

Jean Reno (born July 30, 1948) is a French actor. Working in both French and English, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Da Vinci Code, Mission Impossible and Ronin, but also European productions such as Léon and the 2005 Italian film The Tiger and the Snow.

Biography

Early life

Reno was born Juan Moreno y Herrera Jiménez (also written as Don Juan Moreno y Herrera Jimenez) in Casablanca, Morocco. His Spanish Andalusian parents were natives of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Jerez de la Frontera, and had moved to North Africa to escape the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Reno moved to France at the age of seventeen. His mother died when he was an adolescent. Reno is a former student of the Cours Simon. He was raised Catholic.

Career

Due to his tall, hulking frame (188cm, 6' 2"), he mostly played villainous brutes early on in his career. Thanks to his skills as an actor, he has broken away from this stereotype and has played everything from romantic-comedy leads to action heroes. Reno's career began in French cinema, where he appeared in many of Luc Besson's films, including Besson's first short film, L'Avant dernier. The two have continued to work together throughout their careers, in films produced, written or directed by Besson, though the films in which he has done all three have proven to be the most popular, including Nikita (1990), and the English-language films The Big Blue (1988), and Léon (1994) (known as The Professional in the United States) featuring a young Natalie Portman. Additionally, he dubbed over the character of Mufasa in the French-language version of The Lion King, a role originally occupied by James Earl Jones.

Reno has starred in such high-profile American movies as French Kiss (1995) with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline, Mission: Impossible (1996) with Tom Cruise, Ronin (1998) with Robert De Niro, and Godzilla (1998), for which Reno turned down the role of Agent Smith in the The Matrix. He has not neglected to continue making French productions either - e.g., Les Visiteurs (1993) (which was later remade in English as Just Visiting in 2001) and The Crimson Rivers (2000). In 2006, he had a prominent role in the remake of The Pink Panther, playing Gilbert Ponton, the partner of Inspector Clouseau opposite Steve Martin, and also portrayed Captain Bezu Fache in the Ron Howard film The Da Vinci Code.

In other media, Reno was involved in the production of the third installment in the popular PlayStation 2 series Onimusha (Onimusha 3: Demon Siege), lending his likeness to the protagonist, Jacques Blanc, as well as providing the voice for the character's French dialogue. Reno has also appeared in United Parcel Service advertisements on television.

Personal life

On July 29, 2006 the actor married model and actress Zofia Borucka, 35, at the city hall of Baux-de-Provence in southern France. The French President (at the time being Presidential candidate) Nicolas Sarkozy was his best man. He was married twice before and has four children, two from each marriage. His first wife was Geneviève, with whom he has a daughter, Sandra (born in 1978), and a son, Mickael (born in 1980). His second wife is model Nathalie Dyszkiewicz, with whom he has a son, Tom (born 1996), and a daughter, Serena (born 1998). He maintains homes in Paris, Malaysia and in Los Angeles.

Reno endorsed Nicolas Sarkozy for the 2007 French Presidential Elections. He is a huge fan of Elvis Presley and can actually imitate Elvis' voice. He used his "Thank you very much" impression in a scene of the film Godzilla when the script needed his character to pass as an American.

Filmography

Film and television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The Moroccan Stallion
1982	La Passante du Sans-Souci
1983	Le Dernier Combat
1985	Le téléphone sonne toujours deux fois		Marraine 's confidence man
	Subway	The Drummer
1988	Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue)	Enzo Molinari
1990	L'Homme au masque d'or	Father Victorio Gaetano
	Nikita	Victor, nettoyeur
1991	Loulou Graffiti	Pique la Lune
	L'Opération Corned-Beef	Capitaine Philippe Boulier, dit 'Le Squale'/Captain Philippe
1992	Kurenai no buta	Porco Rosso	Voice
1993	La Vis	Monsieur K
	Paranoïa
	Flight from Justice	Charlie Bert	TV
	Les Visiteurs	Godefroy de Papincourt, Comte de Montmirail
1994	Léon (The Professional)	Leon
1995	Les Truffes	Patrick
	French Kiss	Inspector Jean-Paul Cardon
	Al di là delle nuvole	Carlo
1996	Mission: Impossible	Franz Krieger
	Le Jaguar	Jean Campana
1997	Roseanna's Grave	Marcello
	Un amour de sorcière	Molok
	Les Soeurs Soleil	Un spectateur
1998	Les Visiteurs II: Les Couloirs du temps	Comte Godefroy de Montmirail, dit Godefroy
	Godzilla	Philippe Roaché
	Ronin	Vincent
2000	Les Rivières pourpres (Crimson Rivers)	Pierre Niemans
2001	Just Visiting	Count Thibault of Malfete
	Wasabi	Hubert Fiorentini
2002	Décalage horaire	Felix
	Rollerball	Alexis Petrovich
2003	Tais-toi!	Ruby
2004	Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (Capcom-based popular franchise)	Voice actor and Character Model of Jacques Blanc
	Les Rivières pourpres II: Les anges de l'apocalypse (Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse)	Commissaire Niemans
	Hotel Rwanda	Mr. Tillens (uncredited)
	L'Enquête Corse	Ange Leoni
2005	L'Empire des loups (Empire of the Wolves)	Jean-Louis Schiffer
	The Tiger and the Snow	Fuad
2006	The Pink Panther	Gilbert Ponton
	Flyboys	Captain Thenault
	The Da Vinci Code	Captain Bezu Fache
	Flushed Away	Le Frog	voice
2008	Margaret	Ramon	awaiting release
	Ca$h	Maxime - Dubreuil
2009	The Pink Panther Deux	Gilbert Ponton	awaiting release
	Armored	Quinn	post-production

References

External links

• Jean Reno: Cannes, Codes, and... Bouillabaisse (MPM interview)
• Jean Reno (fansite)
• Le Cinéma de Jean Reno (fansite in French)
• Le Monde de Jean Reno (fansite in French)