Name
Jean Reno
Full/Alt. name
Juan Moreno y Herrera Jim
Date of Birth
Friday July 30 1948
Born
Casablanca (Morocco)
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 Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible and Ronin, but also in European productions such as the French films Les Visiteurs (1993) and L?on (1994) along with the 2005 Italian film The Tiger and the Snow.
Reno was born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jim?nez (also written as Don Juan Moreno y Herrera Jim?nez) in Casablanca,French Morocco. His Andalusian parents were natives of Sanl?car de Barrameda and Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), and had moved toNorth Africa to find work and escape the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Reno moved to France at the age of seventeen. His mother died when he was an adolescent. He has a younger sister, Mar?a Teresa (Maite). Reno is a former student of the Cours Simon. He was raised Catholic.
Due to his tall, hulking frame (188 cm, 6′2″), he mostly played villainous brutes early on in his career. He later appeared in romantic-comedies and action films. Reno's career began in French cinema, where he appeared in many of Luc Besson's films, including Besson's first film, L'Avant dernier. The two have continued to work together throughout their careers, in films produced, written or directed by Besson. Of the films they have done together, the ones that have achieved the most critical and commercial success include: Nikita(1990), the English-language films The Big Blue (1988), and L?on (1994) (known as The Professional in the United States) which features a young Natalie Portman. Additionally, Reno did the voice-over for Mufasa in the French-language version of The Lion King, a role originally performed by James Earl Jones.
Reno has starred in such high-profile American films 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). Reno turned down the role of Agent Smith in the The Matrix. He has not neglected to work in French productions eithere.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 and its sequel, 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. Among his most successful films are Les Visiteurs and L'Enquete corse.
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 dialog. Reno has also appeared in American television commercials for UPS.
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, only a Presidential candidate) Nicolas Sarkozy was his best man (Reno endorsed Sarkozy for the 2007 French Presidential Elections).[6][7] He was married twice before and has four children, two from each marriage. His first wife was Genevi?ve, 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.
He is a huge fan of Elvis Presley and can actually imitate Elvis's 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. Because of his versatile career in both his native French language films, and also in Hollywood, he is considered to be the 'French Stellan Skarsg?r.
After making a name for himself in his native France, particularly with his collaborations with action director Luc Besson, actor Jean Reno crossed the Atlantic to become a highly-sought character performer in big budget Hollywood fare. Though he broke the ice with American audiences with the cult classic La Femme Nikita (1991), Reno made his greatest impression on U.S. shores playing a reluctant hit man training a young girl (Natalie Portman) in the strangely heartwarming thriller The Professional (1994). Ever since, Reno made his mark playing coolly ambiguous and frighteningly cunning characters who more often than not reveal themselves to be all-too-human. Reno was perhaps most memorable in action thrillers like Ronin (1998) and The Da Vinci Code (2006), but least appreciated in silly blockbusters like Godzilla (1998) and The Pink Panther (2006). Despite not possessing a marquee name, Reno proved himself to be an invaluable character performer capable of switching from foreign films to Hollywood features with ease.
When he was 17, Reno and family relocated to France, where he began acting after high school, attending a French-government sponsored drama school. He made his professional stage debut in a Parisian production of "Ecce Homo" (1974), then spent the next couple of years honing his craft onstage. Reno made his screen debut playing a small role in "L'Hypothese du tableau vole" (1978), and the following year, had another small role in Costa-Gavras' "Clair de femme" (1979). After appearing in several minor parts, Reno landed his first substantial feature role in his first collaboration with Luc Besson in "Le Dernier combat" (1983), the directors dialogue-less sci-fi film about a bleak and desolate world where people are physically unable to speak. Following a second outing with Besson on "Subway" (1985), Reno teamed up with the director a third time in what proved to be his breakout film, "The Big Blue" (1988), for which he earned critical praise for his portrayal of a champion diver who fights off competition from an old friend and rival (Jean-Marc Barr).
With his career on the rise in France, it was only a matter of time until Reno was introduced to American audiences. Reno collaborated with Besson once again, playing the partner of a drug addict-turned-government assassin (Anne Parillaud) in the action thriller classic, "La Femme Nikita" (1991). Renos character helped establish his later onscreen persona cool, calculating and amoral, while retaining the impression that he was human underneath it all. Released in France in 1990, the film earned a cult following after its release in the United States the next year, introducing Reno to a wider audience. Over the years, Le Femme Nikita became the model for which many crime thrillers were based, including an American remake starring Bridget Fonda and a long-running television series on USA Network. Reno next played a sympathetic priest who moonlights as a wrestler in order to raise money for his church's projects in "L'Homme au masque d'or" (1990). He then had a much-applauded turn as Godefroy de Montmirail, a valiant nobleman from the Musketeer-days transported to the 20th century in "Les Visiteurs/The Visitors" (1996). The film set box office records in France for its 1993 release and spawned a sequel a few years later, as well as a typically shoddy American remake in 2001.
Working with Besson once again, Reno made his English-language debut with "The Professional (1994), a stylish, violent and oddly endearing thriller about a professional hit man who takes on a new apprentice in the form of a 12-year-old girl (Natalie Portman). With the attention he received for "The Professional, the actor was firmly established as a notable presence on American shores. He followed up by playing a con-man thorn-in-the-side to Kevin Kline in Lawrence Kasdan's "French Kiss" (1995) then portrayed Krieger, one of the operatives chosen by Tom Cruise for a top secret operation in "Mission: Impossible" (1996). Reno suddenly became a known quantity with both Hollywood insiders and appreciative audiences, who took to the actor when he appeared in such features such as "Godzilla" (1998) and "Ronin" (1998) the latter of which allowed him to use his ambiguous onscreen persona to great effect in John Frankenheimers excellent spy thriller. After reprising his role in The Visitors for the remake Just Visiting (2001), he played the scheming creator of a violent futuristic sport in the disastrous "Rollerball" (2002).
He had a brief, but potent turn in director Terry George's "Hotel Rwanda" (2004), playing a sympathetic Belgian hotel executive doing all he can to save the lives of his brave Rwandan manager (Don Cheadle) and the refugees he is sheltering during the 1994 genocide. After appearing in foreign-made features like La Tigre e La Neve (2005) and Lempire des Loups (2005), Reno played Ponton, a detective assigned to keep an eye on the ever-bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau in The Pink Panther (2006), the much-derided but sadly profitable remake of Peter Sellers classic series of comic films. Reno was then set to be seen in one of the most controversial and anticipated movies to have come along in decades, The Da Vinci Code (2006), directed by Ron Howard from Dan Browns mega-blockbuster about a secret religious society guarding a 2000 year-old secret. After voicing Le Fog in the animated adventure Flushed Away (2006) and playing the war-weary commander of a World War I fighter squadron in Flyboys (2006), Reno starred in the gangster thriller Cash (2008), then reprised Ponton for the unsuccessful sequel The Pink Panther 2 (2009).
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