Jean Reno Biography

Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jimnez (born 30 July 1948), known as Jean Reno (), is a French actor of Spanish descent. He has worked in French, English, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian productions, and appeared in films such as Crimson Rivers, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, The Pink Panther, Ronin, Les visiteurs, The Big Blue, Hector and the Search for Happiness and Lon: The Professional.

Early life

Reno was born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jimnez in Casablanca, Morocco. His parents were Spanish, natives of Sanlcar de Barrameda and Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucia, and had moved to North Africa to find work and escape the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

He has a younger sister named Mara Teresa ("Maite"), and the children were raised Catholic. Their father was a linotypist. Their mother died when he was a teenager. He learned Spanish from his parents, and Arabic and French growing up in Morocco.

At the age of 17, he moved to France, where he studied acting in the Cours Simon School of Drama.

When he moved to France, he served in the French Army, which was mandatory after his family gained its French citizenship.

Career

After he started to get acting jobs in France, Juan adopted the French version of his name, Jean, and shortened his surname to Reno. Due to his large frame (), Reno was called on to play "heavies" in his early career. He later appeared in romantic comedies and action films. He began his film career in France, appearing in many films by director Luc Besson, including his early Le dernier combat (1985). The two have continued to work together, collaborating in films produced, written, or directed by Besson. Of their joint work, those that have achieved the most critical and commercial success include: Nikita (1990), and the English-language films The Big Blue (1988) and Lon: The Professional (1994). Reno did the voice-over for Mufasa in the French-language version of The Lion King, a role originally performed in English by James Earl Jones in the American film. 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) with Matthew Broderick. Reno turned down the role of Agent Smith in The Matrix. He also acted in French productions: Les Visiteurs (1993) (which was remade in English as Just Visiting in 2001); The Crimson Rivers (2000), and Jet Lag (Dcalage horaire) by Danile Thompson (2002), which was also a box-office success in France.

In 2006, Reno had a prominent role in The Pink Panther 2006 remake and its sequel The Pink Panther 2, playing Gilbert Ponton, opposite Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau. He portrayed Captain Bezu Fache in the Ron Howard film The Da Vinci Code. Among his most successful films are Les Visiteurs and L'Enqute corse.

In other media, Reno was involved in the production of the third installment in the popular Capcom 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. In advertising work, Reno has appeared in American television commercials for UPS and portrayed Doraemon in a series of Toyota ads in Japan, as part of the "ReBorn" campaign.

Personal life

Reno first married a woman named Genevive, with whom he had a daughter, Sandra (born 1978), and a son, Mickael (born 1980). Reno's second wife was Nathalie Dyszkiewicz, a Polish model, with whom he had a son, Tom (born 10 January 1996), and a daughter, Serena (born 28 June 1998).

On 29 July 2006, Reno married for the third time, to British model and actress of Polish descent, Zofia Borucka, 35, at the Les Baux-de-Provence city hall. The presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy served as his best man (Reno endorsed Sarkozy for the 2007 French presidential election). Zofia and Reno welcomed their first son Cielo born in July 2009 in New York City. Their second son Dean was born in September 2011. Reno maintains homes in Paris, Malaysia and Los Angeles.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting
1979	Womanlight	Traffic policeman
1980	The Moroccan Stallion
1982	La Passante du Sans-Souci
1983	Signes extrieurs de richesse	Marc Letellier
1983	Le Dernier Combat
1985	Le tlphone sonne toujours deux fois!!	Marraine's confidence man
1985	Subway	The Drummer
1988	Le Grand Bleu	Enzo Molinari	The Big Blue Nominated - Csar Award for Best Supporting Actor
1990	Nikita	Victor, cleaner
1991	L'Homme au masque d'or	Father Victorio Gaetano
1991	Loulou Graffiti	Pique la Lune
1991	L'Opration Corned-Beef	Captain Philippe Boulier
1992	Porco Rosso	Porco Rosso	Voice acting for the French dub
1993	La Vis	Monsieur K
1993	Paranoa		Short subject
1993	Flight from Justice	Charlie Bert	TV
1993	Les Visiteurs	Godefroy de Papincourt, Comte de Montmirail	Nominated - Csar Award for Best Actor
1994	Le Roi Lion	Mufasa	The Lion King
1994	Lon: The Professional	Leone "Lon" Montana	Nominated - Csar Award for Best Actor
1995	Les Truffes	Patrick
1995	French Kiss	Inspector Jean-Paul Cardon
1995	Al di l delle nuvole	Carlo
1996	Mission: Impossible	Franz Krieger
1996	Le Jaguar	Jean Campana
1997	Roseanna's Grave	Marcello
1997	Un amour de sorcire	Molok
1997	Les Soeurs Soleil	Un spectateur
1998	Les Visiteurs II: Les Couloirs du temps	Comte Godefroy de Montmirail, dit Godefroy
1998	Godzilla	Philippe Roach
1998	Ronin	Vincent
2000	Les Rivires pourpres	Pierre Niemans	Crimson Rivers Nominated - European Film Award: Jameson People's Choice Award - Best European Actor
2001	Just Visiting	Count Thibault of Malfete
2001	Wasabi	Hubert Fiorentini
2002	Dcalage horaire	Felix
2002	Rollerball	Alexis Petrovich
2003	Tais-toi!	Ruby
2004	Onimusha 3: Demon Siege	Jacques Blanc (voice and likeness)	Video game
2004	Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse	Commissaire Niemans
2004	Hotel Rwanda	Mr. Tillens	Uncredited
2004	L'Enqute Corse	Ange Leoni
2005	L'Empire des loups	Jean-Louis Schiffer	Empire of the Wolves
2005	The Tiger and the Snow	Fuad
2006	The Pink Panther	Gilbert Ponton
2006	Flyboys	Captain Thenault
2006	The Da Vinci Code	Captain Bezu Fache
2006	Flushed Away	Le Frog (voice)
2008	Ca$h	Maxime - Dubreuil
2009	The Pink Panther 2	Gilbert Ponton
2009	Le Premier Cercle	Milo Malakian
2009	Couples Retreat	Marcel
2009	Armored	Quinn
2010	The Round Up	Dr. Sheinbaum
2010	The Philosopher	Baggio
2010	L'immortel	Charly Matte	22 Bullets
2011	You Don't Choose Your Family	Docteur Luix
2011	Margaret	Ramon
2012	Alex Cross	Giles Mercier
2012	The Chef	Alexandre Lagarde
2012	Le Jour des Corneilles	Le pre Courge
2013	Jo	Joseph "Jo" St-Clair	TV series (eight episodes)
2013	Days and Nights	Louis
2014	Avis de mistral	Paul
2014	Hector and the Search for Happiness	Diego
2014	Benot Brisefer: Les Taxis rouges	Poilonez
2015	The Squad	Serge Buren
2015	Brothers of the Wind	Danzer
2016	The Last Face	Dr. Mehmet Love
2016	Les Visiteurs: La Rvolution	Comte Godefroy de Montmirail
2016	The Promise	Admiral Fournet
2017	Mes trsors	Patrick
2017	The Adventurers	Pierre

Stage

• 1977 : Prends bien garde aux zeppelins
• 1978 : Ecce Homo
• 1978 : Celimare le bien-aim
• 1979 : Je romps et ne plie pas
• 1979 : Socit Un
• 1981 : La Manufacture
• 1984 : Terre trangre
• 1989 : Andromaque
• 1991 : Montserrat
• 2006 : Les Grandes Occasions
• 2015 : Nos femmes