Jean Reno

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Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez (born 30 July 1948), better known as Jean Reno (French: [ʒɑ̃ ʁeno]), is a French actor. He has worked in American, French, English, Japanese, Spanish and Italian movie productions; Reno appeared in films such as Flushed Away (2006), Crimson Rivers (2000), Godzilla (1998), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Mission: Impossible (1996), The Pink Panther (2006), Ronin (1998), Les Visiteurs (1993), Wasabi (2001), The Big Blue (1988), Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014), La Femme Nikita (1990), and Léon: The Professional (1994).

Early life

Reno was born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez, on 30 July 1948 in Casablanca, French Morocco.^[1] His parents were Spanish, natives of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia. They had moved to North Africa to find work and escape Francoist Spain. ^{[citation needed]}

He has a younger sister named María Teresa ("Maite"); the children were raised Catholic.^[2] Their father was a linotypist.^[3] Their mother died when he was a teenager.^[2] He learned Spanish from his parents, Arabic and French growing up in Morocco, and Italian from studying the language as an interest and acting in Italian films.^[4]

At the age of 17, he moved to France, where he studied acting in the Cours Simon School of Drama.^[5]

When he moved to France, he served in the French Army, which was mandatory after his family gained 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 (1.88 m or 6 ft 2 in), 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 (1983). 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: La Femme Nikita (1990), and the English-language films The Big Blue (1988) and Léon: 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. 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 (Décalage Horaire) by Danièle 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'Enquète 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.^[6] He also starred as Jo in the 2013 English-language TV series Jo.

Personal life

Reno married a woman named Geneviève in 1977. After his first divorce in 1988, Reno married his second wife, Nathalie Dyszkiewicz, a Polish model, in 1995. They divorced in 2001.

On 29 July 2006, Reno married for the third time, to a British model and actress of Polish descent, Zofia Borucka, at the Les Baux-de-Provence city hall.^[7] The presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy served as his best man (Reno endorsed Sarkozy for the 2007 French presidential election).^[8][9] Reno maintains three homes in Paris, Malaysia, and Los Angeles.^[10]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting	Tableaux Personnel
1979	Womanlight	Traffic policeman
1980	The Moroccan Stallion
1982	The Passerby	Angry Man
1983	Signes extérieurs de richesse	Marc Letellier
	Le Dernier Combat	The Brute
1985	Le téléphone sonne toujours deux fois!!	Marraine's confidence man
	Subway	The Drummer
1986	I Love You	The dentist
1988	The Big Blue	Enzo Molinari	Nominated – César Award for Best Supporting Actor
1990	La Femme Nikita	Victor, cleaner
1991	L'Homme au masque d'or	Father Victorio Gaetano
	Loulou Graffiti	Pique la Lune
	L'Opération Corned-Beef	Captain Philippe Boulier
1992	Porco Rosso	Porco Rosso (voice)	French dub
1993	Les Visiteurs	Godefroy de Papincourt, Comte de Montmirail	Nominated – César Award for Best Actor
	La Vis	Monsieur K
	Paranoïa		Short subject
	Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey	Shadow (voice)	French dub
1994	The Lion King	Mufasa (voice)	French dub
	Léon: The Professional	Leone "Léon" Montana	Nominated – César Award for Best Actor
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 Sœurs Soleil	Spectator
1998	Les Visiteurs II: Les Couloirs du temps	Comte Godefroy de Montmirail, dit Godefroy
	Godzilla	Philippe Roaché
	Ronin	Vincent
1999	The Book That Wrote Itself	Himself
2000	Les Rivières pourpres	Pierre Niemans	Crimson Rivers Nominated – European Film Award: Jameson People's Choice Award - Best European Actor
2001	Just Visiting	Count Thibault of Malfete
	Atlantis: The Lost Empire	Vincenzo "Vinny" Saltorini (voice)	French dub
	Wasabi	Hubert Fiorentini
2002	Décalage horaire	Felix
	Rollerball	Alexis Petrovich
2003	Tais-toi!	Ruby
2004	Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse	Commissaire Niemans
	Hotel Rwanda	Mr. Tillens	Uncredited
	The Corsican Files	Ange Leoni
2005	L'Empire des loups	Jean-Louis Schiffer	Empire of the Wolves
	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)	Also French dub
2008	Ca$h	Maxime - Dubreuil
2009	The Pink Panther 2	Gilbert Ponton
	Le Premier Cercle	Milo Malakian
	Couples Retreat	Marcel
	Armored	Quinn
2010	The Round Up	Dr. Sheinbaum
	The Philosopher	Baggio
	L'immortel	Charly Matteï	22 Bullets
2011	Zookeeper	Bernie the Gorilla (voice)	French dub
	You Don't Choose Your Family	Docteur Luix
	Margaret	Ramon
2012	Alex Cross	Giles Mercier
	The Chef	Alexandre Lagarde
	Le Jour des Corneilles	Le père Courge
2013	Days and Nights	Louis
2014	My Summer in Provence	Paul
	Hector and the Search for Happiness	Dr. Diego Baresco
	Benoît Brisefer : Les Taxis rouges [fr]	Poilonez
2015	The Squad	Serge Buren
	Brothers of the Wind	Danzer
2016	The Last Face	Dr. Mehmet Love
	The Visitors: Bastille Day	Comte Godefroy de Montmirail
	The Promise	Admiral Fournet
2017	Mes trésors	Patrick
	The Girl in the Fog	Augusto Flores
	The Adventurers	Pierre
2019	4 Latas	Jean Pierre	German title: Renault 4
	Cold Blood	Henry
	The Lion King	Mufasa (voice)	French dub
	Polina and the Mystery of a Film Studio	Screen Hologram
2020	Waiting for Anya	Henri
	Da 5 Bloods	Desroche	Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
	Rogue City	Ange Leonetti	Netflix film
	The Doorman	Victor Dubois
2021	Promises	Grandpa
2022	The Penguin & The Fisherman	Joao
2024	Lift	Lars Jorgenson
TBA	Babygirl		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Flight from Justice	Charlie Bert	TV movie
2013	Jo	Joachim "Jo" St-Clair	8 episodes
2021	Who Killed Sara?	Reinaldo Gómez de la Cortina	Netflix TV series
2022	A Private Affair	Héctor Hugo	8 episodes

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Onimusha 3: Demon Siege	Jacques Blanc	Video game, provides voice and likeness

Stage

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

References

External links

• Jean Reno at IMDb
• Jean Reno: Cannes, Codes, and... Bouillabaisse (MPM interview)
• Couples Retreat Video Interview at AMCtv.com