Actor Michael Londsdale, who famously starred opposite Roger Moore in the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker has died at the age of 89.
In the classic flick, Londsdale he played Bond villain Hugo Drax, an industrialist planning to poison all humans on Earth then repopulate the planet from his space station, with the iconic role being one just one of more than 200 in his career that spanned six decades.
Among his other film credits include The Day of the Jackal, Ronin and Munich.
Longtime 007 producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli paid tribute to Londsdale in tweet, saying: “We are very sad to learn of the passing of Michael Lonsdale, who played Hugo Drax in Moonraker. He was an extraordinarily talented actor and a very dear friend. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time.”
The family-run twitter account for Sir Roger Moore, who died in 2017, described Lonsdale as “a smooth-tongued and cultured adversary to 007.”
“Michael Lonsdale, a legend who will be missed but not forgotten!” actor Jean-Claude Van Damne added on Twitter. “My thoughts are with his family, friends and fans at this sad time.”
In a 2012 interview, Lonsdale was asked whether he was worried that taking on the role of a Bond villain would have a negative impact on his career.
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“On the contrary!” he replied. “Because, I made so many films that were not really very popular or didn’t make much money, and I only made poor films, so I thought I might like to be in a rich film.”
Londsdale continued, “My teacher, when I was at school for the theatre, told me that ‘One day you will have to play someone very nasty.'”
“But really, he is such a terrible character, a sort of Nazi. I mean, Drax is like Hitler. He wanted to destroy everybody and rain down a new order of very athletic, young people… He was mad completely,” he said of the Bond villain.
