Jean Reno

After his military service, he moves to Paris and lives in a tiny maids’ room. He registers to the Cours Simon but will only attend for a few months. In 1975 Jean is allowed to audit the classes of Andreas Voutsinas at the Bouffes du Nord. It is here that he meets Didier Flamand with whom he will work in the company “Le Retour de Gulliver”. It is the beginning of a great friendship and artistic collaboration that is still vibrant today. It is thanks to his participation in this company that Jean will be noticed by theater and movie directors as well as casting directors, allowing him to start to little by little work as an actor.

Jean will continue his theatrical experience and will also appear in Terre étrangère written by Arthur Schnitzler and stage directed by Luc Bondy at the Theatre des Amandiers in Nanterre (1983) with Michel Piccoli, Andromaque of Racine and stage directed by Roger Planchon at Villeurbanne (1987) with Richard Berry, Montserrat written by Emmanuel Robles and stage directed by Jean François Prevand at the TBB in Boulogne-Billancourt (1991), Les Grandes Occasions written by Bernard Slade and stage directed by Bernard Murat at the Theatre Edouard VII in Paris (2006). In 2005, he directed, assisted by Didier Flamand, Manon Lescaut the Puccini’s opera in Turin’s Teatro Regio in Italy.

For the big screen, he participates in 1979 in L’Hypothèse du tableau volé by Raul Ruiz and Costa- Gavras’ Clair de femme allowing him to act with Romy Schneider and Yves Montand. It is in 1981 during the shooting of Raphäel Delpard’s Les Bidasses aux grandes manoeuvres that Jean meets Luc Besson who was the first assistant-director. The duo will work together from now on ; in The Last Battle (1983), Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), Nikita (1990) and Leon : The Professional (1994) which will become a cult film and make Jean an international movie star.

In 1991, he works with Christian Clavier in L’Opération Corned-Beef by Jean-Marie Poiré. The trio Poiré-Clavier-Reno reunites again in 1993 to film Les Visiteurs ; in 1996, it is Les Couloirs du temps : Les Visiteurs 2 and finally in 2001 they collaborate in Just Visiting.

Jean has become one of the most popular French actors in the US ; he participates in several American productions : Lawrence Kasdan’s French Kiss (1995), Brian de Palma’s Mission Impossible (1996) with Emmanuelle Béart and Tom Cruise, Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla (1998), John Frankenheimer’s Ronin (1998) with Robert de Niro and John Mc Tiernan’s Rollerball (2002).

In 2000, he plays a former cop in Mathieu Kassovitz‘s The Crimson Rivers, an adaptation of Jean-Christophe Grangé’s bestselling novel. Another film adapted from a book of this writer will star Jean Reno : Empire of the Wolves directed by Chris Nahon (2005). The roles of cops seem to fit well the actor : he is Bezu Fache in Ron Howard’s Da Vinci Code (2006), from Dan Brown’s bestseller, with Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou. Jean stars next with newcomers Jean Dujardin, Jocelyn Quivrin and Alice Taglioni in Eric Besnard’s Cash (2008), Gaspard Ulliel in Laurent Tuel’s Le Premier Cercle (2009), Kad Merad in Richard Berry’s L’Immortel (2010), Mélanie Laurent in Rose Bosch’s La Rafle (2010) and Michaël Youn in Daniel Cohen’s Comme un chef (2012).

Jean has been nominated twice for the Cesar (the French Oscars), the first time in 1989 for the part of Enzo in Luc Besson’s The Big Blue in the Supporting Actor category ; and the second time in 1995, for the role of Léon in Luc Besson’s Leon in the Leading Actor category. He has also received the highest awards given to French citizens and has been named in 1999 Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. His involvement in charity work in Europe, Canada and the US is varied and spontaneous, responding to the needs of the moment and according to his professional commitments.

PARTIAL FILMOGRAPHY

1979
L’HYPOTHÈSE DU TABLEAU VOLÉ by Raoul Ruiz
CLAIR DE FEMME by Costa-Gavras

1980
VOULEZ-VOUS UN BÉBÉ NOBEL ? by Robert Pouret

1981
LES BIDASSES AUX GRANDES MANOEUVRES by Raphaël Delpard

1982
ON N’EST PAS DES ANGES… ELLES NON PLUS by Michel Lang
LA PASSANTE DU SANS-SOUCI by Jacques Rouffio
SIGNES EXTÉRIEURS DE RICHESSES by Jacques Monet

1983
LE DERNIER COMBAT (The Last Battle) by Luc Besson

1984
NOTRE HISTOIRE by Bertrand Blier

1985
STRICTEMENT PERSONNEL by Pierre Jolivet
LE TÉLÉPHONE SONNE TOUJOURS DEUX FOIS ! by Jean-Pierre Vergne
SUBWAY by Luc Besson

1986
ZONE ROUGE by Robert Enrico
I LOVE YOU by Marco Ferreri

1988
LE GRAND BLEU (The Big Blue) by Luc Besson

1990
NIKITA by Luc Besson
L’HOMME AU MASQUE D’OR by Éric Duret

1991
L’OPÉRATION CORNED-BEEF by Jean-Marie Poiré
LOULOU GRAFFITI by Christian Le Jalé

1993
LES VISITEURS by Jean-Marie Poiré

1994
LÉON (Leon : The Professional) de Luc Besson

1995
LES TRUFFES by Bernard Nauer
FRENCH KISS by Lawrence Kasdan
PAR DELÀ LES NUAGES (Beyond the Clouds) by Wenders & Michelangelo Antonioni

1996
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE by Brian de Palma
LE JAGUAR by Francis Veber

1997
POUR L’AMOUR DE ROSEANNA (Roseanna’s Grave) by Paul Weiland
UN AMOUR DE SORCIÈRE by René Manzor

1998
LES COULOIRS DU TEMPS : LES VISITEURS 2 by Jean-Marie Poiré
GODZILLA by Roland Emmerich
RONIN by John Frankenheimer

2000
LES RIVIÈRES POURPRES (The Crimson Rivers) by Mathieu Kassovitz

2001
LES VISITEURS EN AMÉRIQUE (Just Visiting) by Jean-Marie Poiré
WASABI by Gérard Krawczyk

2002
ROLLERBALL by John McTierman
DÉCALAGE HORAIRE by Danièle Thompson

2003
TAIS-TOI ! by Francis Veber
LES RIVIÈRES POURPRES 2 : LES ANGES DE L’APOCALYPSE by Olivier Dahan

2004
L’ENQUÊTE CORSE by Alain Berberian
HÔTEL RWANDA by Terry George

2005
LE TIGRE ET LA NEIGE (The Tiger and the Snow) by Roberto Benigni
L’EMPIRE DES LOUPS (Empire of the Wolves) by Chris Nahon

2006
LA PANTHÈRE ROSE (The Pink Panther) by Shaw Levy
DA VINCI CODE by Ron Howard
FLYBOYS by Tony Bill

2008
CASH by Éric Besnard

2009
LA PANTHÈRE ROSE 2 (The Pink Panther 2) by Harald Zwart
BLINDÉS (Armored) by Nimrod Antal
LE PREMIER CERCLE by Laurent Tuel
THÉRAPIE DE COUPLES (Couple Retreat) by Peter Billingsley

2010
L’IMMORTEL by Richard Berry
LA RAFLE by Rose Bosch

2011
ZOOKEEPER by Franck Coraci
ON NE CHOISIT PAS SA FAMILLE by Christian Clavier

2012
COMME UN CHEF by Daniel Cohen
MARGARET by Kenneth Lonergan
LES SEIGNEURS by Olivier Dahan
I, ALEX CROSS by Rob Cohen