Lambert Wilson

Lambert Wilson
Lambert Wilson in 2016
Born	(1958-08-03) 3 August 1958 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1977–present

Lambert Wilson (born 3 August 1958) is a French actor. He is internationally known for his portrayal of The Merovingian in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Wilson is the son of Georges Wilson, who was an actor, theatrical manager and director of the Théâtre National Populaire.

Life and career

Wilson screen tested for The Living Daylights (1987) for the role of James Bond, appearing in test footage opposite Maryam d'Abo (the Bond girl in The Living Daylights) as Tatiana Romanova, re-enacting scenes from From Russia with Love (1963). Wilson was featured in a series of Calvin Klein ads featuring Christy Turlington for Eternity in 1991, as well as a poster ad, years later in 1998.

Wilson released Musicals on the EMI label in 1989 (re-issued in 2004), with John McGlinn conducting Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo. It features him singing songs of the American Musical Theatre catalogue, those well-known ("Maria" from West Side Story, "There But For You Go I" from Lerner & Loewe's Brigadoon, "The Cafe Song" from Les Misérables, "Johanna" from Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd), rare ("Love Song" from Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner's Love Life, "It Must Be So" from Leonard Bernstein's Candide, and "Silly People", which was cut from Sondheim's A Little Night Music), and those in-between ("Finishing the Hat" from Sunday in the Park with George, "You Do Something to Me" from Cole Porter's Fifty Million Frenchmen, "Never Will I Marry" from Frank Loesser's Greenwillow).

He has directed stage presentations of Alfred de Musset's Les Caprices de Marianne starring Laure Marsac at Paris' Bouffes du Nord as well as Jean Racine's Bérénice starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Didier Sandre at Avignon and then Chaillot.

In November 2012, he was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2012 International Film Festival of Marrakech. In April 2013, Wilson was invited by MINUSTAH (the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) to visit Haiti in the capacity of helping with various UN-backed environment and cultural programmes. He was the master of ceremonies for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

In February 2016, he released a tribute album called Wilson chante Montand to the singer Yves Montand to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of the artist. Among the 17 tracks on the album there is Mais qu’est-ce que j’ai ? which was composed by Henri Betti with the lyrics by Édith Piaf in 1947. The musical arrangements of the 17 songs were made by Bruno Fontaine.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1977	Julia	Walter Franz	Fred Zinnemann
1978	Gaston Phébus	Yvain	Bernard Borderie	TV Mini-Series
1979	The Gendarme and the Extra-Terrestrials	An alien	Jean Girault
	New Generation	Jean-Charles	Jean-Pierre Lowf Legoff
	Lady Oscar	Cocky soldier	Jacques Demy
	From Hell to Victory		Umberto Lenzi
1980	Cinéma 16	Gilbert	Eric Le Hung
	Au feu le préfet	Patrick Callaghan	Alain Boudet	TV Movie
	L'inconnue d'Arras	The grandfather	Raymond Rouleau	TV Movie
1981	Quatre femmes, quatre vies: La maison bleue	Jean-Paul Taillandier	Robert Mazoyer	TV Movie
	La dernière nuit	The assistant executioner	Didier Decoin	TV Movie
	Chanel Solitaire		George Kaczender
	Histoire contemporaine	Henri de Brèce	Michel Boisrond	TV Mini-Series
	La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu	Paris	Raymond Rouleau	TV Movie
1982	Five Days One Summer	Johann Biari	Fred Zinnemann
	La Boum 2	Félix Maréchal	Claude Pinoteau
1983	Sahara	Jaffar	Andrew V. McLaglen
	La caravane	Éric	Roger Gillioz	TV Movie
1984	The Blood of Others	Paul	Claude Chabrol
	The Public Woman	Milan Mliska	Andrzej Żuławski	Nominated - César Award for Best Supporting Actor
1985	Rendez-vous	Quentin	André Téchiné	Nominated - César Award for Best Actor
	L'Homme aux yeux d'argent	Villain	Pierre Granier-Deferre
	Red Kiss	Stéphane	Véra Belmont
	Abandons		Pierre-Jean de San Bartolomé	Short
1986	Bleu comme l'enfer	Ned	Yves Boisset
	Corps et biens	Michel Sauvage	Benoît Jacquot
	La Storia	Carlo Vivaldi / Davide Segre	Luigi Comencini	TV Movie
	La forêt noire		Béatrice Jalbert	Short
1987	The Belly of an Architect	Caspasian Speckler	Peter Greenaway
1988	The Possessed	Nikolaj Stavrogin	Andrzej Wajda
	Chouans!	Tarquin	Philippe de Broca
	El Dorado	Pedro de Ursúa	Carlos Saura
	Margot et le voleur d'enfants		Michèle Reiser	Short
1989	La vouivre	Arsène Muselier	Georges Wilson
	Suivez cet avion	Rémi Cerneaux	Patrice Ambard
	Hiver 54, l'abbé Pierre	Abbé Pierre	Denis Amar	Nominated - César Award for Best Actor
1991	Un homme et deux femmes	Dr. Paul Baudoin	Valérie Stroh
	Shuttlecock	John Prentis	Andrew Piddington
1992	Strangers	The Guy	Joan Tewkesbury	TV Movie
	Warsaw - Year 5703	Alek	Janusz Kijowski
	Frankenstein	Clerval	David Wickes	TV Movie
1993	L'instinct de l'ange	Henry	Richard Dembo
1994	Une qui promet	Ferdinand	Marianne Lamour	TV Movie
	Les caprices de Marianne	Octave	Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe	TV Movie
	Rage and Outrage: The Dreyfus Affair		Raoul Sangla	TV Movie
1995	Jefferson in Paris	Marquis de Lafayette	James Ivory
	Pour une vie ou deux	Noël Gregorio	Marc Angelo	TV Movie
1996	Les caprices d'un fleuve	Monsieur de la Malène	Bernard Giraudeau
	Le secret d'Iris	Pierrot	Élisabeth Rappeneau	TV Movie
	The Leading Man	Felix Webb	John Duigan
1997	Marquise	Racine	Véra Belmont
	Same Old Song	Marc Duveyrier	Alain Resnais	Nominated - César Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Quand le chat sourit		Sabine Azéma	TV Movie
1998	Too Much (Little) Love	Paul	Jacques Doillon
1999	The Last September	Hugo Montmorency	Deborah Warner
2000	Don Quixote	Duke	Peter Yates	TV Movie
	Jet Set	Arthus de Poulignac	Fabien Onteniente	Nominated - César Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Combat d'amour en songe	Sebatol	Raúl Ruiz
	Les globulyss	Voice		TV Series
2001	HS - hors service	Francis	Jean-Paul Lilienfeld
	Far from China	Jean-Pierre	C.S. Leigh
	Le divin enfant	Father Marc Aubray	Stéphane Clavier	TV Movie
2002	Les tombales	Joseph	Christophe Barratier	Short
2003	It's Easier for a Camel...	Aurelio	Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
	The Matrix Reloaded	Merovingian	The Wachowskis
	Enter the Matrix	Merovingian's voice	The Wachowskis	Video Game
	Dédales	Brennac	René Manzor
	The Matrix Revolutions	Merovingian	The Wachowskis (3)
	Timeline	Lord Arnaut	Richard Donner
	Not on the Lips	Eric Thomson	Alain Resnais
2004	Colette, une femme libre	Henry de Jouvenel	Nadine Trintignant	TV Mini-Series
	People	Brother Arthus	Fabien Onteniente
	Catwoman	George Hedare	Pitof
2005	The Matrix Online	Merovingian's voice	The Wachowskis (4) Nathan Hendrickson	Video Game
	Sahara	Yves Massarde	Breck Eisner
	Mort à l'écran	Daniel Brullmann	Alexis Ferrebeuf	Short
	Gentille	Philippe	Sophie Fillières
	L'anniversaire	Raphaël	Diane Kurys
	Palais royal!	Prince Arnaud	Valérie Lemercier
2006	Private Fears in Public Places	Dan	Alain Resnais (3)	Nominated - Lumières Award for Best Actor
2007	Flawless	Finch	Michael Radford
	Tous à l'Ouest: Une aventure de Lucky Luke	Lucky Luke's voice	Olivier Jean-Marie
2008	Dante 01	Saint-Georges	Marc Caro
	The Great Alibi	Pierre Collier	Pascal Bonitzer
	Comme les autres	Emmanuel François Xavier Bernier	Vincent Garenq
	Babylon A.D.	Dr. Arthur Darquandier	Mathieu Kassovitz
	The Lazarus Project	Avery	John Glenn
2009	The Philanthropist	Yves Moehringer	Duane Clark	TV Series (1 Episode)
	Victor	Jérôme Courcelle	Thomas Gilou
2010	Imogène McCarthery	Samuel Tyler	Alexandre Charlot Franck Magnier
	The Princess of Montpensier	François de Chabannes	Bertrand Tavernier
	Of Gods and Men	Christian	Xavier Beauvois	Nominated - César Award for Best Actor
2012	À l'aveugle	Narvik	Xavier Palud
	Sur la piste du Marsupilami	General Pochero	Alain Chabat
	You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet	Lambert Wilson	Alain Resnais (4)
	Ernest & Celestine	Ernest	Stéphane Aubier Vincent Patar Benjamin Renner	Voice role
	The Hollow Crown	Charles, King of France	Thea Sharrock	TV Mini-Series (1 Episode)
2013	Cycling with Moliere	Gauthier Valence	Philippe Le Guay
	Manipulations	Franck Barrot	Laurent Herbiet	TV Movie Nominated - Monte-Carlo Television Festival - Best Performance by an Actor
	ReWined	The Professor	Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani
2014	Barbecue	Antoine Chevalier	Éric Lavaine
	5 to 7	Valery	Victor Levin
	The Nostalgist	The Man	Giacomo Cimini	Short
	Posthumous	Daniel S. Volpe	Lulu Wang
2015	Suite Française	Viscount de Montmort	Saul Dibb
	Sins of a Father		Andrew Piddington
	Rabid Dogs	The Father	Éric Hannezo
2016	The Odyssey	Jacques-Yves Cousteau	Jérôme Salle	Nominated - Globes de Cristal Award for Best Actor
	La Vache	Philippe	Mohamed Hamidi
	The Jungle Book	Baloo	Jon Favreau	French voice
	Tout de suite maintenant	Barsac	Pascal Bonitzer
	The Confessions	Roché's lover	Roberto Andò
2017	Telle mère, telle fille	Marc	Noémie Saglio
	Corporate		Nicolas Silhol
2018	Hamlet Revenant		Ken McMullen

External links

• Lambert Wilson at IMDb