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Celebrated actor, iconic James Bond villain Michael Lonsdale dead at 89

PARIS — Famed Anglo-French actor Michael Lonsdale, who played the iconic Hugo Drax opposite Roger Moore’s James Bond in 1979′s “Moonraker,” died Monday at the age of 89.

Lonsdale’s extensive career spanned six decades and encompassed more than 200 film and stage roles, including film credits for “The Day of the Jackal,” “Ronin” and “Munich,” BBC News reported.

The child of a French mother and a British father, Lonsdale “was a man consumed by his art,” whose final performance was in the short 2019 film for the Opera of Paris, “Degas et Moi” (“Degas and Me”), The Washington Post reported.

Lonsdale’s agent of 20 years, Olivier Loiseau confirmed the actor’s “peaceful” death of “old age” to The Associated Press.

According to BBC News, Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli called Lonsdale an “extraordinarily talented actor and a very dear friend.”

Meanwhile, the official Twitter account for the late Sir Roger Moore described his character as “a smooth-tongued and cultured adversary to 007.”

A host of colleagues and fans paid tribute to Lonsdale via social media.

Read more here and here.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.