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Lambert Wilson
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==Biography== ===Early life=== Wilson is the son of [[Georges Wilson]], who was an actor, theatrical manager and director of the [[Théâtre National Populaire]].<ref>[http://www.filmreference.com/film/12/Lambert-Wilson.html Lambert Wilson profile], filmreference.com. Retrieved 22 June 2015.</ref> As a teenager, he had little interest in the French theatre and aimed to become an "American actor" and appear in Hollywood pictures. He studied acting at the [[Drama Centre London]] to learn English. He played his first movie role in the 1977 American film ''[[Julia (1977 film)|Julia]]'', directed by [[Fred Zinnemann]]. Five years later, he played his first starring role in another film by Zinneman, ''[[Five Days One Summer]]'', opposite [[Sean Connery]]. But the film was not a commercial success, and neither was ''[[Sahara (1983 film)|Sahara]]'' in which Wilson co-starred with [[Brooke Shields]].<ref name="NYTimes">[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/movies/20wilson.html?_r=0 Worldly Actor Finds Method in a Monastery], ''The New York Times'', 18 February 2011</ref> Wilson ultimately found success in his home country: during the 1980s, he became popular with French audiences by appearing in successful films such as ''[[La Boum 2]]'', ''[[The Public Woman]]'' and ''[[Rendez-vous (1985 film)|Rendez-vous]]''. At the time, he was often cast either as tormented characters or in romantic parts, although he found himself more convincing in the former kind of roles.<ref name="télérama2010">[http://www.telerama.fr/cinema/lambert-wilson-c-est-douloureux-d-accepter-ses-limites,62069.php Lambert Wilson : “C’est douloureux d’accepter ses limites”], ''Télérama'', 5 November 2010 (in French).</ref> 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 (film)|From Russia with Love]]'' (1963). In 1991, Wilson was featured in a series of [[Calvin Klein]] ads for its Eternity perfume brand, featuring [[Christy Turlington]], reuniting for a poster ad in 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vogue.de/beauty/beauty-tipps/christy-turlington-supermodel-privat|title=Supermodel privat: 5 Highlights aus den 90ern von Christy Turlington|access-date=26 October 2017|date=6 March 2017}}</ref> ===Career=== [[File:Lambert Wilson Valérie Lemercier Cannes.jpg|thumb|left|[[Valérie Lemercier]] and Lambert Wilson at the [[2005 Cannes Film Festival]]]] In musical theatre Wilson has appeared as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm in the 1995 [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre London]] production of ''[[A Little Night Music]]'', where "every word and note was fiercely projected",<ref>[[Rodney Milnes|Milnes, Rodney]]. At the musical - A Little Night Music - Royal National Theatre (Olivier). ''[[Opera (British magazine)|Opera]]'', November 1995, Vol 46 No 11, p1369.</ref> and of which a recording was later issued. In 2007 he was Voltaire/Pangloss (bilingually) in [[Robert Carsen]]'s production of ''[[Candide (operetta)|Candide]]'' at the [[Théâtre du Châtelet]] in Paris.<ref>Canning, Hugh. Report from Paris. ''Opera'', April 2007, Vol.58 No.4, p431-2.</ref> He appeared as Eric Thomson in [[Alain Resnais|Resnais]]'s [[Pas sur la bouche (2003 film)|2003 film version]] of the 1925 comédie musicale ''Pas sur la bouche'' by [[Maurice Yvain|Yvain]]. 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 (1956 song)|Maria]]" from ''[[West Side Story]]'', "There But For You Go I" from Lerner & Loewe's ''[[Brigadoon (musical)|Brigadoon]]'', "[[The ABC Café|The Cafe Song]]" from ''[[Les Misérables (musical)|Les Misérables]]'', "Johanna" from [[Stephen Sondheim]]'s ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (musical)|Sweeney Todd]]''), rare ("Love Song" from [[Kurt Weill]] and [[Alan Jay Lerner]]'s ''[[Love Life (musical)|Love Life]]'', "It Must Be So" from [[Leonard Bernstein]]'s ''[[Candide (musical)|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]]'').{{cn|date=June 2015}} 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]].{{cn|date=June 2015}} [[File:Lambert Wilson Cannes 2016 2.jpg|thumb|Wilson at the [[2016 Cannes Film Festival]]]] In 1989, his performance as [[Abbé Pierre]] in the film ''[[Hiver 54, l'abbé Pierre]]'', for which he received the [[Prix Jean Gabin|Jean Gabin prize]], won him critical accolades. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, his screen career suffered from a series of box office failures, such as ''[[The Possessed (1988 film)|The Possessed]]'' and ''[[El Dorado (1988 film)|El Dorado]]''. He later said that the French producers had come, at the time, to regard him as "box office poison". He eventually won back the favour of French audiences by appearing in the successful comedies ''[[Same Old Song]]'' (1997) and ''[[Jet Set (film)|Jet Set]]'' (2000).<ref name="Entretiens102106">Lambert Wilson and Hervé Pons, ''Entretiens'', Éditions du Rocher, 2009, pp. 102–106.</ref> Wilson was cast in the role of [[List of Matrix series characters#Merovingian|The Merovingian]] in ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' (2002) and ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]'' (2003), perhaps his best-known role in the American cinema. Being completely fluent in English, his strong French accent in the film is fabricated for the role.<ref name="NYTimes" /> The role also popularised the [[Necktie#Knots|Ediety tie knot]], now commonly referred to as "The Merovingian".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mensjournal.com/expert-advice/how-to-tie-a-tie-10-ways-20131031/the-merovingian|title=How to Tie a Tie – The Merovingian|author=Todd Plummer|access-date=26 October 2017|date=21 October 2013}}</ref> ===Recent years=== [[File:Lambert Wilson flaneries musicales 18297.jpg|thumb|Wilson in 2017]] 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 [[United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti|MINUSTAH]] (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) to visit Haiti in the capacity of helping with various UN-backed environment and cultural programmes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://minustah.tumblr.com/|title=Le blog de Lambert Wilson (MINUSTAH)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130503025934/http://minustah.tumblr.com/|archive-date=3 May 2013}}</ref> He was the master of ceremonies for the opening and closing ceremonies of the [[2014 Cannes Film Festival|2014]] 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 ''[[What Can I Do? (Édith Piaf song)|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. Also in 2016, he portrayed [[Jacques Cousteau]] in the biopic ''[[The Odyssey (2016 film)|The Odyssey]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/world-premiere-wild-bunch-the-odyssey-san-sebastian-1201836337/|title=World Premiere of Wild Bunch-Sold 'The Odyssey' Closes San Sebastian|website=Variety|date=12 August 2016 |access-date=21 October 2016}}</ref> Wilson's commitment to safeguarding the environment is manifest in his support of Greenpeace and Agir pour l'Environnement amongst others. He works on behalf of the Fondation Abbé-Pierre and the [[Emmaus (charity)|Mouvement Emmaü]]s in France to eradicate hunger and poverty. Wilson is an ambassador for Les Toiles Enchantées (an association that brings contemporary cinema to hospitals and hospices for children), and ''parrain'' (patron) for a proposed new cinema at the [[Institut Français]] in London. Wilson is Chevalier and Officier des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier and Officier de l'Ordre National du Mérite. He was raised to Commandeur de l’Ordre du Mérite by President [[Emmanuel Macron]] in 2017. In January 2018 he engaged to assist the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)<ref>[http://www.fao.org/home/en/ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)].</ref> in communications regarding work to eradicate world hunger and poverty ("Working for Zero Hunger"). The same year he starred in ''[[Volontaire]]'' by [[Hélène Fillières]]. In 2021, Wilson reprised his role of The Merovingian from ''The Matrix'' franchise in ''[[The Matrix Resurrections]]''.<ref name="konbini-announcement">{{cite web|url=https://www.konbini.com/fr/cinema/officiel-merovingien-retour-matrix-4/|title=C'est officiel : le Mérovingien sera de retour dans Matrix 4|work=Konbini|date=27 February 2020 |access-date=February 27, 2020}}</ref>
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