Jean Reno
Jean Reno is a French and Spanish actor born on 30 July 1948 in Casablanca, who has worked across multiple languages throughout his career.
Reno was educated at Lycée Lyautey and Lycée Carnot before going on to train at Cours Simon. He holds both French and Spanish citizenship. His emergence as a leading man of French cinema came through his collaborations with director Luc Besson. Over the course of his career, he has performed in French, English, Spanish, German, and Italian.
The French state has recognized Reno's contributions through a succession of honors. He received the Knight, then Officer, and subsequently Commander of the Legion of Honour. He has also been named an Officer of the National Order of Merit and an Officer of Arts and Letters. At the European level, the European Film Academy presented him its Achievement in World Cinema Award. He has additionally received the François Truffaut Award.
Reno's professional identity, as catalogued in the Library of Congress Name Authority File under the entry "Reno, Jean, 1948-," places him within the tradition of French cinema. The recurring thread across his career remains his sustained presence within French-language film, rooted in the collaborations with Luc Besson that first brought him to prominence as a leading man.
Quotes by Jean Reno
I don’t get the romances. I did try – a film called ‘Roseanna’s Grave’ in the 1990s. I liked it. But the audience didn’t come.
In France, if you have any sort of talent, you’d better keep it here. And if you’re going to go abroad, it had better not be America. The old battle – American versus Frog cinema. It’s ridiculous.
I’ll tell you something that’s completely true – you can, as a man, obtain everything you want with the truth. If you lie, first of all you’ve got to be a very good lying actor, which is tres difficile. And it’s going to give you poison inside the body.
It is an actor’s defect. I want everybody to like me, so I’ll say what I think will please them.
I’m a minimalist. I don’t really need much to enjoy a good holiday – just my family and the bare essentials.
Actually, I only have a few friends in real life. And when I say friends, I’m referring to those people who I’ve known since the 1960s.
