| Jean Reno (born July 30, 1948, Casablanca) is a popular French actor of Spanish origin. His real name is Juan Moreno y Herrera Jimenez (Spanish: Juan Moreno y Jederique Jiménez). He has been acting in films since 1979.
The films by Luc Besson and the comedy series about “Space Aliens” brought him huge popularity.
Biography
Jean Reno was born in legendary Casablanca into a Spanish refugee family. For a long time, Reno remained a little-known actor and it is not known how his destiny would be had he not met Luc Besson. Playing small roles, divorced and rearing his two children single-handedly, Reno suddenly became popular. Jean Reno tried to disassociate from his glory but with time, he got used to live with it.
For the first time, Jean Reno earnestly made himself known as the best killer of the silver screen early in “Nikita” (1990) where professional murderer Victor died so that a lump rose in a throat and spectators cried bitterly.
Present name: Juan Moreno
The French actor of Spanish origin Jean Reno was born with the name “Juan Moreno” in Casablanca on July 30, 1948. In 1960, Moreno’s family returned to Europe (from where they ran to Morocco to escape the oppressive rule of General Franco) and settled-down in France. Reno had to serve in the French Army in order to obtain citizenship. Later, fascinated by theater, Reno took acting classes to learn acting skills, but despite an active theater life, the film career of Reno did not take off. The career of Reno was like that till he met Luc Besson, who since 1983 casts Jean Reno almost in each of his films.
In 1984’s "Subway", where Reno played The Drummer, brought glory to Luc Besson and Christopher Lambert. After ten years, Besson made “Leon”, which made Jean Reno a star of world cinema. The killer Leon appeared to be living rather charming in his illiteracy and loneliness. The weakness during his immense killing power made Leon a unique friend of a little girl Mathilda (Natalie Portman), orphaned by the endeavors of narcotic-policeman (Gary Oldman) and Jean Reno - winner of the French film academy for the best male role.
The heroes of Reno, especially in Besson’s films, like to die beautifully. Diver Enzo Molinari (“The Big Blue”, 1988) in pursuit of a lost free-diving world championship title without aqualung dived to his death in the blue French Riviera. Enzo, an almost single merry fellow and jester of the "abyss", becomes its protagonist with the death of whom the film loses its action and the spectator - interest.
The most serious of his latest works in the cinema is Vincent's role in “Ronin”. This hero fully fits the film image, which Reno diligently created in all his films: silent professional on the death thread. The covetousness of external means of expression creates a special emotional tension, inevitably drawing the spectator’s attention towards Reno.
Romantic unshaven, laconic in expression of feelings, quiet self-confidence, solidity and manhood, courage, hiding mental weakness and loneliness - this image, created by Reno, replaced heroes such as Delon, Depardieu, Belmondo and Gabin.
Leon, the killer Victor, the detective, searching for a diamond necklace in “French kiss” (with Kevin Kline and Meg Ryan), French counter-intelligence agent Philippe Roache, rescuing the world from raged monsters in Roland Emmerich’s “Godzilla”, the former French intelligence agent Vincent, becoming part of an international super agents team in “Ronin” (with Robert De Niro, Natascha McElhone, Jonathan Pryce and Sean Bean), even diver Enzo Molinari from “The Big Blue” - the hero Reno was always a high-class professional. Exactly, professionalism fills his screen life with adventures and allows to survive or to die with dignity in a world full of dangers. Reno is not shown as an average citizen in his films. But in real life, the richest Frenchman in Hollywood has married for the second time a woman with three children and lives in the East of France in a small silent town and is happy there, protected from constant talk about the cinema.
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French actor Jean Reno is celebrating his 60th birthday today. Reno is of Hispanic origin, and his path to big screen fame was rocky. He kept getting small roles in unknown films for years, lost hope to "act big", and his wife left him with two kids considering him a loser. When things were as bad as they could get in Reno's acting and personal life, famous French director Luc Besson saw a natural talent in this depressed actor, and offered him the role of professional assassin in "Leon". This role made Jean Reno internationally famous, and he's brought us many wonderful performances ever since. Happy 60th birthday, Jean!
