Jean Reno

Born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez on 30 July 1948, he built his early reputation through collaborations with Luc Besson, starting with Le Dernier Combat in 1983. The Big Blue earned him a César nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1988, and he followed with La Femme Nikita in 1990. Les Visiteurs and Léon: The Professional both brought Best Actor nominations in the mid-'90s, cementing him as a leading man in French cinema. He moved fluidly into international work - Mission: Impossible, Ronin, Godzilla - and kept alternating between French productions like Crimson Rivers and Wasabi and Hollywood projects including The Da Vinci Code and The Pink Panther. By the time he appeared in Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods in 2020, he'd spent nearly four decades as one of the few actors who could carry weight in both arenas without reshaping himself for either.