A French actor of Spanish-Moroccan descent, Jean Reno (pronounced Ruh-No) broke through into the American market with a heralded performance as an illiterate mob executioner who finds his soul saving the life of a teen-age girl (Natalie Portman) being pursued by rogue DEA agents in "The Professional" (1994). The film also marked the English-language debut of screenwriter-director Luc Besson, with whom Reno has frequently collaborated.

The son of Andalusian parents, the actor was born in 1948 in Casablanca, Morocco, which was then under French territorial control, and remained there with his family until 1960 when they relocated to France. Reno began acting after high school, when he attended a French-government sponsored drama school. He made his professional stage debut in 1974 in a Parisian production of "Ecce Homo" and went on to spend the next couple of years honing his craft onstage. Reno made his screen debut in 1978, playing a small role in "L'Hypothese du tableau vole". The following year, he was cast in another small role in Costa-Gavras' "Clair de femme". He first worked for Besson in "Le Dernier combat" (1983), in the decidedly supporting role of a swordsman. A second outing with the director, "Subway" (1985), provided another brief part. But Besson and Reno formed a creative attachment and Besson provided a breakout role, the second male lead, in "The Big Blue" (1988). As Enzo Molinari, a macho champion free diver who fights off competition from an old friend and rival (Jean-Marc Barr), he received critical praise.

But it was their next teaming, "La Femme Nikita" (1990), that brought the bearded actor to American attention. Cast as the partner-in-crime to Annie Parillaud's title character, Reno portrayed a character that established the tone of his screen persona, the ability to be cool, calculating and amoral yet retaining the impression that a human being and not a devil incarnate lives behind those brown eyes. Also in 1990, Reno played a sympathetic role, that of a priest who moonlights as a wrestler in order to raise money for his church's projects in "L'Homme au masque d'or". He had a much applauded turn as Godefroy de Montmirail, a valiant nobleman from the Musketeer-days transported to the 20th Century where he understands little in "Les Visiteurs/The Visitors" (released in the US in 1996). The film set box office records in France and spawned a 1997 sequel.

Working with Besson again, Reno made his English-language debut with "The Professional.” He subsequently was a con-man thorn to Kevin Kline in Lawrence Kasdan's "French Kiss" (1995) and played Krieger, one of the operatives chosen by Tom Cruise for "Mission: Impossible" (1996). The actor became a known quantity with both Hollywood industry pros and appreciative audiences, who took to the actor when he appeared in features such as "Godzilla" (1998), "Ronin" (1998) and "Rollerball" (2002). He had a brief but potent uncredited turn in director Terry George's "Hotel Rwanda" (2004) as a sympathetic Belgian hotel corporation executive doing all he can to save the lives of his brave Rwandan manager (Don Cheadle) and the refugees he's sheltering during a bloody tribal conflict. After appearing in foreign-made features like “La Tigre e La Neve” (2005) and “L’empire des Loups” (2005), Reno played Ponton, a detective assigned to keep an eye on the ever-bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau in “The Pink Panther” (2006), the much-derided—but sadly profitable—remake of Peter Seller’s classic series of comic films. Reno was then set to be seen in one of the most controversial and anticipated movies to have come along in decades, “The Da Vinci Code” (2006), directed by Ron Howard from Dan Brown’s mega-blockbuster about a secret religious society that has spent the past 2000 years guarding a secret that could destroy the foundations of society if it were revealed.

Trivia

- Turned down the role of Agent Smith in the The Matrix (1999) to do Godzilla (1998)

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