Christopher Lambert

Christophe Guy Denis "Christopher" Lambert (born March 29, 1957) is a French actor.

Christophe Guy Denis Lambert was born in Great Neck, New York, on March 29, 1957, the son of Yolande Agnès Henriette (née de Caritat de Peruzzis), and Georges Lambert-Lamond.

a French diplomat at the United Nations.

His father was Jewish.

Due to his father's work, Lambert moved with his parents to Switzerland at the age of two, and was raised in Geneva and went to institute Florimont until his teenage years, when the family moved to France and settled in Paris.

Lambert's debut in acting was in a school play age 12.

Director Hugh Hudson and Warner Brothers sought out Lambert, wanting an unknown actor to play Tarzan, a human raised by apes in the jungle.

Lambert got the role partly due to his myopia, because when he took off his glasses it seemed he was always looking into the distance.

He started his career playing supporting parts in several French films, and became internationally famous for portraying Tarzan in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984).

Released in 1984, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, was nominated for many awards.

Also that year, Lambert starred opposite Catherine Deneuve in Love Songs.

For his performance in the film Subway (1985), he received the César Award for Best Actor.

He played the lead in Luc Besson's stylistic film Subway (1985), about a man being hunted in the underground subways of Paris.

His most famous role is Connor MacLeod in the adventure-fantasy film Highlander (1986) and the subsequent franchise of the same name.

In 1986, Russell Mulcahy's Highlander premiered.

In the film, Lambert starred as Connor MacLeod, an immortal warrior who could only be killed by decapitation.

The film became a cult hit and was an international box-office success, rock group Queen composed and performed the soundtrack, and Lambert also appeared as MacLeod in the music video for Queen's "Princes of the Universe".

In 1987, Lambert played the leading role of Salvatore Giuliano in The Sicilian, directed by Michael Cimino.

In 1988, he starred in Agnieszka Holland's To Kill a Priest, in which he played a character based on Jerzy Popiełuszko and his murder under the Polish communist regime.

In 1991, Highlander II: The Quickening premiered, reuniting Lambert with director Russell Mulcahy and fellow actor Sean Connery.

Shot in Argentina to reduce production costs; which was going through a financial crisis, much of the script was not filmed and the final result was a patchwork.

It was said, Lambert threatened to walk out of the project when it was nearing fruition, However, due to contractual obligations, he did reconsider.

In 1992, he appeared in three projects.

He appeared in the first episode of the television show Highlander: The Series, passing on the lead role to actor Adrian Paul.

He also appeared in the French crime thriller Max et Jérémie, co-starring Philippe Noiret and Jean-Pierre Marielle.

In 1993, Carl Schenkel's suspense thriller Knight Moves premiered, in which Lambert was both an executive producer and the lead.

Lambert plays a chess grandmaster suspected of murder.

Later that year, Stuart Gordon's science fiction film Fortress premiered, with Lambert playing the lead.

The story takes place in a dystopian future where a man and his wife are sent to a maximum-security prison because they are expecting a second child, which is against the strict one-child policy.

1994 saw the release of two collaborations with actor Mario Van Peebles.

They played the side by side leads in the action film Gunmen, and Van Peebles was the main villain in Highlander III: The Sorcerer.

In this third installment of the franchise, Connor MacLeod is forced to face a new, dangerous enemy, a powerful sorcerer known as Kane who wants to gain world domination.

Lambert also starred in the action film Roadflower.

In France, he produced his second Patrick Braoudé film called Neuf mois, which was nominated for two Césars.

In 1995, he played the role of the thunder god Raiden in the Paul W. S. Anderson's movie adaptation of the popular video game series Mortal Kombat.

The plot of the film follows the warrior monk Liu Kang, the actor Johnny Cage, and the soldier Sonya Blade, all three guided by the god Raiden, on their journey to combat the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung and his forces in a tournament to save Earth.

In 1996, Lambert was an executive producer and the lead in Nils Gaup's western film North Star, co-starring James Caan.

Lambert later reprised the role in the MK Movie Skin Pack in the 2020 game Mortal Kombat 11.

Also that year, he also starred in the American-Japanese martial arts action film The Hunted, directed by J. F. Lawton, with a cast that included John Lone, Joan Chen, Yoshio Harada, and Yoko Shimada, and produced Xavier Beauvois's Don't Forget You're Going to Die, which won the Special Jury Award at the Gijón International Film Festival, won the Prix Jean Vigo, won the Jury Prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Lambert was also an executive producer on Chris Columbus' Nine Months, an English-language remake of Neuf mois.