• His parents were born in Sanlucar de Barrameda, Cadiz (Spain) and they left Casablanca to go to France when Jean was 12 years old.
• His mother died when he was an adolescent.
• Lives in Paris with his two children and his girlfriend, a model.
• Daughter born in Paris, France [28 June 1998]
• Turned down the role of Agent Smith in the The Matrix (1999) to do Godzilla (1998)
• Jean Reno has twice played characters whose occupation of "cleaner" did not involve a mop - psychotic Victor the Cleaner (Victor nettoyeur) in Nikita (1990), and the calm assassin L?on in L?on (1994) (also known as The Cleaner).
• He has two children from his first marriage to Genevi?ve: Sandra (b. 1978) and Mickael (b. 1980)
• He met his second wife, model Nathalie, on the Champs Elys?es (Paris biggest avenue)
• He has two children with Nathalie: Tom (b. 1996) and Serena (b. 1998)
• He had a role in every play of stage director Didier Flamand from 1977 to 1981, and then had the lead role in Flamand's first short movie Vis, La (1993).
• Due to his tall, hulking frame, he most played villainous brutes early on in his career. Thanks to his skills as an actor, he has broken away from this stereotype and has played everything from romantic-comedy leads to action heroes.
• Plays Bezu Fache in The Da Vinci Code. Before that film was made, Harvey Keitel played a similar role in National Treasure, which also deals with historical secrets being kept by ancient societies, including the Knights Templar. Keitel also played The Cleaner in Point of No Return, which was a remake of Nikita, in which Reno played the Cleaner.

Jean Reno is a renowned French actor who rapidly gained recognition among American audiences with pivotal roles in blockbusters such as Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible opposite Tom Cruise, Roland Emmerich's Godzilla, Luc Besson's The Professional with Natalie Portman, and John Frankenheimer's Ronin opposite Robert DeNiro.

Reno recently finished filming the French-language film Jetlag, starring opposite Juliette Binoche. He was also recently seen in Wasabi, an action-comedy produced by Reno and Luc Besson from a script by Besson based on a story idea by Reno.

Last year Reno starred in Just Visiting, a remake of Jean-Marie Poire's comedy Les Visiteurs, in which Reno also starred. Les Visiteurs is the highest grossing film in French box office history. Its sequel, Les Visteurs II, also broke many box office records. Reno also appeared in Mathieu Kassovitz's Les Rivieres Pourpres, a.k.a. The Crimson River, based on the best-selling French novel by Jean-Christophe Grange.

Reno is by far one of France's leading actors. He has enjoyed a tremendously successful collaboration with the acclaimed French director Luc Besson. Reno has costarred in many of Besson's films, including Le Dernier Combat, Subway opposite Christopher Lambert and Isabelle Adjani, The Big Blue opposite Rosanna Arquette, the acclaimed thriller La Femme Nikita opposite Anne Parillaud, and The Professional opposite Gary Oldman and Natalie Portman.

Born in Casablanca to Spanish parents, Reno pursued his dream of acting in France after serving his military service in Germany. Settling in Paris, Reno joined stage director Didier Flamand in a traveling theater company that took him around the country. His screen debut was in the French film Clair de Femme directed by Costa Gavras.

Other international film credits include Francis Verber's Le Jaguar, Christian Le Jale's Loulou Graffiti, Jean-Marie Poire's L'Operaton Corned Beef, Eric Duret's L'Homme Au Masque D'Or, Marco Ferreri's I Love You, Bertrand Blier's Notre Histoire and Jaques Monnet's Signes Exterieurs de Richesse. Other American film credits include Paul Weiland's For Roseanna opposite Mercedes Ruehl and Lawrence Kasdan's French Kiss.

Reno splits his time between the South of France and Los Angeles.