Director
Hugh Hudson and
Warner Brothers chose Lambert, wanting an unknown actor to play
Tarzan, a human raised by apes in the jungle. Lambert got the role beating out
Viggo Mortensen and
Stellan Skarsgard partly thanks to his
myopia, because when he took off his glasses it seemed he was always looking into the distance. Released in 1984,
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, was nominated for many awards. In 1986, Lambert appeared in
Highlander the role for which he would be best known. In the film, Lambert starred as
Connor MacLeod, an immortal warrior who could be killed only by decapitation. 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. He was offered the role of
Martin Riggs in
Lethal Weapon, but he turned the role down. He was John Glen's first choice for the role of
James Bond in
The Living Daylights, but he was ultimately turned down due to his accent. He was also considered for the lead role of Edward Lewis in
Pretty Woman back when the film was known as "3000." In 1991,
Highlander II: The Quickening premiered, reuniting Lambert with director
Russell Mulcahy and fellow actor
Sean Connery. Shot in
Argentina (which was going through a financial crisis) to reduce production costs, 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 reconsidered. In 1993,
Carl Schenkel's suspense thriller
Knight Moves premiered, in which Lambert was both an executive producer and the lead. 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. 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, 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, The same year, he also co-lead with
Ice-T in the action film
Mean Guns, The film stars
Isabelle Huppert as a struggling French coffee producer in an unnamed French speaking African country, who decides to stay at her coffee plantation in spite of an erupting civil war. That year, he also acted in
Cartagena, with Sophie Marceau starring as a beautiful, free-spirited woman who becomes bedridden following a terrible accident. Against her better judgement, she hires a drunk middle-aged former boxer (Lambert) to cook and care for her. Although unqualified for the position, he is desperate for work, and slowly he wins the trust of the woman, who teaches him how to read. The film also won several awards in France. in October 2012 In 2011, Lambert starred as the villainous head monk Methodius in the
Ghost Rider sequel
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, starring
Nicolas Cage, in 2011. He underwent sword training for three months and shaved his head. The film made $132.6 million worldwide. Shortly afterwards, he got the role of Marcel Janvier (alias "The Chameleon"), a recurring villain in award-winning hit police crime TV drama
NCIS: Los Angeles. His character was in six episodes from 2012 to 2013 – the two highest-rated seasons of the show. In 2014, he played in the biographical crime drama film
Electric Slide, about the Los Angeles-based bank robber
Eddie Dodson. In 2015, he co-starred in Claude Lelouch's
Un plus une, a French
romantic comedy film. He also co-starred in the biographical film
10 Days in a Madhouse, about the experiences of undercover journalist
Nellie Bly. In 2016 he co-starred in
Hail, Caesar!, a comedy film written, produced, edited, and directed by
Joel and Ethan Coen. It is a fictional story that follows the real-life "
fixer"
Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) working in the
Hollywood film industry in the 1950s, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanished during the filming of a biblical epic. That year, he cameoed as a French Army Captain in
La folle histoire de Max et Léon, a French
World War II comedy film. He also had a recurring role in the Russian-Portuguese biographical television show
Mata Hari. That year, he also played the lead villain in the martial arts film
Kickboxer: Retaliation. Lambert plays the role of SS officer
Karl Frenzel in the Russian film
Sobibor by director
Konstantin Khabensky, which was released in 2018. The film is a World War II drama about the only successful uprising in a Nazi death camp. It was selected as the Russian entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film at the
91st Academy Awards. Lambert received high praise for "an outstanding and nuanced performance; he is unrecognisable as Frenzel, a demonic, fractured character". Lambert was part of the ensemble cast of
Bel Canto from director
Paul Weitz, an adaptation of the 2002 novel of the
same name, by
Ann Patchett. Lambert played the role of a French ambassador who was part of the
Japanese embassy hostage crisis (also called the Lima Crisis) of 1996–1997 in Lima, Peru. Lambert received praise, along with the rest of the cast, for "performances [that] are uniformly excellent". == Other ventures ==