Gérard Depardieu

Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu born 27 December 1948, CQ is a French actor. He has received acclaim for his performances in The Last Metro (1980), for which he won the César Award for Best Actor, in Police (1985), for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, Jean de Florette (1986), and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), winning the Cannes Film Festival for Best Actor, his second César Award for Best Actor, and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He co-starred in Peter Weir’s comedy Green Card (1991), winning a Golden Globe Award and later acted in many big budget Hollywood movies including Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996), Randall Wallace’s The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), and Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012). He is a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur and Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite. He was granted citizenship of Russia in January 2013 (officially adopted name in Russian: Жерар Депардьё, romanized: Zherar Depardyo), and became a cultural ambassador of Montenegro during the same month.

Early life

Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France. He is one of the five children of Anne Jeanne Josèphe (née Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu, a metal worker and volunteer fireman. After leaving school at the age of thirteen, he worked at a printworks. He also became involved in selling stolen goods, and was put on probation.

Acting career

At the age of sixteen, Depardieu left Châteauroux for Paris. There, he began acting in the new comedy theatre Café de la Gare, along with Patrick Dewaere, Romain Bouteille, Sotha, Coluche, and Miou-Miou. He studied dancing under Jean-Laurent Cochet. His first film role to gain attention was playing Jean-Claude in Bertrand Blier’s comedy Les Valseuses (Going Places, 1974). Other prominent early roles include a starring role in Bernardo Bertolucci’s historical epic 1900 (1976), with Robert De Niro, and a role in François Truffaut’s The Last Metro (1980), with Catherine Deneuve for which he won his first César Award for Best Actor. His international profile rose as a result of his performance as a doomed, hunchbacked farmer in the film Jean de Florette (1986) and received notice for his starring role in Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), for which he won his second César Award for Best Actor, the Cannes Film Festival for Best Actor, and received a nomination for an Academy Award.Depardieu co-starred in Peter Weir’s English language romantic comedy Green Card (1991), for which he won a Golden Globe Award. He has since had other roles in other English language films, including Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996), and Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012). He played Obélix in the four live-action Astérix films in which he is said to have discovered Mélanie Laurent when she was fourteen. In 2009, he took part in a rare performance of Sardou’s La Haine at the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc Roussillon, with Fanny Ardant; subsequently broadcast on France Musique. In 2013, he starred in an independent film titled A Farewell to Fools. Depardieu featured as a main character in Antwerp (Edinburgh Festival 2014), a play in The Europeans Trilogy (Bruges, Antwerp, Tervuren) by Paris-based UK playwright Nick Awde.

Personal life

In 1970, Depardieu married Élisabeth Guignot, with whom he had two children, actor Guillaume (1971–2008) and actress Julie (born 1973). On 28 January 1992, while separated from Guignot, he had a daughter, Roxanne, with the model Karine Silla (sister of producer Virginie Besson-Silla). In 1996, he divorced Guignot and began a relationship with actress Carole Bouquet, who was his partner from 1997 to 2005.

On 14 July 2006, he had a son, Jean, with French-Cambodian Hélène Bizot (daughter of François Bizot and not to be confused with actress Hélène Bizot). Since 2005, Depardieu has lived with Clémentine Igou. He underwent heart surgery in July 2000.

On 13 October 2008, Depardieu’s son Guillaume died from pneumonia at the age of 37. Guillaume’s health had been adversely affected by drug addiction and by a 1995 motorcycle crash that eventually required the amputation of his right leg in 2003. Depardieu and Guillaume had a turbulent relationship, but had reconciled prior to Guillaume’s death.

In September 2020 Depardieu converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Paris.

Legal issues

On 16 August 2011, he urinated in a bottle while on board a CityJet flight bound for Dublin as it taxied in Paris. The incident was attributed to urinary incontinence caused by a prostate problem with the flight attendant not allowing him to get up from his seat to go to the toilet because the aircraft was already moving. In August 2012, he was accused of assault and battery for punching a motorist in Paris. In November 2012, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated after he fell from his scooter, and was found to have a blood alcohol level of 1.8 grams per litre, well above the French limit for driving of 0.5. After claiming in 2014 that he could drink up to 14 bottles of wine a day, in 2016 he declared that he had given up alcohol.

He has been an official resident of Néchin, Belgium, since 7 December 2012. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticised his move. On 15 December 2012, Depardieu publicly stated he was handing back his French passport. On 3 January 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an Executive Order granting Russian citizenship to Depardieu. In his first interview thereafter, Depardieu attacked Putin’s critics for “lacking vision”. In his autobiography, Depardieu said Putin “immediately liked my hooligan side.” In February 2013, he registered as a resident of Saransk. Also in January 2013, he was appointed a cultural ambassador for Montenegro. During the summer of 2015, due to remarks Depardieu made about Russian-Ukrainian political issues, his films were banned from television and cinemas in Ukraine.

In August 2018, Depardieu was accused of sexual assault and rape by a 22-year-old actress and dancer. The actress reported being assaulted twice by Depardieu in his home during rehearsal sessions. The unnamed actress made her statement to police in Lambesc, southern France, after which the case was passed to prosecutors in the capital. Depardieu denied the allegations. In 2019 the charges were dropped after a nine month police investigation. But, in October 2020 the case was reopened after his accuser refiled the complaint.

Awards

Depardieu has been nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role César 17 times during his career and won it twice, in 1981 and 1991. He was also nominated for an Oscar in 1990 for his role in Cyrano de Bergerac.

• 1985: Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his role in Police
• 1985: Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre national du Mérite
• 1990: Cannes Film Festival: Best actor award for his role in Cyrano de Bergerac
• 1996: Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d’honneur
• 2006: Moscow Film Festival: Stanislavsky Award for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting

Association	Year	Category	Nominated Work	Result
7 d’Or Night	1999	Audience Vote: Best Actor – Fiction	Le Comte de Monte Cristo	Won
20/20 Awards	2011	Best Actor	Cyrano de Bergerac	Nominated
Academy Awards	1991	Best Actor	Cyrano de Bergerac	Nominated
BAFTA Awards	1988	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Jean de Florette	Nominated
	1992	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Cyrano de Bergerac	Nominated
British Film Institute	1989	BFI Fellowship	—	Won
Cesar Awards	1976	Best Actor	7 morts sur ordonnance	Nominated
	1977	Best Actor	La dernière femme	Nominated
	1978	Best Actor	Dites-lui que je ľaime	Nominated
	1979	Best Actor	Le sucre	Nominated
	1981	Best Actor	Le dernier metro	Won
	1983	Best Actor	Danton	Nominated
	1984	Best Actor	Les compères	Nominated
	1985	Best Actor	Fort Saganne	Nominated
	1986	Best Actor	Police	Nominated
	1988	Best Actor	Sous le soleil de Satan	Nominated
	1989	Best Actor	Camille Claudel	Nominated
	1990	Best Actor	Trop belle pour toi	Nominated
	1991	Best Actor	Cyrano de Bergarac	Won
	1995	Best Actor	Le colonel Chabert	Nominated
	2007	Best Actor	Quand j’étais chanteur	Nominated
	2011	Best Actor	Mammuth	Nominated
	2016	Best Actor	Valley of Love	Nominated
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association	1991	Best Actor	Cyrano de Bergerac	Nominated
David di Donatello Awards	1991	Best Foreign Actor	Cyrano de Bergerac	Nominated
European Film Awards	1990	European Actor of the Year	Cyrano de Bergerac	Nominated
	1998	Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema	The Man in the Iron Mask	Nominated
Étoiles ďOr	2011	Best Actor	Mammuth	Won
Globes de Cristal Awards	2007	Best Actor	Quand j’étais chanteur	Nominated
	2011	Best Actor	Mammuth	Nominated
Golden Camera Awards	1996	Best International Actor	Les anges gardiens	Won
Golden Globe Awards	1991	Best Actor – Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy	Green Card	Won
Hamburg Film Festival	2006	Douglas Sirk Award	—	Won
Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival	2011	Award of Excellence	Grenouille d’hiver	Won
I’ve Seen Films – International Film Festival	2012	Best Actor	Grenouille d’hiver	Won
Jules Verne Awards	2009	Jules Verne Lifetime Achievement Award	—	Won
London Critics Circle Film Awards	1992	Actor of the Year	Cyrano de Bergerac Green Card Uranus	Won
Lumiere Awards	2007	Best Actor	Quand j’étais chanteur	Won
	2016	Best Actor	Valley of Love	Nominated
	2017	Best Actor	The End	Nominated
Montréal World Film Festival	1983	Best Actor	Danton	Won
	1995	Grand Prix Special des Amériques	—	Won
	1999	Grand Prix des Amériques	Un pont entre deux rives	Nominated
National Society of Film Critics Awards	1977	Best Actor	La derniére femme	Nominated
	1984	Best Actor	Le retour de Martin Guerre Danton	Won
New York Film Critics Circle Awards	1983	Best Actor	Le retour de Martin Guerre Danton	Nominated
Primetime Emmy Awards	2003	Outstanding Miniseries	Napoleon	Nominated
San Francisco International Film Festival	1994	Piper-Heidsieck Award	—	Won
Telluride Film Festival	1990	Silver Medallion Award	—	Won
The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards	2000	Worst Supporting Actor	102 Dalmatians	Nominated
	2000	Worst On-Screen Couple (shared with Glenn Close)	102 Dalmatians	Nominated
	2000	Worst On-Screen Hairstyle	102 Dalmatians	Nominated
Venice Film Festival	1997	Career Golden Lion	—	Won
Verona Love Screens Film Festival	2000	Best Actor	Un pont entre deux rives	Won