Gérard Depardieu
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Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu (UK: , US: , French: [ʒeʁaʁ ɡzavje maʁsɛl dəpaʁdjø] ; born 27 December 1948) is a French actor. Considered an icon of French cinema in the same way as Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, he has completed over 200 films since 1967, most of which as a lead actor. Depardieu has worked with over 150 film directors including François Truffaut, Bertrand Blier, Maurice Pialat, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol, Ridley Scott, Peter Weir, Jean-Luc Godard, and Bernardo Bertolucci. He is the second highest-grossing actor in the history of French cinema behind Louis de Funès. Among his films, about 60 have sold more than one million tickets in France. He is known for having portrayed numerous leading historical and fictitious figures including Cyrano de Bergerac, Georges Danton, Christopher Columbus, Honoré de Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, Auguste Rodin, Jean Valjean, Edmond Dantès, Porthos, commissioner Maigret, Joseph Stalin and Grigori Rasputin, as well as Obelix in four of the live action Asterix films. Depardieu is also a film producer, businessman and vineyard owner. He has occasionally directed films and performed as a singer. His body of work includes many television productions, several records and, as of 2025, 19 stage plays and 9 books. Growing up in poverty in Châteauroux, central France, Depardieu had a difficult youth before settling in Paris where he became an actor. In 1974, he had his breakthrough role in Going Places, becoming an overnight star. Depardieu quickly established himself as a leading actor in European cinema and proved himself a versatile performer by appearing in a wide variety of productions, including drama, comedy, crime and avant-garde films. 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), for which he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival and his second César Award for Best Actor as well as garnering a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He started a Hollywood career with Green Card (1990), winning a Golden Globe Award, and later appeared in several big-budget English-language films, including 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), and Life of Pi (2012). Depardieu 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 Ксавие Депардьё, romanized: Zherar Ksavie Depardyo), and became a cultural ambassador of Montenegro during the same month. During the early 2010s, his tax exile in Russia and his support of Vladimir Putin caused controversy in France. Depardieu was accused of sexual misconduct as early as the 1990s, though this did not develop into formal complaints until the late 2010s. In December 2020, French authorities charged him with rape. Depardieu denied any wrongdoing but a number of controversies since 2020, not limited to the accusations of rape, damaged his popularity in France and abroad, resulting in his being stripped in 2023 of the National Order of Quebec. In May 2025, he was convicted of sexual assault against two women in a separate case. He has appealed against his sentencing.