Gérard Depardieu

Early life

Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu was born on 27 December 1948 in Châteauroux, Indre, France, to a working-class family. He is the third of six children of Anne Jeanne Josèphe (née Marillier), a stay-at-home mother known as "La Lilette", and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu (better known in his neighborhood as "Dédé" because he could write only two letters), a metal worker and volunteer fireman. Not wishing to have a child at the time, Depardieu's mother tried unsuccessfully to abort him.

Depardieu grew up in poverty in a two-room apartment at 39 rue du Maréchal-Joffre, Châteauroux, with his five siblings. His mother was not very affectionate, and sometimes violent to her children. His father, who suffered from a severe alcohol addiction, was often absent from home. Depardieu helped his mother when she was in labour with his younger brothers and sisters. His family eventually nicknamed him "Pétard" or "Pétarou", because of the habit he had acquired of breaking wind incessantly. Depardieu's parents were both born in 1923; Anne died of a heart attack in 1988 and René, who suffered from cirrhosis, died two months after her.

Depardieu spent more time on the streets than in school, leaving at the age of 13. Practically illiterate and half stammering, he learned to read only later. In his 2014 autobiography, Depardieu revealed that he had prostituted himself as a child, starting when he was 10 years old and could already pass as 15. He would sometimes rob his clients. He was later employed at a printworks, and took part in boxing matches in his spare time. He also supported himself by working as a beach attendant during summers.

During his difficult adolescence, he turned to theft and smuggling all kinds of goods, notably cigarettes and alcohol, to the G.I.s at the large American air base of Châteauroux-Déols. He also acted as a bodyguard for two prostitutes who came down from Paris on the G.I.s' payday. Depardieu later credited those two women with teaching him sex. In a 2005 interview, he said that he was arrested several times and put on probation at one point, but never went to prison; in his autobiography, he said that at the age of 16, he had gone to prison for three months for car theft. In 1968, Depardieu's childhood best friend Jacky Merveille, also a hoodlum from Châteauroux, died in a car accident. This prompted Depardieu, who had already moved to Paris at that time, to consider his future and to try and do something with his life.

Career

Early roles and stardom

As a teenager, Depardieu befriended Michel Pilorgé, a slightly older boy from a more affluent background. In 1965, Pilorgé, whose family owned a flat in Paris and who wanted to settle in the capital to become an actor, proposed Depardieu, then aged 16, to come with him. Depardieu accepted and left Châteauroux for Paris. Out of curiosity, he began attending the acting class Pilorgé was taking at the Théâtre National Populaire. One day the teacher, Lucien Arnaud, noticed Depardieu and asked him to perform. The experience helped trigger Depardieu's vocation.

Depardieu next took acting classes with Jean-Laurent Cochet while making a living as a door-to-door salesman. To compensate for his lack of education, he heavily studied the classics. At Cochet's request, he followed a therapy with Alfred A. Tomatis to correct his disastrous diction.

Depardieu became the boyfriend, and later husband, of actress Élisabeth Guignot, who introduced him into entertainment circles and the Parisian bourgeoisie. In 1966, Guignot brought him on the first film project he worked on, Christmas Carole, directed by Agnès Varda, where he was cast as a beatnik. The film was never completed due to a lack of funding and distribution deal. In 1967, Depardieu made his first actual screen appearance in the short film Le Beatnik et le minet, directed by Roger Leenhardt; his diction was still so bad at the time that his voice had to be dubbed by another actor.

Working on stage, Depardieu also appeared in café-théâtres and became a regular performer at the Café de la Gare headed by Romain Bouteille and Sotha, where he met Patrick Dewaere, Coluche, and Miou-Miou. He acquired a reputation thanks to his "instinctive" approach to acting. The first feature film he worked on was Michel Audiard's crime spoof Le cri du cormoran, le soir au-dessus des jonques (1971). In 1971, Jean-Louis Livi became his agent and "mentor", introducing him into Artmedia, France's main casting agency. Theater director Claude Régy was enthusiastic about Depardieu, whom he found "extraordinary" and gifted in an "abnormal" way: he cast him in several plays, including Peter Handke's The Ride across Lake Constance which Depardieu later credited with jump-starting his career.

Depardieu appeared in various supporting roles in films and on television, often portraying hoodlums and petty criminals. He played a similar character in the film where he had his first major role, Bertrand Blier's raunchy and controversial comedy Les Valseuses (Going Places, 1974). Blier was initially reluctant about casting Depardieu but the actor, who felt that the character's background strongly resembled his own, pestered him until he won the role. The film, in which Depardieu co-starred with Dewaere and Miou-Miou, was a huge box office success in France, gaining a cult following and making instant stars of the three actors. Depardieu and Blier subsequently had a long working relationship, making eight more films together. That same year, Depardieu was part of the ensemble cast of Claude Sautet's Vincent, François, Paul and the Others, which came to be regarded as a classic of French cinema.

Depardieu's other prominent films during the 1970s included the psychological thriller Seven Deaths by Prescription (1975) which earned him his first César Award nomination, Barbet Schroeder's controversial erotic drama Maîtresse, and André Téchiné's romantic thriller Barocco where he co-starred with Isabelle Adjani (both 1976). Also in 1976, Depardieu played a lead role in Bernardo Bertolucci's Italian historical epic 1900, where he co-starred with Robert De Niro and an international ensemble cast that included Donald Sutherland, Stefania Sandrelli and Burt Lancaster. The thriller This Sweet Sickness (1977), directed by Claude Miller, was a box-office failure, but earned Depardieu another César Award nomination. During that period, Depardieu also appeared in several experimental films, including two by Marco Ferreri, The Last Woman (1976) and Bye Bye Monkey (1978), and two by Marguerite Duras, The Lorry (1977) and Baxter, Vera Baxter (1978). He worked again with Bertrand Blier on the quirky sex comedy Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978), which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 1979, and the surreal dark comedy Cold Buffet (1979), which became a cult film in France.

Peak of success

In 1980, Depardieu starred in Alain Resnais' internationally successful My American Uncle. That same year, he co-starred with Isabelle Huppert in Loulou, directed by Maurice Pialat. This film marked the beginning of a long collaboration with Pialat, who directed Depardieu in three other films. Also in 1980, Depardieu co-starred with Catherine Deneuve in François Truffaut's The Last Metro, a drama set in Nazi-occupied Paris. The film was a major commercial success and earned Depardieu his first César Award for Best Actor. Later that year, Depardieu appeared in a second film with Deneuve, Claude Berri's Je vous aime. They subsequently made six more films together. Still in 1980, he co-starred with Coluche in the box-office hit Inspector Blunder, a police comedy where he played the antagonist. He also tried his hand at singing, releasing an LP with lyrics written by his wife.

During the first half of the 1980s, Depardieu enjoyed a series of commercial and critical successes, including his second and last film with François Truffaut, the romantic drama The Woman Next Door (1981). Other notable films included the period drama The Return of Martin Guerre (1982), Andrzej Wajda's historical drama Danton (1983), as well as the crime film Choice of Arms (1981) and the war drama Fort Saganne (1984), both directed by Alain Corneau. One major disappointment during that period was Jean-Jacques Beineix's The Moon in the Gutter (1983), which failed to meet box-office expectations. Depardieu later openly disparaged the film. Also in 1984, Depardieu made his first film as a director, Le tartuffe, an adaptation of Molière's classic play with himself in the title role; Depardieu conceived it as a filmed version of the play, which he was performing at the time at the National Theatre of Strasbourg. The reception was disappointing for both the play and the film. Depardieu rarely returned to directing thereafter. For his performance in the crime drama Police (1985), his second film with Maurice Pialat, he was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.

Already an established dramatic performer, Depardieu extended his range and box-office appeal throughout the 1980s by appearing in a series of highly successful, family-friendly comedies. Following Inspector Blunder in 1980, he co-starred with Pierre Richard in three comedy films directed by Francis Veber, Knock on Wood (1981), ComDads (1983) and The Fugitives (1986), that were major commercial hits in France. Depardieu functioned as the straight man in his pairing with Richard. By the mid-1980s, Depardieu had become one of the most successful and sought after actors in the French film industry.

In 1985, Depardieu co-starred with Sigourney Weaver in the screwball comedy One Woman or Two, which failed to make an impact at the box-office. In 1986, he worked again with Bertrand Blier in Evening Dress, a provocative comedy-drama about homosexuality which was remarkably successful in France, given the subject matter. That same year, his international profile rose as a result of his performance as a doomed, hunchbacked farmer in Claude Berri's period drama Jean de Florette, which won immense public and critical acclaim. Also in 1986, he co-starred with singer Barbara in a musical play she had conceived, Lily Passion. The show enjoyed great success. The next year, he played the lead role in Maurice Pialat's Under the Sun of Satan, which controversially won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1988, Depardieu was Isabelle Adjani's co-star in the successful and critically acclaimed biographical drama Camille Claudel. Several of Depardieu's next films were box-office disappointments, including François Dupeyron's A Strange Place to Meet (1988) and Alain Resnais' I Want to Go Home (1989) but, also in 1989, he enjoyed renewed success with Bertrand Blier's Too Beautiful for You which won the Grand prix at the Cannes Film Festival and the César Award for Best Film.

In 1990, Depardieu received particular notice for his starring role in Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Cyrano de Bergerac, based on Edmond Rostand's 1897 play. The film was an international box-office success and won critical acclaim: Depardieu's performance as Cyrano earned him his second César Award for Best Actor, the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, the London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actor of the Year, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Later that year, Depardieu appeared in the ensemble cast of Uranus, a satirical drama about postwar France directed by Claude Berri.

Depardieu's next film was the American romantic comedy Green Card, directed by Peter Weir and co-starring Andie MacDowell. His first Hollywood picture, it was specifically conceived as a vehicle to introduce him to a wide English-speaking audience. Though the film performed moderately at the box-office, it earned Depardieu a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. However, remarks Depardieu had made in a 1978 interview about raping women during his teenage years re-emerged in the American press. The resulting controversy damaged his nascent Hollywood career. It was speculated in the French media that it had also prevented him from winning the Academy Award for Cyrano de Bergerac.

In 1991 Depardieu starred in two successful films, the comedy My Father the Hero and Alain Corneau's period drama Tous les Matins du Monde, which won critical acclaim. In the latter film, he and his son Guillaume portrayed the same character at different ages. Depardieu next started filming Ridley Scott's historical epic 1492: Conquest of Paradise, in which he starred as Christopher Columbus. Released in 1992 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage, the film flopped in the United States but did good business in Europe. Also in 1992, Depardieu was the Jury President for the Cannes film festival.

Depardieu also developed a passion for the films directed by John Cassavetes. In the early 1990s, together with Jean-Louis Livi, he bought the distribution rights for most of Cassavetes' films, including some that had never been released in France, to introduce them to a new audience. He later co-produced and appeared in Nick Cassavetes' first film as a director, Unhook the Stars (1996) and co-produced his next film, She's So Lovely (1997).

Depardieu's next box-office successes in France were Claude Berri's epic period drama Germinal (1993) where he was part of an ensemble cast, Jean Becker's drama Élisa (1995) where he played a supporting role alongside Vanessa Paradis, and Jean-Marie Poiré's comedy Guardian Angels (also 1995) in which he co-starred with Christian Clavier. In 1993, Depardieu starred in the experimental Hélas pour moi, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, though Godard and Depardieu disliked working together and Depardieu eventually refused to promote the film. During the same period, the science fiction thriller The Machine (1994) was a box-office flop; Depardieu's performance in that film received unusually poor reviews.

In 1994, Depardieu starred in My Father the Hero, the Hollywood remake of his 1991 French film of the same name. His subsequent English-language roles included Bogus (1994), a cameo in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996), The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), Vatel, 102 Dalmatians (both 2000) and CQ (2001).

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Depardieu starred in several successful television miniseries, notably portraying Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo (1998){{cite news |title=TELEVISION REVIEW; Depardieu Revels Lustily in revenge and derring-do as the Count of Monte Cristo

Later work

By the mid-2000s, though Depardieu remained very active, many of the films he starred in were less successful internationally than before. He readily admitted that some of them were of poor quality. In 2004, the large-budget action comedy San-Antonio was a major box-office failure in France. Depardieu, who was set to play the protagonist, contributed to the production's troubles by being unable to lose weight for his role as planned, which caused him to be recast as the hero's overweight sidekick. Depardieu's subsequent notable appearances included starring roles in the crime film The 36 (2004), the romantic drama When I Was a Singer (2006) which won him the Lumière Award for Best Actor, Claude Chabrol's last film, the murder mystery Bellamy (2009), as well as supporting parts in La Vie en Rose (2007), Mesrine (2008) and Ang Lee's Life of Pi (2012). He also published a cookbook in 2005.

In 2010, Depardieu played starring roles in the successful comedy film Potiche, the biographical film Dumas and the comedy drama My Afternoons with Margueritte. Also in 2010, he starred in the surprise success Mammuth, a low-budget dramedy for which he had agreed to work at the union minimum wage in exchange for a percentage of the revenue.

In the early 2010s, Depardieu's popularity in France suffered from the controversies following his tax exile first in Belgium then in Russia, and his public praise of Vladimir Putin. Several of his films performed dismally at the French box-office, including the period drama The Man Who Laughs (2012) which was released in the midst of the controversy. In 2014, Depardieu starred in Abel Ferrara's controversial Welcome to New York as a thinly-disguised impersonation of disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The film was released only on VOD. Also in 2014, Depardieu appeared in United Passions, a promotional film about the history of FIFA that bombed at the box-office and was lambasted by critics. Still in 2014, the crime film Viktor, an English-language Russian production, flopped in its limited U.S. release, failed to secure a release in France and was ridiculed by several French media.

Two films Depardieu made with director Guillaume Nicloux, Valley of Love, also starring Isabelle Huppert (2015), and The End, a low-budget film released on VOD (2016), while not box-office successes, earned him nominations for the César Award for Best Actor (for the first film) and the Lumière Award for Best Actor (for both films). Depardieu made two further films with Nicloux, including Thalasso (2019) where he co-starred with author Michel Houellebecq.

From 2016 to 2018, Depardieu played a starring role in Marseille, Netflix's first French-language original series. He authored or co-authored four books between 2014 and 2020, either to tell his life story or to express his personal philosophy. Starting in 2017, Depardieu performed Barbara's songs on stage as a homage to the late singer. He reprised this show several times in the following years.

Depardieu next appeared in the drama Home Front (2020), the literary adaptation Lost Illusions (2021), the successful comedy Retirement home, the crime film Maigret and the drama The Green Shutters (all 2022). His public image was then impacted by the accusations of rape and sexual assault against him. In April 2023, he was excluded from the promotion of his latest film, Umami. Later that year, his public performances of Barbara's songs were disrupted by feminists, causing the cancellation of several shows.

As a result of these allegations and the criminal charges brought against him, Depardieu was ostracized by most French filmmakers: in March 2025, while he was on trial, it was reported that he hadn't worked on a film since the completion of The Green Shutters in 2021. In May 2025, Depardieu began work on his first film in four years, Elle regardait sans plus rien voir, a Portuguese-French coproduction directed by Fanny Ardant.

Personal life

Relationships and children

In 1970, Depardieu married actress Élisabeth Guignot (later known professionally as Élisabeth Depardieu), with whom he had two children: actor Guillaume (1971–2008) and actress Julie (b. 1973). They separated in the early 1990s, though their divorce was only finalised in 2006 once a settlement was found after a lengthy court dispute.

As his marriage deteriorated, Depardieu met model Karine Silla (sister of producer Virginie Besson-Silla) and began a relationship with her. On 28 January 1992, while Depardieu was separated from Guignot, he and Silla had a daughter, Roxane. Silla remained Depardieu's partner until 1996. Also in 1996, Depardieu and his wife definitely separated following attempts at reconciliation.

From 1996 to 2005, Depardieu was in a relationship with actress Carole Bouquet. On 14 July 2006, he had a son, Jean, with Hélène Bizot (daughter of François Bizot, not to be confused with the actress of the same name). Between 2005 and 2023, Depardieu was in a relationship with Clémentine Igou. As of 2024, he is in a relationship with Magda Vavrusova.

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 a 1995 motorcycle crash that eventually required the amputation of his right leg in 2003. Depardieu and Guillaume had a turbulent relationship, including a public falling out in 2003, but had reconciled prior to Guillaume's death. In his 2014 autobiography, Depardieu acknowledged his shortcomings as a father, saying that he had been unable to provide an answer to Guillaume's suffering. Later on, he blamed his son's death on the prison sentence he had received at the age of 17 for drug offenses: he said that Guillaume had never recovered from it and that he had been unfairly treated by the court due to being his son. Depardieu commented that his son had been "killed" for two grams of heroin.

Health

Depardieu's eating and drinking habits have caused his weight to increase noticeably over the years. He managed several times to lose weight through strict diets, only to later gain it back. In the course of the 2000s he became permanently, then severely overweight. In a 2014 film review, The Hollywood Reporter called Depardieu "morbidly obese". As Depardieu weighed 150 kg at the end of 2008, film critic Pascal Mérigeau commented on Depardieu's large amounts of food consumption, "at lunch he ingests 1 kg of red meat, swallows handfuls of saltine crackers". Laurent Audiot, the chef of the Parisian restaurant La Fontaine Gaillon, compared Depardieu to the gluttonous giant Gargantua, saying that "he has excessive energy and he compensates with food, but sometimes it takes on incredible proportions".

According to a 2024 biography, Depardieu's already heavy drinking worsened after his son Guillaume died in 2008. In September 2014, Depardieu stated he drank twelve, thirteen or fourteen bottles of alcoholic drinks daily, starting at 10:00 a.m., drinking champagne, wine, and pastis, and ending the day with vodka, whisky, or both. He said: "I'm never totally drunk, just a bit of a pain in the ass".

On 18 May 1998, Depardieu had a motorcycle accident with a high blood alcohol content, of 2.5 g/L on the way to the shooting of Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar. He was prescribed forty days off work. In 2000, Depardieu underwent heart bypass surgery after two weeks of chest pains. In 2011, he was removed from a Cityjet flight to Dublin after refusing to sit down due to being refused access to the toilet and urinating in a bottle. Depardieu apologised for this and his fellow actor Édouard Baer attributed it to prostate issues.

In 2012, Depardieu was hit by a car while riding his scooter in Paris. The same year, while intoxicated with 1.8 g/L of alcohol in his blood, he had another scooter accident, without injury and without collision with another party. In 2013, it was reported that since the 2000s he had been involved in at least seven motorcycle or scooter accidents.

In the context of Depardieu's 2025 trial, it was mentioned by his legal team that he suffered from heart ailments and diabetes, the latter illness dating back to his twenties.

Tax exile and citizenship

On 7 December 2012, after French President François Hollande introduced a plan to tax high incomes at 75%, Depardieu registered as a resident of Néchin, Belgium in a tax avoidance move. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticized Depardieu's move as "shabby" and unpatriotic. On 15 December, Depardieu said that he felt "insulted" by Ayrault's remarks, commented that in the eyes of the French government, "success, creation, talent, anything different, must be punished" and stated he would be handing back his French passport.

On 20 December, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Depardieu Russian citizenship, which the actor accepted. On 3 January 2013, Putin signed an Executive Order granting Russian citizenship to Depardieu. On 5 January, Depardieu met with Putin at the latter's residence in Sochi, to receive his Russian passport. The controversy harmed Depardieu's public image in France. Also in January 2013, Depardieu was appointed a cultural ambassador for Montenegro, a country where he had also considered becoming a tax resident. In February, he registered as a resident of Saransk, Russia. He received a preferential tax treatment in Russia, where he became subject to a 6% tax rate, half as high as the majority of other fiscal residents. In 2018, he stated that he wished to become a citizen of Turkey.

In February 2022, Depardieu revealed in an interview that he had become a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, although he did not specify when this occurred. In that same interview, he said that he had retained his French passport, even though he wished to live "less and less" in France. Depardieu's friend Guy Roux said that the actor's resentment of France stemmed from the 2008 death of his son Guillaume, which he blamed on the French judiciary.

While residing in Russia part of the year, Depardieu remained registered as a resident of Néchin. In February 2025, it was reported that the French National Financial Prosecutor's office had opened an investigation into aggravated tax evasion and money laundering pertaining to Depardieu's tax residence in Belgium. Magistrates aimed to establish whether Depardieu really had been living in Néchin, or if he had instead been staying in France for a period longer than that allowed by his status as a tax resident abroad.

Political views

In 1987, Depardieu published an op-ed in the left-wing newspaper Libération in support of socialist French President François Mitterrand, announcing that he would be "voting for the first time" on the occasion of Mitterrand's 1988 reelection bid. He later said that he had abstained that year. In 1993, he expressed support for the French Communist Party. Later on, he supported conservative President Jacques Chirac. Following the 2002 presidential election, he supported again the Communist Party, then on the verge of bankruptcy after its electoral failure, by donating 10,000 euros. In 2010, he said that right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy was the only politician he appreciated. In 2012, during Sarkozy's unsuccessful bid for reelection, Depardieu publicly endorsed him and spoke at one of his rallies. He later said that he had been "drunk" that day.

Since the 1990s, Depardieu has publicly associated himself with authoritarian leaders, based on his economic interests. In the course of that decade, while investing into an oil exploration project in Cuba, he met then-President Fidel Castro and expressed his sympathy for him. In 1998, he supported Slovak Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar's bid for reelection. It was later revealed that Depardieu had been paid 45,000 euros for his endorsement of Mečiar, which he acknowledged in 2004. Depardieu eventually said he had realised afterwards that Mečiar was "a real fascist". Depardieu also expressed support for Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after investing into vineyards in Algeria. His associations with political strongmen were long tolerated by the French general public.

After Vladimir Putin granted him Russian citizenship, Depardieu penned an open letter to the Russian President, praising him and calling Russia "a great democracy". His support for Putin was widely condemned in France, by a broad spectrum of political actors. That open letter also drew ridicule from the Russian opposition. Depardieu granted his first extensive interview after becoming a Russian national to the state-owned news channel Russia-24: he was dismissive of Putin's opponents, stating that "The Russian opposition has no programme; it has nothing". In his autobiography, he commented that Putin "immediately liked [his] hooligan side." Depardieu subsequently made public appearances with Putin's allies, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and expressed his support for them. In August 2015, Depardieu's films were banned from television and cinemas in Ukraine after he said "I love Russia and Ukraine, which is part of Russia". Following his acquisition of Russian citizenship, Depardieu also expressed anti-American sentiment: in 2015, while in Moscow where he was performing a play, he stated that the United States were "a people who have constantly destroyed others".

One of Depardieu's biographers, Bernard Violet, stated that the actor's fascination with dictators stemmed in part from his interest in extraordinary characters, whom he saw as "shakespearian monsters", and also from his taste for provocation. Another biographer, Lionel Duroy, said that Depardieu had no understanding of politics and was totally naive in this area.

In a 2021 interview, Depardieu said that he disliked dictators, had never met one, and did not consider Putin to be one. In March 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he distanced himself from Putin, condemning the invasion and accusing the Russian President of "crazy, unacceptable excesses".

Religion

Though not baptised at birth, Depardieu had a Catholic upbringing. In the 2010s, he revealed that as a young man, he had converted to Islam as part as his interest in spirituality. Depardieu credited an Umm Kulthum concert he attended in Paris in 1965 with starting his interest in Islam. According to Depardieu, this conversion took place in the late 1960s, though he also said in some interviews that it had occurred during the 1970s. He "was a Muslim for two years" before giving up due to his inability to speak Arabic. He later expressed interests in Buddhism and Hinduism.

In 2003, following an encounter with Pope John Paul II, Depardieu gave public readings of Saint Augustine's Confessions at Notre-Dame. Over the years, he gave several other readings of Saint Augustine's works. In September 2020, Depardieu converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris.

Business ventures and wealth

In 1983, Depardieu created the company DD Productions to co-produce films and rent filming equipments. Owning shares of the films he starred in allowed him to earn additional income from box office receipts, home video and television broadcastings.

Apart from his film career, Depardieu is also a viticulturist, having invested in vineyards at the end of the 1980s. He owns wine estates in the Médoc, Hérault, Burgundy, Eastern Europe, Maghreb, and South America. In addition, Depardieu is the owner of the Château de Tigné (Tigne Castle) in Anjou. He also collects fine arts and motorcycles. In 2003, Depardieu bought the restaurant La Fontaine Gaillon in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. Its wine cellar, which consisted of bottles of Château Haut-Brion, Château Latour, Meursault and Saint-Émilion, was rewarded by the Gault Millau guide. La Fontaine Gaillon was described as "a Parisian institution". He sold the restaurant in 2019.

Over the years, Depardieu has invested into various ventures, including in the late 1990s an unsuccessful oil exploration project in Cuba. During the 1990s, he was associated with Planet Hollywood, to which he provided wine. Depardieu has generated additional income by appearing in commercials and advertising campaigns. In the early 1990s, he starred in two Barilla commercials, directed respectively by Ridley Scott and David Lynch. He was later featured in various campaigns aimed exclusively at the Eastern European market.

In Paris, Depardieu owns luxury restaurants, a Japanese delicatessen, a wine bar, and a seafood shop. By 2012, he employed over a hundred people in France through fifteen companies. In 2013, Depardieu's wealth was estimated at US$200 million. He said that the 2006 divorce settlement with his wife cost him 15 million euros. Depardieu owns a luxury hotel built in 1805 in the 6th arrondissement of Paris valued at 50 million euros ($53.5 million).

Sexual assault and rape allegations

First controversy

In 1977, Harry Stein interviewed Depardieu on the set of Get Out Your Handkerchiefs. The interview, which was published in the March–April 1978 issue of Film Comment under the title Depardieu: French Primitive, addressed the actor's difficult upbringing and turbulent youth: it quoted Depardieu as saying that he had first participated in a rape when he was nine years old and in more rapes since then, and commenting that there were "too many [rapes] to count... There was nothing wrong with it. The girls wanted to be raped. I mean, there's no such thing as rape. It's only a matter of a girl putting herself in a situation where she wants to be."

The story re-emerged in February 1991, shortly after the release of Green Card, when Time published an interview of Depardieu where he appeared to confirm these statements and commented: "it was absolutely normal in those circumstances. That was part of my childhood." Later that month, Depardieu's French publicist Claude Devy discounted the statements made by Smith, and Depardieu threatened legal action against any media outlet that published the comments. Depardieu's team said that Time had mistranslated the French verb "assister" as "participate", when a more accurate translation would be "attend" or "be witness to". Time refused to retract the story and claimed that Depardieu had told them he had "participated" in the rapes.

At that time, Depardieu received support from the French media, who claimed he was being mistreated and blamed American "puritanism." As a result, his career in France was not affected, and the French general public eventually forgot the controversy over time.

2018 rape accusation

In August 2018, Depardieu was accused of sexual assault and rape by Charlotte Arnould, a 22-year old actress and dancer. Arnould, whose identity was initially concealed, made her name public in December 2021.

The daughter of a longtime friend of Depardieu, Arnould said that on 7 August 2018 she had been invited by the actor at his Parisian home, ostensibly to discuss her career: there, she said, Depardieu had digitally raped her. According to her account, on 13 August she went back to Depardieu's home to confront him, only to be similarly raped a second time.

Arnould made her statement on 27 August 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. Actress Emmanuelle Debever commented on the news by accusing Depardieu of groping her on the set of the 1983 film Danton. The case was reopened in October 2020 after Arnould refiled the complaint.

Following Arnould's second complaint, French authorities charged Depardieu with rape on 16 December 2020. The actor rejected the allegation through his lawyer. In March 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal rejected Depardieu's attempt to have the charges dropped and announced that the actor would remain under formal investigation. On 14 August 2024, the Paris Public Prosecutor requested that Depardieu go to trial. On 2 September 2025, judges ordered case to be heard against him on charges of rape and sexual assault, though no trial date was set.

2023-2024 controversy and further accusations

On 11 April 2023, investigative website Mediapart reported that 13 women were accusing Depardieu of sexual assault and sexual harassment pertaining to incidents that occurred on film and television sets between 2004 and 2022. Several of these women said that Depardieu's behavior had happened in full view, without anyone objecting. On 23 May, Charlotte Arnould gave a television interview where she recounted her version in detail. On 1 October 2023, after several of his public performances were disrupted by feminist protesters and hecklers, Depardieu published an open letter disputing the accusations.

In that context, Depardieu's reputation was further damaged on 7 December 2023, when French television newsmagazine Complément d'enquête broadcast a segment about the accusations against the actor, which included behind-the-scenes footage from a documentary project Depardieu had worked on with author-director Yann Moix. In that footage, shot in 2018 in North Korea, Depardieu could be seen making multiple obscene, sexist and misogynistic remarks.

Emmanuelle Debever died on 6 December 2023 after one week in a hospital following a suicide attempt, leading to speculation that her death was connected to the Complément d'enquête broadcast. On 13 December 2023, Gérard Depardieu was stripped of the National Order of Quebec, on the grounds of what Quebec premier François Legault called "scandalous remarks made by Gérard Depardieu in front of the cameras". He had been appointed as a Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 2002 by premier Bernard Landry. That segment also caused Radio Télévision Suisse, the French-language television of Switzerland, to announce that for the time being it would no longer broadcast films starring Depardieu. On 17 December, Depardieu's daughter Julie, her two half-siblings and several other family members signed an op-ed in support of him.

On 19 December, Spanish author and photographer told La Vanguardia that Depardieu had forcibly kissed and groped her in 1995 when, at age 23, she had interviewed him in Paris. Although the facts were likely time-barred, Baza filed a complaint in Spain, saying that she hoped it would encourage other people to speak out.

French politicians also reacted to the Complément d'enquête documentary. Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak expressed outrage at Depardieu's behavior, saying that he brought "shame" to France, and launched a disciplinary procedure that could lead to the actor's Legion of Honour being rescinded. On the contrary, when asked for comment on 21 December, President Emmanuel Macron denounced the "manhunt" against Depardieu and said that the actor made France "proud".{{cite news|url=https://journal.lepoint.fr/l-affaire-depardieu-2548922|title=L'affaire Depardieu Paria. En prenant la défense de l'acteur, Emmanuel Macron a jeté de l'huile sur le feu. Faut-il effacer Depardieu ? Récit d'une querelle|work=Le Point|date=4 January 2024

Depardieu's former partner Carole Bouquet went on television to defend his character. On 25 December 2023, a group of over 50 French actors and other prominent figures including Bouquet, Charlotte Rampling, Carla Bruni, Fanny Ardant, Nathalie Baye, Bertrand Blier and Roberto Alagna, signed an open letter published in French newspaper Le Figaro that denounced the "lynching" of Depardieu. The text, titled Do not cancel Gérard Depardieu, claimed that the actor was the victim of a "torrent of hatred", adding that he was "probably the greatest of all actors" and that attacking him was an attack on art itself. Several signatories, including Bouquet and Pierre Richard, eventually distanced themselves from the op-ed due to its content and after it was revealed that it had been penned by an actor with far-right connections.

Depardieu's former partner Karine Silla also defended him. Sophie Marceau, who had made two films with Depardieu during the 1980s, said that she had found his attitude "rude and inappropriate", though he wouldn't harass famous actresses and instead "went more for low-level assistants". On 1 January 2024, over 150 French performers signed an op-ed in Libération, saying that artists should be held accountable like anyone else and expressing support for the victims of sexual assault. That text eventually attracted 500 signatories. In a January 2024 French opinion poll, 23% of respondents stated that they would no longer watch films starring Depardieu.

In September 2023 and January 2024 respectively, two women, an actress and an assistant, filed complaints for assault against Depardieu, for incidents they said had occurred on film sets in 2007 and 2014. Both complaints were dismissed as time-barred. In February 2024, two other women, a set decorator and an assistant director, filed complaints against Depardieu for assaulting them in 2021 on the set of the film The Green Shutters. On 29 April 2024, police detained Depardieu for questioning over the sexual assault accusations. He was formally charged for the incidents on the set of The Green Shutters.

2025 sexual assault trial

Depardieu's trial on two counts of sexual assault said to have occurred during the shooting of The Green Shutters was scheduled to begin on 28 October 2024. That day, Depardieu's lawyer said that health concerns meant he was unable to attend court. The trial was rescheduled, and began on 24 March 2025.

Depardieu spoke in his own defense, taking the stand for three days. He denied any sexual misconduct, but appeared sometimes confused and unfocused. Several women testified that they had been groped by Depardieu on film sets, or had seen him grope other women. Fanny Ardant, his friend and co-star in several films including The Green Shutters, testified of his good character. Anouk Grinberg, who had also co-starred with Depardieu in that film, attended the trial in support of the two plaintiffs.

On 13 May 2025, Depardieu was convicted on both counts of sexual assault. He was handed an 18 month suspended sentence. The court commented that Depardieu did not appear to have "grasped the notion of consent". He appealed against his conviction.

Awards

Depardieu has been nominated for the César for Best Actor in a Leading Role 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.

Besides his acting accolades, he has been awarded the following order of merits:

• 1985: Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre national du Mérite
• 1996: Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur |access-date=22 March 2009
• His rank as a Honorary Knight of the National Order of Quebec, awarded in 2002, was rescinded in 2023.

Filmography

Main article: Gérard Depardieu filmography

Stage work

Musical recordings

• 1980 : OK Cafard (Je suis noir), lyrics by Élisabeth Depardieu (single)
• 1980 : Ils ont dit moteur... Coupez !, lyrics by Élisabeth Depardieu and Jean-Claude Mejstelman (LP)
• 1980 : Comédien Comédien, lyrics by Élisabeth Depardieu (single)
• 1980 : La P'tite Agathe, lyrics by Serge Gainsbourg (single, soundtrack from the film Je vous aime)
• 1986 : Lily passion, by and with Barbara (recording of the show)
• 1992 : I'll Strangle You, with Anneli Drecker, music by Hector Zazou (spoken words)
• 1997 : Un piccolo aiuto, with Zucchero
• 1997 : L'Histoire du soldat, by Igor Stravinsky (spoken words)
• 2006 : Quand j'étais chanteur (soundtrack for the film When I Was a Singer)
• 2009 : Rendez vous in Paris, with Jasmine Roy
• 2010 : Oedipus rex, by Igor Stravinsky (spoken words)
• 2017 : Depardieu chante Barbara, lyrics by Barbara (recording of the show)
• 2019 : Blond, with Philippe Katerine

Books

• Lettres volées, Lattès, 1988,
• Vivant !, with Laurent Neumann, Plon, 2004,
• Lire Saint Augustin, with André Mandouze, Desclée De Brouwer, 2004,
• Ma cuisine, France Loisirs, 2005,
• Depardieu grandeur nature, with Richard Mellou, Flammarion, 2009,
• Ça s'est fait comme ça, with Lionel Duroy, XO, 2014,
• Innocent, Le Cherche Midi, 2015,
• Monstre, Le Cherche Midi, 2017,
• Ailleurs, Le Cherche Midi, 2020,

References

• {{cite book
• {{cite book

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181. Lutaud, Léna. (10 December 2012). "Poissonnerie, vignes : le drôle de patrimoine de Depardieu". [[Le Figaro]].
182. (8 July 2019). "Revendu par Depardieu, La Fontaine Gaillon met aux enchères sa cave et son mobilier". [[Les Echos (France).
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