Gérard Depardieu

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 appeared in over 200 films since 1967, mostly in leading roles. Depardieu has worked with more than 150 film directors, including major filmmakers such as François Truffaut, Ridley Scott, Peter Weir and Bernardo Bertolucci. He is the second highest-grossing actor in the history of French cinema behind Louis de Funès, with roughly 60 of his films selling more than one million admissions in France. He has portrayed various well-known historical and fictitious figures, including Cyrano de Bergerac, Georges Danton, Christopher Columbus, Jean Valjean, Edmond Dantès and Porthos, as well as Obelix in four of the live action Asterix films. Beyond acting, Depardieu is a film producer, businessman and vineyard owner. He has occasionally directed films and performed as a singer. His body of work includes extensive television productions, several records and, as of 2025, 19 stage plays and 9 books.

Growing up in poverty in Châteauroux, central France, Depardieu experienced a difficult youth and was a juvenile delinquent before settling in Paris, where he became an actor. His breakthrough came in 1974 with the film Going Places, which propelled him to overnight stardom. He quickly established himself as a major figure in European cinema and demonstrated his versatility by appearing in a wide variety of films, spanning both mainstream and auteur productions. He has received acclaim for his performances in The Last Metro (1980), where he won the César Award for Best Actor, Police (1985), for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, Jean de Florette (1986), and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), where 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 for Best Actor, and later appeared in several high-budget English-language films, including 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), and Life of Pi (2012).