Depardieu has been repeatedly accused of sexual assault. The French authorities have charged him with rape and, since 2021, have had him under formal investigation. Depardieu has denied any wrongdoing and has not been convicted in connection with any of the accusations against him. He was stripped of the National Order of Quebec in 2023.
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu was born on 27 December 1948 in Châteauroux, Indre, France. He is one of the five 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),[21]: 12 a metal worker and volunteer fireman.[22][23] His father and mother were both born in 1923 and both died in 1988.
Depardieu grew up in poverty in a two-room apartment at 39 rue du Maréchal-Joffre, Châteauroux, in a working-class family, with five brothers and sisters.[21]: 19 Depardieu helped his mother when she was in labour with his younger brothers and sisters.[24][25] He 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.[26] He worked at a printworks, and took part in boxing matches in his spare time.[27] He also became involved in selling stolen goods, and was put on probation.[28]
During a difficult adolescence, he turned to theft and smuggling all kinds of goods, notably cigarettes and alcohol), to the GIs at the large American air base of Châteauroux-Déols. He also acted as a bodyguard for prostitutes who came down from Paris on weekends, the GIs' payday.[29][30] His family nicknamed him "Pétard" or "Pétarou", because of the habit he had acquired of breaking wind incessantly.[21]: 23 In 1968, Depardieu's childhood best friend Jacky Merveille, also a kingpin from Châteauroux, died in a car accident, prompting him to take decisive control over his future.[21]: 37
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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.[31] He studied theater under Jean-Laurent Cochet. Regardless of his lack of culture, he heavily studied the classics and followed a therapy to correct his disastrous diction and improve his memory. Moreover, through his first wife, Élisabeth Guignot, he discovered the Parisian bourgeoisie. Thus, he met Agnès Varda and her husband Jacques Demy. His first film role to gain attention was playing Jean-Claude in Bertrand Blier's comedy Les Valseuses (Going Places, 1974).[32] Other prominent early films include Barbet Schroeder's controversial Maîtresse (1975), 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. Depardieu and Deneuve have since made nine more films together.
In 1970, Depardieu married Élisabeth Guignot, with whom he had two children: actor Guillaume (1971–2008) and actress Julie (b. 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, his partner from 1997 to 2005.[37] On 14 July 2006, he had a son, Jean, with French-Cambodian Hélène Bizot (daughter of François Bizot, not actress Hélène Bizot).[38][39] Between 2005 and 2023, Depardieu was in a relationship with Clémentine Igou. Since 2024, he is in a relationship with Magda Vavrusova.[40]
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 but had reconciled prior to Guillaume's death.[41] In September 2020, Depardieu converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris.[42]
Health
On 18 May 1998, Depardieu had a motorcycle accident with a high blood alcohol content, of 2.5 g/L[43] on the way to the shooting of Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar, by Claude Zidi. He was prescribed forty days off work.[44] In 2000, Depardieu underwent heart bypass surgery after two weeks of chest pains.[45] As Depardieu weighed 150 kilograms (330 lb) at the end of 2008, film critic Pascal Mérigeau commented on Depardieu's large amounts of food consumption, "at lunch he ingests 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of red meat, swallows handfuls of saltine crackers".[46] 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 urinated in a bottle. Depardieu apologised for this and his fellow actor Edouard Baer attributed it to prostate issues.[47]
In 2012, Depardieu was hit by a car while riding his scooter in Paris.[48] The same year, while intoxicated with 1.8 g/L of alcohol in the blood, he had another scooter accident, without injury and without collision with another party.[49] Since the 2000s, he has suffered at least seven motorcycle or scooter accidents.[50] In September 2014, Depardieu stated he drank twelve, thirteen or fourteen bottles of alcohol 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".[51] Laurent Audiot, the chef of the Parisian restaurant La Fontaine Gaillon, compared Depardieu to Gargantua, saying that "he has excessive energy and he compensates with food, but sometimes it takes on incredible proportions".[52]
Sexual assault and rape allegations
In 1991, Time magazine published a translation of a 1978 interview in which Depardieu apparently confirmed a rumour that he first participated in a rape when he was nine years old and that he had participated in more rapes since then. He reportedly stated 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 1991.[53] On 15 March 1991, Depardieu's American publicist Lois Smith, stated: "He's sorry, but it happened".[54] The National Organization for Women requested an apology from Depardieu.[53] 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.[54] Depardieu's team said that Time had mistranslated the word "assister" as "participate", when a more accurate translation would be "attend" or "be witness to".[55]Time refused to retract the story and claimed that Depardieu had told them he had "participated" in the rapes.[56]
In August 2018, Depardieu was accused of sexual assault and rape by a 22-year-old actress and dancer.[57] 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.[58] In 2019, the charges were dropped after a nine-month police investigation.[59] The case was reopened in October 2020 after his accuser refiled the complaint.[60] In February 2021, it was announced that French authorities had charged Depardieu with rape in December 2020, stemming from the incident in August 2018. According to Depardieu's lawyer, Hervé Témime, speaking to Le Monde, the actor rejects the allegation.[61] In March 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal rejected Depardieu's attempt to have the charges dropped and announced the actor will remain under formal investigation. Following this investigation, the case will either be brought to trial or dismissed.[62][63]
In April 2023, 13 women accused Depardieu of sexual assault and sexual harassment pertaining to incidents that occurred between 2004 and 2022.[64][65][66][67] On 19 December 2023, Ruth Baza [es; fr], a Spanish author and journalist, told La Vanguardia that Depardieu had kissed and groped her without her consent in 1995 when she was 23, after she had interviewed him in Paris for Cinemania magazine, and that she has filed a complaint.[68][69][70] Baza explained that she hid the story through the years until the allegations against him emerged in 2023, which had a profound impact on her and led her to discover a description of the 1995 events in her diary from that time.[71] By rereading her personal notes, she remembered this traumatic event that her memory had buried.[72]
One of his accusers, Emmanuelle Debever, who had made allegations against Depardieu, committed suicide and died on 6 December 2023 after one week at the hospital.[73] On 25 December 2023, a group of over 50 French actors and other prominent figures including Charlotte Rampling, Carla Bruni, and Carole Bouquet, denounced the "lynching" of Depardieu, in an open letter published in French newspaper Le Figaro. The group claims the star is the victim of a "torrent of hatred", adding "Gérard Depardieu is probably the greatest of all actors".[74][75] His former partner Karine Silla defends him.[76] Some of his colleagues have spoken out against him, including Sophie Marceau, Muriel Robin and Swann Arlaud.[77][78][79][80][81] On 29 April 2024, the police detained Depardieu for questioning.[82][83][84][85] A trial on two counts of sexual assault was scheduled to begin on October 28, 2024. Depardieu's lawyer said that health concerns meant he was unable to attend court. The trial was rescheduled to March 24, 2025. [86]
Removal from the National Order of Quebec
On 13 December 2023, Gérard Depardieu was stripped of the National Order of Quebec. This was prompted by what Quebec premier François Legault called "scandalous remarks made by Gérard Depardieu in front of the cameras," which had, in the premier's view, "shocked the international public, with good reason".[87] He had been appointed as a Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 2002 by premier Bernard Landry.[88][89]
Citizenship
Depardieu with Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia, 5 January 2013
Depardieu has been an official resident of Néchin, Belgium, since 7 December 2012.[90] French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticised his move.[91] On 15 December 2012, Depardieu publicly stated he was handing back his French passport.[92][93] On 3 January 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an Executive Order granting Russian citizenship to Depardieu.[94] In his first interview thereafter, Depardieu attacked Putin's critics for "lacking vision".[95] In his autobiography, Depardieu said Putin "immediately liked my hooligan side."[96] In February 2013, he registered as a resident of Saransk. Also in January 2013, he was appointed a cultural ambassador for Montenegro.[97] In the summer of 2015, Depardieu's films were banned from television and cinemas in Ukraine due to his remarks questioning Ukraine's right to exist as an independent state.[98] In February 2022, Depardieu revealed that he had become a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, although he did not specify when this occurred.[99] In March 2022, he condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and accused Russian President Putin of "crazy, unacceptable excesses".[100]
Wealth
In 1983, Depardieu created DD Productions to co-produce his films. Apart from his acting 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 works of art and motorcycles.[101] 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".[102] In Paris, Depardieu owns luxury restaurants, a Japanese delicatessen, a wine bar, and a seafood shop.[103][101] By 2012, he employed over a hundred people in France through fifteen companies.[101] In 2013, Depardieu's wealth was valued at US$200 million.[104] Depardieu owns a luxury hotel built in 1805 in the 6th arrondissement of Paris valued at 50 million euros ($53.5 million).[105] Depardieu sold La Fontaine Gaillon in 2019.[102]
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.
^"Gérard Depardieu: voici l'hôtel ..." [Gérard Depardieu: here is the 50 million euro hotel put up for sale by the actor]. CNews. 4 April 2022. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
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