Gérard Depardieu - biography

Gérard Depardieu was born in 1948 in the provincial French town of Chateauroux, the son of a metal-sheet worker.   He had a pretty troubled youth, leaving school at 12 and running away from home.  His luck changed in the mid 1960s when a friend found him a place at the Theatre Nationale Populaire in Paris, where his acting career began.  Although now better known for his film acting, he has also worked in theatre, often to great acclaim.

After appearing in a number of films in small roles, his big break came in 1973 when Bernard Blier offered him a lead role in Les Valseuses, a part which fitted the actor’s personality and enabled him to draw on his delinquent past. 

Stardom then followed as sure as day follows night.  After playing similar roles (the drop out, the dangerous outsider) in a dozen films in the late 1970s, he won critical claim for his part in François Truffaut’s Le Dernier métro, for which he was awarded a César.  He then starred in a series of lavish historical dramas in the 1980s which were phenomenally successful on both sides of the Atlantic.  These include: Daniel Vigne’s Le Retour de Martin Guerre, Andrzej Wajda’s Danton and Claude Berri’s Jean de Florette.  He topped all this with his definitive performance of Cyrano de Bergerac in Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s 1990 film of that name, for which he won the Best Actor award at Cannes and even an Oscar nomination.

In 1990, Depardieu cemented his growing popularity in the United States by making his first American film there, Green Card, which was instantly successful.  Since, he has been flitting between France and Hollywood, taking on a combination of small character parts and major roles, bolstering his reputation as an international star – a pretty rare phenomenon for a French actor.

More recently, the actor founded his own film production company and sometimes directs his own films.   In a joint venture with a French production company he produced a television mini-series version of The Count of Monte Cristo in which he starred.  The series was popular both in France and in the United States, prompting further series of this ilk to be commissioned, including Les Misérables and Napoléon.

Although his main passion in life at the moment appears to be his vineyard in the south of France, Depardieu still finds time to act, appearing in such films as the popular Astérix and Obelix.

Gérard Depardieu’s contribution to French cinema has been immense, appearing in well over 100 films.  In a recent poll in France, he was voted the best French actor, and his popularity across the world shows no sign of diminishing. 



“Acting is an entirely feminine profession and there’s a feminine side of me.”

“Concentration does not mean inhibition.  One can and should be attentive yet appear nonchalant.”

“I appreciate teamwork.  I don’t like a one-man show.  I’m an interpreter, a sort of tool - I don’t mean an object.  The right tool is quite essential.  Try pounding a nail in with a screwdriver.”

“I don’t play rabbits!  I couldn’t do what Robert Redford does.”

“I never really like the characters I play.  I only come to love them afterwards.”

“It’s my body.  That’s what I work with.”

“Laurence Olivier doesn’t look like an actor either.”

“The relationship between an actor and a director is like a love story between a man and a woman.  I’m sure sometimes I’m the woman.”

“To be an actor, it’s not sufficient to make gestures, recite texts.  It’s also to provoke, to molest, to forget yourself, risk everything.  One must see, listen, live and go.  And be good, bad or bloody ridiculous.”

“Contrary to the Americans, who do it so well, I wouldn’t know how to collect my prize.  The role of a prizewinner may very well be the only one in which I wouldn’t be comfortable.”

“Every childhood is a melodramatic situation.  Learning and being scolded is melodrama.”

“I don’t like death.  I find it’s an uninteresting anecdote, unfortunately final.  I never like final things.”

“I don’t snack all the time, but I do sometimes drink l more than I should.”

“I have learnt a lot about my body since my heart attack.  I don’t drink as much now as before.”

“Cinema is there for eternity and that’s incredible.”

“I like to work on a director’s second film, when you learn if he’s going to go on for six or ten more films.  Or not.”

“I’d rather believe in God - or a good spirit - than in evil.”

“I would never let myself knock out a journalist.”

“Catherine Deneuve is the man I’ve always wanted to be.”

“I don’t work - I live!”

“I like the idea of bringing cartoon characters to life...  and although the Americans have already attempted this, their culture is not sufficiently humane to make it work.”

“I’m not worldly, a bit of a savage really.  I love the trees, the isolation, the soul.  I’ve a mystic temperament, an independence that prevents me from constantly looking into myself.”

“The best stories are about first love.  Everyone has experienced unrequited love.”

“I love people too much to be just the object of their taste, their fashion.  I want the public to love me, sure.  But not to adore me.”

“Perhaps one can be a sex symbol when one is 20.  There’s insolence, youth, a certain lack of confidence.  But at 40, it would be a remarkable sadness.”

“If I have some success, it might be because I have some talent.”

“Success has no nationality.  There’s some good actors from New York not known in Los Angeles.”

“I had rapidly become aware there were problems with the Kalifa group.”

“I’ve had affairs.  But I’m not the sort of man who has 10,000 affairs.”

“If cinema is a woman then certainly there are many shores.”

“Judges, juries, prison and probation - they sharpen the imagination.  You have to improvise at a moment’s notice.”

Gérard Depardieu has appeared in the following films:
Le Beatnik et le minet (1967)
Le Cri du cormoran, le soir au-dessus des jonques (1970)
La Vie sentimentale de Georges Le Tueur (1971)
Un peu de soleil dans l’eau froide (1971)
Le Viager (1972)
Le Tueur (1972)
Nathalie Granger (1972)
La Scoumoune (1972)
Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse (1973)
L’An 01 (1973)
L’Affaire Dominici (1973)
Deux hommes dans la ville (1973)
Rude journée pour la reine (1973)
Pas si méchant que ça (1974)
Les Gaspards (1974)
Les Valseuses (1974)
La Femme du Gange (1974)
Stavisky (1974)
Vincent, François, Paul... et les autres (1974)
Sept morts sur ordonnance (1975)
Je t’aime moi non plus (1976)
La Dernière femme (1976)
Novecento (1976)
Maîtresse (1976)
Barocco (1976)
René la canne (1976)
Violanta (1977)
Le Camion (1977)
Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977)
Dites-lui que je l’aime (1977)
La Nuit, tous les chats sont gris (1977)
Préparez vos mouchoirs (1978)
Ciao maschio (1978)
Die linkshändige Frau (1978)
Le Sucre (1978)
L’Ingorgo – Una storia impossibile (1979)
Les Chiens (1979)
Buffet froid (1979)
Temporale Rosy (1980)
Mon oncle d’Amérique (1980)
Loulou (1980)
Le Dernier métro (1980)
Inspecteur la Bavure (1980)
Je vous aime (1980)
Le Choix des armes (1981)
La Femme d’à côté (1981)
La Chèvre (1981)
Le Retour de Martin Guerre (1982)
Le Grand frère (1982)
Danton (1983)
La Lune dans le caniveau (1983)
Les Compères (1983)
Fort Saganne (1984)
Le Tartuffe (1984)
Rive droite, rive gauche (1984)
Police (1985)
Une femme ou deux (1985)
Tenue de soirée (1986)
Jean de Florette (1986)
Je hais les acteurs (1986)
Rue du Départ (1986)
Les Fugitifs (1986)
Sous le soleil de Satan (1987)
Drôle d’endroit pour une rencontre (1988)
Camille Claudel (1988)
Deux (1989)
Trop belle pour toi (1989)
I Want to Go Home (1989)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
Uranus (1990)
Green Card (1990)
Merci la vie (1991)
Mon père, ce héros (1991)
Tous les matins du monde (1991)
From Time to Time (1992)
1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
Hélas pour moi (1993)
Germinal (1993)
My Father the Hero (1994)
Una Pura formalità (1994)
Le Colonel Chabert (1994)
La Machine (1994)
Les Cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma (1995)
Élisa (1995)
Le Hussard sur le toit (1995)
Les Anges gardiens (1995)
Le Garçu (1995)
Unhook the Stars (1996)
Bogus (1996)
The Secret Agent (1996)
Le Plus beau métier du monde (1996)
Hamlet (1996)
XXL (1997)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
La Parola amore esiste (1998)
Bimboland (1998)
Astérix et Obélix contre César (1999)
Un pont entre deux rives (1999)
Mirka (2000)
Tutto l’amore che c’è (2000)
Vatel (2000)
Zavist bogov (2000)
102 Dalmatians (2000)
Le Placard (2001)
Concorrenza sleale (2001)
CQ (2001)
Vidocq (2001)
Streghe verso nord (2001)
Astérix et Obélix Mission Cléopâtre (2002)
I Am Dina (2002)
Aime ton père (2002)
Between Strangers (2002)
City of Ghosts (2002)
Blanche (2002)
Jamel... en vrai! (2002)
Le Pacte du silence (2003)
Crime Spree (2003)
Bon voyage (2003)
Nathalie... (2003)
Tais-toi! (2003)
Les Clefs de bagnole (2003)
RRRrrrr!!! (2004)
San Antonio (2004)
Nouvelle-France (2004)
36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004)
Les Temps qui changent (2004)
La Vie de Michel Muller est plus belle que la vôtre (2005)
Je préfère qu’on reste amis (2005)
Boudu (2005)
Combien tu m’aimes? (2005)
Olé! (2005)
Last Holiday (2006)
Paris, je t’aime (2006)
Quand j’étais chanteur (2006)
La Môme (2007)
Michou d’Auber (2007)
Astérix aux jeux olympiques (2008)
Vsyo mogut koroli (2008)
Disco (2008)
Sans arme, ni haine, ni violence (2008)
Babylon A.D. (2008)
Mesrine: L’Instinct de mort (2008)
Hello Goodbye (2008)
Je suis parti de rien (2008)
Bouquet final (2008)
Les Enfants de Timpelbach (2008)
La Petite fille de Monsieur Linh (2008)
Tous sans exception (2008)
Bellamy (2009)
Vivaldi (2009)
Signé Dumas (2009)
Only in New York (2009)
Kalach (2009)
Coco (2009)
Diamant 13 (2009)
À l’origine (2009)
L’Autre Dumas (2010)
Mammuth (2010)
La Tête en friche (2010)
Potiche (2010)
Je n’ai rien oublié (2011)


Gérard Depardieu directed the following films:
Le Tartuffe (1984)
Un pont entre deux rives (1999)
Paris, je t’aime (2006)