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.  His son, Guillaume, is also enjoying growing success as a film actor.

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.