Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu (born 27 December 1948 in Châteauroux) is one of the most prominent and prolific French actors since The '70s.
He first performed at the Parisian Café de la Gare, and got his major break (along with Patrick Dewaere and Miou-Miou, his comrade performers at the Café de la Gare) in 1974 with the film Les Valseuses. He's had around 250 acting credits since his debut in 1967.
Basically, he's been a go-to guy for leading roles in Period Pieces (either Historical Domain Characters or historical novel protagonists), as well as Big Fun, Big Eater and Boisterous Bruiser roles in French cinema — most often requiring to be a Large Ham, which he seems born to play. While most of his box office successes were comedies, the man's got range, as he garnered much critical acclaim for his dramatic roles in pictures such as The Last Metro, Cyrano de Bergerac or Mammuth. He's dabbled in English-language cinema, usually playing (of course) eccentric Frenchmen, starting with the romantic comedy Green Card.
He has also headlined several prestige Period Piece miniseries on French television since the late 90s. His roles in these include Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo (1998), Jean Valjean in Les Misérables (2000), Joseph Fouché in Napoléon (2002), Grigori Rasputin in Rasputin (2011) and Nostradamus in Diane de Poitiers (2022). Speaking of Rasputin, he's quite popular in Russia, he even officially became a Russian citizen in 2013, and was even offered to become Minister of Culture of the Republic of Mordovia at one point (he politely declined). Since 2022 he also holds citizenship from the United Arab Emirates. Since the #MeToo movement days in the late 2010s, he's caused scandals with his documented lewd behavior and several rape allegations.
Two out of his four children became actors, namely Julie (born in 1973), and Guillaume (1971-2008). Guillaume died of pneumonia at age 37 while filming in Romania.
Films:
- La Scoumoune (1972) as a mob thug
- Les Valseuses (1974) as Jean-Claude
- Vincent, François, Paul... et les autres (1974) as Jean
- The Last Woman (1976) as Gérard
- 1900 (1976) as Olmo
- Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978) as Raoul
- Buffet froid (1979) as Alphonse Tram
- The Last Metro (1980) as Bernard Granger
- Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980) as René
- Inspector Blunder (1980) as Roger Morzini
- La Chèvre (1981) as Campana
- The Woman Next Door (1981)
- The Return of Martin Guerre (1982)
- Les Compères (1983) as Lucas
- Danton (1983) as Georges Jacques Danton
- Police (1985) as Mangin
- Les Fugitifs (1986) as Lucas
- Jean de Florette (1986) as Jean de Florette
- Under the Sun of Satan (1987) as Donissan
- Camille Claudel (1988) as Auguste Rodin
- Green Card (1990) as Georges Fauré
- Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) as Cyrano
- Uranus (1990) as Léopold Lajeunesse
- Mon père, ce héros (1991) as André Arnel
- My Father the Hero (1994) as André
- 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) as Christopher Columbus
- Germinal (1993) as Toussaint Maheu
- Colonel Chabert (1994) as Hyacinthe Chabert
- A Pure Formality (1994) as Onoff
- Guardian Angels (1995) as Antoine Carco and Carco's Guardian Angel
- The Best Job in the World (1996) as Laurent Monier
- Bogus (1996) as Bogus
- The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) as Porthos
- Asterix live-action film series as Obélix
- 102 Dalmatians (2000) as Jean-Pierre Le Pelt
- Vidocq (2001) as Eugène-François Vidocq
- The Closet (2001) as Félix Santini
- Blanche (2002) as D'Artagnan
- Nathalie... (2003) as Bernard
- Tais-toi! (Ruby & Quentin, 2003) as Quentin
- RRRrrr!!! (2004) as the Chief of the Dirty Hair tribe
- 36 quai des Orfèvres (Department 36, 2004) as Denis Klein
- Last Holiday (2006) as Chef Didier
- La Vie en Rose (2007) as Louis Leplée (Édith Piaf's first manager)
- Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2008) as Guido
- Dumas (2010) as Alexandre Dumas
- Potiche (2010)
- Life of Pi (2012) as the Cook
- The Mark of the Angels - Miserere (2013) as Lionel Kasdan
- Welcome to New York (2014) as Mr. Devereux note
- United Passions (2014) as Jules Rimet
- Solo Se Vive Una Vez (2017) as Duges
- Stalin's Couch (2017) as Josef Stalin
- Maigret (2022) as Commissioner Jules Maigret
TV Productions:
- The Count of Monte Cristo (1998) as Edmond Dantès/The Count of Monte Cristo
- Balzac (1999) as Honoré de Balzac
- Les Misérables (2000) as Jean Valjean
- Napoléon (2002) as Joseph Fouché
- Ruy Blas (2002) as Don Salluste
- La Femme Musketeer (2004) as Cardinal Mazarin
- The Accursed Kings (2005) as Jacques de Molay
- Rasputin (2011) as Grigori Rasputin
- Marseille (Netflix series, 2016-2018) as Mayor Robert Taro
- The King's Favorite (2022) as Nostradamus
Voice Work:
- Blow Out (1981) as Jack Terry (French dub)
- Henry V (1989) as Henry V (French dub)
- Chicken Run (2000) as Rocky (French dub)
- Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero (2018) as Gaston Baptiste (voice in English and French dub)
Tropes in his films:
- Big Eater: Some of his roles since the late 1990s are big eaters, such as Obelix.
- Big Fun: While he's been acting in comedies since the late 1970s, he's been heavyset since the late 1990s only.
- Boisterous Bruiser: When playing loud swashbuckling heroes like Cyrano or Porthos. And there's Obelix, of course.
- The Danza: Plays a man called "Gérard" in The Last Woman.
- Historical Beauty Update: Played the eponymous character in the biopic Danton. Danton was famously ugly.
- Historical Domain Character: He's played quite a bunch of them, including Georges Jacques Danton, Auguste Rodin, Cyrano de Bergerac (the Edmond Rostand version, but still with bits of the real article), Baroque Music composer Marin Marais, 17th century party/kitchen manager François Vatel, Napoleonic minister Joseph Fouché, Christopher Columbus, writers Alexandre Dumas and Honoré de Balzac, Jacques de Molay, Cardinal Mazarin, Grigori Rasputin, association football administrator Jules Rimet, Ottoman Empire statesman Hussein Dey, Josef Stalin, French lawyer and Senator Henry Torrès and Nostradamus.
- Japandering: He appeared in commercials for Barilla pastas that were broadcast in both France and Italy in the 1990s, and more recently he appeared in commercials for the watch brand CVSTOS that were aimed at the Russian market.
- Large Ham: A poster-guy for this ever since Cyrano (though he had shades of this in the 1980s Francis Veber films he appeared in and with Danton). He perfectly knows when to ham it up and when not to.
- Miniseries: He was THE leading actor of the trend of French historical miniseries at the turn of the millennium, starting with The Count of Monte Cristo in 1998 and ending circa 2005 with a TV adaptation of The Accursed Kings.
- Mr. Fanservice: Before being known as a boisterous fat guy, he was more like this in his youth, showing his young and fit naked male body in movies like Les Valseuses, The Last Woman or Bye Bye Monkey.
- Period Pieces: Half of his filmography, if not more, is made of period dramas.
- Production Posse:
- Francis Veber often casts him in his comedies.
- Bertrand Blier directed him four times.
- Period piece TV films/mini-series director Josée Dayan also often casts him in the leading role.
- Those Two Actors:
- He appeared alongside his Café de la Gare comrades Patrick Dewaere and Miou-Miou in Les Valseuses and Get Out Your Handkerchiefs.
- He has appeared alongside Catherine Deneuve in 10 films since 1980.
- Depardieu and Pierre Richard have formed an Odd Couple in three comedy films directed by Francis Veber — La Chèvre, Les Compères and Les Fugitifs.
- He appeared alongside Christian Clavier in Guardian Angels, Les Misérables, Napoléon and in the first two Asterix films. Director Bertrand Blier reunited them in Convoi Exceptionnel in 2019.
- He has played alongside Daniel Auteuil in Jean de Florette, The Closet, 36 quai des Orfèvres and The Other Woman.
- He's also played alongside Isabelle Huppert three times, in Les Valseuses, Loulou and Valley of Love.
