13/10/2008

French actor Guillaume Depardieu died on Monday, October 13 in Paris, at the age of 37. He was struck down by severe pneumonia which he contracted in Romania while filming Alexandre Iordachescu’s L'enfance d'Icare (“Icarus’ Childhood”).

Born on April 7, 1971 into a family of actors that includes his famous father Gérard Depardieu, mother Elisabeth (Jean de Florette) and sister Julie (Cesar for Best Supporting Actress in 2004 and 2008), Depardieu became an enfant terrible of French cinema whose life was marked by excess. He suffered a motorbike accident in 1995 and a leg amputation in 2003.

Nominated for the Best Male Newcomer Cesar in 1992 for Alain Corneau’s All the Mornings of the World and in 1994 for Pierre Salvadori’s Wild Target, Depardieu won the award in 1996 for Les Apprentis (“The Apprentices”).

The actor appeared in around 30 films, including Léos Carax’s Pola X (in competition at Cannes in 1999) and Jacques Rivette’s Don’t Touch the Axe [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (in competition at Berlin in 2007). He won acclaim this year for his performances in two films which screened at Cannes and are currently showing in theatres: Bertrand Bonello’s On War [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Pierre Schoeller’s Versailles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Geraldine Michelot
interview: Pierre Schoeller
film profile].

Two more of his films will soon be released: Sylvie Verheyde’s Stella [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] on November 12 and Christine Dory’s Les inséparables (formerly known as Circuit fermé) on December 3.

(Translated from French)