Guillaume Depardieu
Guillaume Depardieu | |
|---|---|
 Depardieu in 2005 | |
| Born | Guillaume Jean Maxime Antoine Depardieu 7 April 1971 Paris, France |
| Died | 13 October 2008 (aged 37) Garches, France |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1974–2008 |
| Spouse |
Elise Ventre
(m. 1999; div. 2001) |
| Children | 1 |
| Parent(s) | Gérard Depardieu Élisabeth Depardieu |
| Relatives | Julie Depardieu (sister) Delphine Depardieu (cousin) |
| Awards | Most Promising Actor 1995 Les apprentis |
Guillaume Jean Maxime Antoine Depardieu (7 April 1971 – 13 October 2008) was a French actor, winner of a César Award, and the second oldest child of Gérard Depardieu.
Early life
[edit]Depardieu was the son of actor Gérard Depardieu and his wife, actress Élisabeth Depardieu (née Guignot). He was the older brother of actress Julie Depardieu. His two half-siblings, Roxane and Jean, were born when he was an adult.
Career
[edit]Guillaume shared the screen with his father several times throughout his career, beginning with his first film role, aged three, playing Gérard's son in Claude Goretta's That Wonderful Crook (Pas si méchant que ça) in 1974. His next appearance beside his father was in Tous les matins du monde (1991) where they portrayed the same character at different ages: this was also the younger Depardieu's breakthrough role. They again portrayed twice the same character, in the miniseries Count of Monte Cristo (1998) and Les Misérables (2000) where they played respectively Edmond Dantès and Jean Valjean. They co-starred in A Loving Father (Aime ton père) in 2002, this time playing different characters.
In 1996, Depardieu won a César Award (France's national film award) as the most promising newcomer in the comedy The Apprentices (Les Apprentis). Several starring roles followed, but Depardieu's career was affected by his chaotic personal life which included drug addiction, several prison sentences and health problems that led eventually required the amputation of a leg. In 2007, he began rebuilding his career with the films The Duchess of Langeais ( Ne touchez pas la hache) and La France and starred in the 2008 film De la guerre.[1]
Personal life
[edit]Depardieu had a relationship with actress Clotilde Courau from 1997 to 1999, then married actress Elise Ventre on 30 December 1999. They had a daughter and separated in 2001. Depardieu was known to have had a strained relationship with his famous father, including a public falling out in 2003..[2] He detailed their relationship in his 2004 autobiography Tout Donner (Giving Everything). Depardieu was said to have reconciled with his father shortly before his death.[1]
Guillaume was often called an enfant terrible by the French magazine Paris Match and was called eccentric and bohemian by others. By 1993, he had already served two jail sentences for drug offences, which included dealing heroin and theft. In 2003, he was fined and given a nine-month suspended prison sentence for threatening a man with a gun. In 2008, he was arrested for driving his scooter while intoxicated.[3][4][5]
In 1995, Depardieu crashed on his motorcycle when he ran over a suitcase that had fallen off a car and onto the roadway. He underwent surgery to repair damage to his knee. The wound developed a Staphylococcus aureus infection. Doctors performed seventeen subsequent operations in an attempt to clear the infection and save the leg; however, these efforts were unsuccessful, and Depardieu's leg was amputated above the knee in June 2003.[5]
Death
[edit]Depardieu's health was compromised by drug addiction and by his 1995 motorcycle accident and subsequent surgeries.[1] He contracted a severe viral pneumonia, caused by MRSA, while filming The Childhood of Icarus (L'Enfance d'Icare).[6] He was unable to overcome the infection, and on 13 October 2008, died at the hospital in Garches, aged 37.[5][7][8]
Gérard Depardieu later blamed his son's death on his first imprisonment for drug offences, at age 17: he said that Guillaume had never recovered from it, and that he had been unfairly treated at the time by a "hateful" judge who wanted to put a Depardieu in jail. Gérard Depardieu commented: "They killed my son for two grams of heroin".[9]
Filmography
[edit]Cinema
[edit]| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Pas si méchant que ça | ||
| 1992 | Tous les matins du monde | Young Marin Marais | Nominated – César Award for Most Promising Actor |
| 1993 | Cible émouvante | ||
| 1995 | Les apprentis | Fred | César Award for Most Promising Actor |
| 1997 | Marthe | ||
| Alliance cherche doigt | |||
| 1998 | White Lies | Antoine | |
| 1999 | Pola X | Pierre | |
| 2000 | Elle et lui au 14e étage | ||
| Les marchands de sable | |||
| 2001 | Amour, prozac et autres curiosités | ||
| 2002 | Once Upon an Angel | Grégoire | |
| A Loving Father | Paul | ||
| Le pharmacien de garde | |||
| 2004 | Process | ||
| 2006 | Celibataires | ||
| 2007 | The Duchess of Langeais | Armand de Montriveau | |
| La France | |||
| 2008 | De la guerre | ||
| Versailles | Damien | ||
| Stella | |||
| Les inséparables | |||
| 2009 | A Real Life | ||
| The Childhood of Icarus | (Final film role) |
Television
[edit]| Year | Film/series | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Ricky | TV movie | |
| 1992 | Le Lyonnais | TV series (1 episode) | |
| 1998 | The Count of Monte Cristo | Young Edmond Dantès | Miniseries |
| 2000 | Les Misérables | Young Jean Valjean | Miniseries |
| 2001 | Caméra Café | TV series (1 episode) | |
| Zaïde, un petit air de vengeance | TV movie | ||
| 2002 | Napoleon | Jean-Baptiste Muiron | |
| 2004 | The Accursed Kings | King Louis X | Miniseries |
| Milady | Athos | ||
| 2008 | Château en Suède | TV movie |
Discography
[edit]- Post Mortem (2013)
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Lichfield, John (14 October 2008). "Gérard Depardieu's son dies of pneumonia at 37". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
- ^ Henley, John (26 September 2003). "Depardieu family values". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2025.
- ^ Smith, David James. "Guillaume Depardieu: total eclipse of the son". The Times. London. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
- ^ Leprince, Benoît (16 October 2008). "GUILLAUME DEPARDIEU Le jeune homme et la mort" [GUILLAUME DEPARDIEU: The Young Man and Death]. Paris Match (in French). Retrieved 4 February 2023.
- ^ a b c Bergan, Ronald (14 October 2008). "Guillaume Depardieu". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
- ^ "The Childhood of Icarus, actor Guillaume Depardieu's final film, reaches Romanian cinemas". Business Review. 11 April 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
- ^ "Guillaume Depardieu n'est plus"[dead link]. Archived 17 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Peoplestar.tv. Retrieved on 13 October 2008. (in French)
- ^ C.J.; Aziz Zemouri (13 October 2008). "L'acteur Guillaume Depardieu est mort". Le Figaro (in French). Paris. Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
- ^ Balle, Catherine; Vavasseur, Pierre (22 September 2018). "Gérard Depardieu, l'homme sans limites". Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 4 June 2025.
External links
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