His last two major roles led him to play Yves Saint Laurent and win the César for best actor (for
Just the end of the world).
Gaspard Ulliel died Wednesday at the age of 37. "Victim of a skiing accident on Wednesday, Gaspard Ulliel died," his family announced in a statement sent to AFP by his agent. The accident occurred Tuesday afternoon, in the resort of La Rosière, in Savoie. According to information from BFM TV, the actor was rescued by the CRS Alpes, with the support of the station doctor, who found him unconscious when they arrived at the scene. He was then transported to Grenoble University Hospital.
Revealed at the age of 19 in
Les Égarés
by André Téchiné alongside Emmanuelle Béart, his interpretation of a soldier from the First World War in
A long engagement Sunday
by Jean-Pierre Jeunet earned him the César for best male hope in 2005 At the time, he already shone with his natural and nonchalant elegance, which would soon seduce fashion and especially Chanel, which made him the magnetic muse of its Bleu perfume.
When he receives his Cesar for best actor in
Only the end of the world,
he is absent and it is therefore the director Xavier Dolan who goes on stage to receive the compression and read a magnificent text written by his actor. Between thanks and a tribute to the cinema, Gaspard Ulliel underlines there “the mischief to be rewarded with a film with the title of apocalypse. It seems that the beautiful stories of cinema are those which at the beginning do not foreshadow the end. These words find such a sad echo today. Who could have predicted such an early and brutal disappearance for the one we loved in
Saint Laurent larger than life in Bertrand Bonello's biopic, as a troubled actor in
Sibyl
, as a passionate Duke of Guise in
La Princesse de Montpensier
, as an unforgettable soldier in
A Long Engagement
, to name but a few...
