Gaspard Ulliel

At 37 years old, Gaspard Ulliel has this physical status:

Ulliel began acting while he was still at school, at eleven years old, when a friend of a friend of his mother was working at an agency and was looking for young actors. She asked Ulliel if he wanted to give it a try and he said "yes", but just for fun. It was only after he turned seventeen that he really decided to continue working in this industry. He left the University of Saint-Denis after two years because he was getting more offers as an actor, but he still dreamed about writing and directing his own film, stating in a 2011 interview for Anthem Magazine; "I wake up every morning with this idea stuck in my mind that I want to write and direct my own film one day. As I work more and more on different sets, I see how hard it is to be a director. It's insane the amount of work and confidence that goes into it. I’m so respectful of filmmakers and I admire what they do. I hope that one day I'll find the right subject and the confidence to try it. I'm still young."

He made his acting debut with a small part in one episode of Une femme en blanc, a 1997 miniseries for French television starring Sandrine Bonnaire. He continued appearing in made-for-television films and TV series during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and then became known as a film actor in France.

In 2001, Ulliel made his feature film debut with a minor role in Christophe Gans's Brotherhood of the Wolf, alongside Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci.

In 2002, Ulliel played the role of Loic in Michel Blanc's romantic comedy-drama film Summer Things, for which he earned his first César Award nomination for Most Promising Actor, as well as winning the Lumières Award for Most Promising Actor.

He also performed at the drama school Cours Florent, where he was discovered by director André Téchiné, who cast him in the lead role of his World War II drama film Strayed in 2003, starring opposite Emmanuelle Béart as a mysterious teenager who protects her family. For his breakthrough performance in the film, Ulliel was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actor, and won the Étoiles d'Or for Best Male Newcomer.

Ulliel had his first English-speaking role in Peter Greenaway's 2004 film The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea, where he played a French man named Leon.

In 2004, he starred in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's World War I drama A Very Long Engagement, co-starring with Audrey Tautou and Marion Cotillard, and won a César Award for Most Promising Actor for his performance as soldier Manech Langonnet, the fiancé of Mathilde, Tautou's character, who disappeared in the trenches in 1917 and whom she refuses to believe is dead and starts investigating what happened to him. That same year, he also starred in Rodolphe Marconi's drama The Last Day, opposite Mélanie Laurent and Nicole Garcia.

In 2005, Ulliel played Izik in Richard Dembo's World War II drama Nina's House.

In 2006, he appeared in Gus Van Sant's "Le Marais" segment of the anthology film Paris, je t'aime, opposite Marianne Faithfull and Elias McConnell, in which he played Gaspard, a young gay man flirting with a male print shop worker played by McConnell.

In 2007, Ulliel starred in the title role in the movie Hannibal Rising, his major English-language film where he portrayed the young Hannibal Lecter. That same year, he also played the title role in Laurent Boutonnat's historical film Jacquou le Croquant, based on the 1899 novel by Eugène Le Roy about a peasant who leads a revolt against the Count of Nansac.

In 2008, he starred as François, a scientist researching black holes in the sci-fi film The Third Part of the World, directed by Eric Forestier. He also starred as Joseph, the son of Isabelle Huppert's character in Rithy Panh's drama The Sea Wall, based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Marguerite Duras.

In 2009, Ulliel starred opposite Jean Reno in the thriller Inside Ring (also known as Ultimate Heist), directed by Laurent Tuel. He also portrayed the angel Xas in Niki Caro's English-language romantic drama film The Vintner's Luck, based on the 1998 novel The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox, in which he appeared opposite Jérémie Renier, Vera Farmiga, and Keisha Castle-Hughes. That same year, he also starred as Nathanaël in Alain Tasma's drama Ultimatum, set in 1990's Israel during Gulf War.

In 2010, he portrayed Henry I, Duke of Guise in Bertrand Tavernier's romance film The Princess of Montpensier, based on the 1662 novel of the same name by Madame de La Fayette. In 2011, he played William in Emmanuel Mouret's comedy film The Art of Love.

In 2012, Ulliel made his stage debut in Que faire de Mister Sloane?, an adaptation of English author Joe Orton's 1963 play, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, in which he played the title role and was directed by Michel Fau at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. That same year, he also voiced Jack Frost in the French version of the animated film Rise of the Guardians; and played Balthazar, one of the four sons of Nicole Garcia's character in Brigitte Roüan's comedy film, A Greek Type of Problem.

He portrayed French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the 2014 biographical film Saint Laurent directed by Bertrand Bonello, which earned him a Lumières Award for Best Actor and nominations for the César, and for the Globe de Cristal for Best Actor.

In December 2014, Ulliel was a member of the jury of the Cinecoles Short Film section at the 14th Marrakech International Film Festival.

In 2015, Ulliel starred as Tomas in an adaptation of Lars Norén's play Démons, directed by Marcial Di Fonzo Bo at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris.

In 2016, he appeared in two films: the lead role in Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World as Louis, a playwright who returns home after twelve years to tell his family that he's dying, in which he starred opposite Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel, Léa Seydoux and Nathalie Baye; and in Stéphanie Di Giusto's The Dancer, an unconventional biopic of American dancer Loie Fuller where Ulliel portrayed Count Louis Dorsay.

In 2017, he was nominated for the Jury Prize for Best Actor at the Riviera International Film Festival for his role in Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World alongside co-star Vincent Cassel. Ulliel also won his second César Award, this time for Best Actor, for his performance in the film, and also earned second nominations for Best Actor in both the Lumières, and the Globe de Cristal awards (the latter with Cassel also nominated).

In 2018, he co-starred with Isabelle Huppert in Benoît Jacquot's drama Eva, adapted from the 1945 novel Eve by James Hadley Chase. That same year, he voiced British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in Le Brasier Shelley, a pictureless film in 3D sound; portrayed French soldier Robert Tassen opposite Gérard Depardieu in Guillaume Nicloux's First Indochina War drama To the Ends of the World; and also starred in F. J. Ossang's science-fiction film 9 Fingers; and in Pierre Schoeller's French Revolution film, One Nation, One King, opposite Louis Garrel, Niels Schneider and Adèle Haenel.

In 2019, he portrayed actor Igor Maleski in Justine Triet's comedy-drama film Sibyl; and played the lead role in the Arte/Netflix's time-travel miniseries Twice Upon a Time, directed by Guillaume Nicloux, where Ulliel starred as Vincent Dauda, a man who gets delivered by mistake a mysterious wooden box that allows him to travel back in time to save his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, portrayed by Freya Mavor.

In 2007 and 2019, Ulliel was a member of the jury of the Deauville American Film Festival in France.

In January 2021, he was a member of the jury of the Gérardmer Fantasy Film Festival in France.

Between April and May 2021, Ulliel filmed Alex Lutz and Arthur Sanigou's La Vengeance au Triple Galop, a comedy TV film for France's Canal Plus (and a parody of the 1983 Australian TV series Return to Eden), where he appeared as plastic surgeon Danley Marchal-Widkins opposite Marion Cotillard and Audrey Lamy. This was Ulliel's last film to be released during his lifetime, and it was broadcast by Canal Plus on 4 October 2021.

In June 2021, Ulliel finished shooting his penultimate film (and his last live-action) More Than Ever, directed by Emily Atef, which made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2022.

In July 2021, Ulliel joined the cast of the Disney+ streaming superhero miniseries Moon Knight, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and released on 30 March 2022. He portrayed the villain Anton Mogart / Midnight Man opposite Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke and May Calamawy, guest starring in the episode "The Friendly Type".

Ulliel voiced the doll Scott in Bertrand Bonello's hybrid live-action and animation film Coma, which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival where it competed in the Encounters section on 12 February 2022, marking it as the first film released after Ulliel's death. Bonello said on 24 December 2021 that he had just finished filming Coma, which makes it the last film that Ulliel filmed. but Ulliel's presence in Coma was kept a secret until it was selected for the Berlin Film Festival in February 2022. He was also set to collaborate for the third time with Bonello in the science-fiction film The Beast, co-starring with Léa Seydoux. Shooting was scheduled to start in April 2022.

In December 2021, Ulliel started shooting Tikkoun, a Canal Plus's crime thriller miniseries about the carbon tax fraud where he would play a character inspired by French businessman Arnaud Mimran, In January 2022, Ulliel was on a break from shooting Tikkoun, when he died after a skiing accident. The production was directed by Xavier Giannoli, still had 84 more days of shooting and Ulliel was expected to return to the set on 24 January. On 18 February 2022, Canal Plus confirmed to France's Le HuffPost that actor Niels Schneider will replace Ulliel in the miniseries. Ulliel and Schneider were friends and co-stars in the films One Nation, One King (2018) and Sibyl (2019).

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