The actor had been the victim of a serious ski accident in La Rosière (Savoie) on January 18. Transported to Grenoble hospital, he died on January 19 at the age of 37. Revealed at 19 in The Lost by André Téchiné in 2003, he leaves behind a rich and ambitious filmography.
He had a good movie face. A smile and a slight scar which could not leave the professionals of the big screen indifferent, nor even the public who will very quickly follow the career of the young actor. His talent will take care of the rest.
Gaspard Ulliel’s last appearance on the screens dates back to last fall when he shared the comedy poster Triple gallop revenge by Alex Lutz with Leïla Bekhti and Audrey Lamy. Two years earlier, he starred in the film Sibyl by Justine Triet with Virginie Efira and Adèle Exarchopoulos. The film had been presented in competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. In just a few years, Gaspard Ulliel has become a leading actor in French cinema. Moon Knight, a Marvel series soon to be broadcast on Disney+.
First role at 11 years old
Born on November 25, 1984, to stylist parents, Gaspard Ulliel spent his childhood between school and the family apartment in central Paris, where he drew for hours. It is a friend of his mother who offers him to join the agency of actors that she has just created. He is only 11 years old, but he quickly gets a small role in a TV movie. After a few summer internships at the Cours Florent, he enrolled after his baccalaureate at the University of Saint-Denis for cinema studies, which he abandoned all the more quickly as his career quickly took off.
He was spotted in 2002 in Michel Blanc’s film, Kiss whoever you want, which earned him a César nomination for best male hope. Then at 19, he played in The Lost by André Téchiné alongside Emmanuelle Béart. He plays Yvan, a rather wild boy who, during the exodus, crosses the roads of France with two children and their mother.
Gaspard Ulliel, on his role in “The Lost”
Then will come a series of films in which he stands out. A long engagement Sunday (2004) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet allowed him to enter the big family of cinema by winning the César for best young male hope. He gives the reply to Isabelle Huppert in A dam against the Pacific by Rithy Panh, but also to Jean Reno in The first circle. In 2010, he played Henri de Guise in The Princess of Montpensier by Bertrand Tavernier.
New Caesar
In 2014, he excelled in Saint Laurent (2014) by Bertrand Bonello by succeeding in embodying the famous French couturier in a very stylized biopic that focuses on the creator that was Yves Saint Laurent. The film achieves critical success against its competitor Yves Saint Laurent, by Jalil Lespert, released the same year. Gaspard Ulliel is nominated for the César for best actor, but is beaten by his competitor Pierre Niney.
We then see it in Xavier Dolan’s film, Just the end of the world (2016), which earned him the César for best actor in 2017. He played a writer there reuniting with his family after twelve years of absence, to whom he came to announce his impending death.
His face and his silhouette of a young first earned him to become a figure of French fashion, he who was the son of two stylists. And in particular with the Chanel brand which had offered to become the muse of a perfume.
(With AFP)