Description
GASPARD ULLIEL BIOGRAPHY:
Gaspard Thomas Ulliel (25 November 1984 – 19 January 2022) was a French actor. He was known for having portrayed the young Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising (2007), and fashion mogul Yves Saint Laurent in the biopic Saint Laurent (2014), and for being the face of Chanel men’s fragrance Bleu de Chanel for twelve years. He was cast as Anton Mogart / Midnight Man in the upcoming Disney+ series Moon Knight (2022). Ulliel was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actor for three consecutive years between 2003 and 2005. He won that award in 2005 for his performance as World War I soldier Manech in A Very Long Engagement (2004). In 2017, he won the César Award for Best Actor for his role in It’s Only the End of the World. He was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2015. Ulliel died on 19 January 2022, following a skiing accident at La Rosière resort in Savoie, France.
Career
Ulliel began acting while he was still at school, appearing in Une femme en blanc, a miniseries for French television in 1997. He began appearing in made-for-television films 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. 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 Cours Florent, where he was discovered by director André Téchiné, who cast him in the lead role of his war drama film Strayed in 2003, starring opposite Emmanuelle Béart. For his performance in the film, Ulliel was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actor. Ulliel had his first English-speaking role in Peter Greenaway’s 2004 film The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea. In 2004, he starred in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s World War I drama A Very Long Engagement, which co-starred Audrey Tautou, and won a César Award for Most Promising Actor for his performance as soldier Manech Langonnet, the fiancé of Tautou’s character. That same year, he also starred in Rodolphe Marconi’s drama The Last Day opposite Mélanie Laurent and Nicole Garcia. In 2006, he played Gaspard in Gus Van Sant’s “Le Marais” segment of the anthology film Paris, je t’aime. 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. In 2008, he 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 portrayed the angel Xas in Niki Caro’s romantic drama film A Heavenly Vintage (also called The Vintner’s Luck), based on the novel The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox, in which he appeared opposite Jérémie Renier, Vera Farmiga, and Keisha Castle-Hughes. In 2010, he portrayed Henry I, Duke of Guise in Bertrand Tavernier’s romance film The Princess of Montpensier. In 2012, Ulliel voiced Jack Frost in the French version of the animated film Rise of the Guardians. He portrayed French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the 2014 biopic film Saint Laurent directed by Bertrand Bonello, which earned him a Lumières Award for Best Actor and nominations for the César and Globe de Cristal Best Actor awards. 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; the film was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Picture as well as earning Ulliel a second César Award, for Best Actor, and second nominations for Best Actor in both the Lumières and 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 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 and Adèle Haenel. In 2019, he portrayed filmmaker Igor Maleski in Justine Triet’s comedy-drama film Sibyl, and starred as Vincent Dauda in the Arte/Netflix’s time-travelling miniseries Twice Upon a Time. In October 2021, Ulliel appeared as plastic surgeon Danley Marshall Windkins in Alex Lutz and Arthur Sanigou’s La Vengeance au Triple Galop, a comedy TV film for France’s Canal Plus opposite Marion Cotillard and Audrey Lamy. In July 2021, Ulliel joined the cast of the Disney+ superhero streaming series Moon Knight, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and set to be released on 30 March 2022. He portrayed the villain Anton Mogart / Midnight Man. Ulliel voiced Scott in Bertrand Bonello’s hybrid live-action and animation film Coma, which will have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on 11 February 2022. In January 2022, Ulliel was on a break from shooting Tikkoun, a Canal Plus’s crime thriller miniseries about the carbon tax fraud, 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 January 31. The last film that Ulliel finished shooting was More Than Ever, directed by Emily Atef and set to be released in 2022. He was also set to collaborate again with Saint Laurent director Bertrand Bonello in the science-fiction film La Bête co-starring Léa Seydoux. Shooting was scheduled to start in April 2022.
Personal life
Ulliel dated actress Cécile Cassel from 2005 to 2007. He had a brief relationship with Charlotte Casiraghi in 2007, and dated Chanel’s then-International VIP relations officer, Jordane Crantelle, from 2008 to 2011. He was in a relationship with French model and singer Gaëlle Pietri from 2013 to 2020, with whom he had a son who was born in January 2016.
Death
On 18 January 2022 at around 4:00 p.m., Ulliel was critically injured while skiing at the La Rosière resort in Savoie, France, when he collided with another skier at an intersection between two intermediate slopes after turning left, presumably to join his friends on an adjoining slope, and suffered serious brain trauma. An investigation indicated that both skiers fell to the ground after the collision, and that Ulliel was motionless and unconscious when rescuers arrived. The director of the La Rosière resort, Jean Regaldo, told France’s BFM TV that Ulliel was not wearing a helmet when rescuers arrived. Helmets are not required on French ski slopes. Regaldo also said weather conditions were “perfect” at the time of the accident and that there were no rocks in the area of the collision, which he described as easily accessible. The other skier, a Lithuanian man in his forties, was wearing a helmet and was not injured. He told the investigators that the collision was not very violent. Ulliel was airlifted by helicopter to the trauma unit of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes in nearby La Tronche, where he died the following day around 4:00 p.m. at the age of 37. Upon hearing the Lithuanian skier and other witnesses of the accident, the public prosecutor of Albertville, Anne Gaches, stated that wearing a helmet “would not necessarily have changed things”, and that “it was not noted excessive speed, inappropriate behavior or fault of one of the two skiers”. Following their testimonies, the prosecutor also declared that the two skiers evolved side by side and ran into each other. “For the moment, it is difficult to say whether it was the shock or the fall that led to Mr. Ulliel’s death”, she said. Gaches also stated that no autopsy would be performed on Ulliel’s body. The resort offered psychological support for both the Lithuanian skier, who was very shocked, and for Ulliel’s relatives. On 27 January 2022, a memorial service for Ulliel was held at the Church of St. Eustache in Paris. It was attended by nearly a thousand people including his family, friends and co-stars such as Audrey Tautou, Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel, Jérémie Rénier (who also acted as a pallbearer), Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Lindon, Nathalie Baye, Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel. He was buried in a private ceremony at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. The La Rosière resort also paid tribute to Ulliel by symbolically stopping the ski lifts for one minute in tribute to him at 3:58 p.m., which was the time of his accident on January 18.
Career
Ulliel began acting while he was still at school, appearing in Une femme en blanc, a miniseries for French television in 1997. He began appearing in made-for-television films 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. 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 Cours Florent, where he was discovered by director André Téchiné, who cast him in the lead role of his war drama film Strayed in 2003, starring opposite Emmanuelle Béart. For his performance in the film, Ulliel was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actor. Ulliel had his first English-speaking role in Peter Greenaway’s 2004 film The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea. In 2004, he starred in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s World War I drama A Very Long Engagement, which co-starred Audrey Tautou, and won a César Award for Most Promising Actor for his performance as soldier Manech Langonnet, the fiancé of Tautou’s character. That same year, he also starred in Rodolphe Marconi’s drama The Last Day opposite Mélanie Laurent and Nicole Garcia. In 2006, he played Gaspard in Gus Van Sant’s “Le Marais” segment of the anthology film Paris, je t’aime. 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. In 2008, he 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 portrayed the angel Xas in Niki Caro’s romantic drama film A Heavenly Vintage (also called The Vintner’s Luck), based on the novel The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox, in which he appeared opposite Jérémie Renier, Vera Farmiga, and Keisha Castle-Hughes. In 2010, he portrayed Henry I, Duke of Guise in Bertrand Tavernier’s romance film The Princess of Montpensier. In 2012, Ulliel voiced Jack Frost in the French version of the animated film Rise of the Guardians. He portrayed French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the 2014 biopic film Saint Laurent directed by Bertrand Bonello, which earned him a Lumières Award for Best Actor and nominations for the César and Globe de Cristal Best Actor awards. 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; the film was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Picture as well as earning Ulliel a second César Award, for Best Actor, and second nominations for Best Actor in both the Lumières and 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 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 and Adèle Haenel. In 2019, he portrayed filmmaker Igor Maleski in Justine Triet’s comedy-drama film Sibyl, and starred as Vincent Dauda in the Arte/Netflix’s time-travelling miniseries Twice Upon a Time. In October 2021, Ulliel appeared as plastic surgeon Danley Marshall Windkins in Alex Lutz and Arthur Sanigou’s La Vengeance au Triple Galop, a comedy TV film for France’s Canal Plus opposite Marion Cotillard and Audrey Lamy. In July 2021, Ulliel joined the cast of the Disney+ superhero streaming series Moon Knight, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and set to be released on 30 March 2022. He portrayed the villain Anton Mogart / Midnight Man. Ulliel voiced Scott in Bertrand Bonello’s hybrid live-action and animation film Coma, which will have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on 11 February 2022. In January 2022, Ulliel was on a break from shooting Tikkoun, a Canal Plus’s crime thriller miniseries about the carbon tax fraud, 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 January 31. The last film that Ulliel finished shooting was More Than Ever, directed by Emily Atef and set to be released in 2022. He was also set to collaborate again with Saint Laurent director Bertrand Bonello in the science-fiction film La Bête co-starring Léa Seydoux. Shooting was scheduled to start in April 2022.
Personal life
Ulliel dated actress Cécile Cassel from 2005 to 2007. He had a brief relationship with Charlotte Casiraghi in 2007, and dated Chanel’s then-International VIP relations officer, Jordane Crantelle, from 2008 to 2011. He was in a relationship with French model and singer Gaëlle Pietri from 2013 to 2020, with whom he had a son who was born in January 2016.
Death
On 18 January 2022 at around 4:00 p.m., Ulliel was critically injured while skiing at the La Rosière resort in Savoie, France, when he collided with another skier at an intersection between two intermediate slopes after turning left, presumably to join his friends on an adjoining slope, and suffered serious brain trauma. An investigation indicated that both skiers fell to the ground after the collision, and that Ulliel was motionless and unconscious when rescuers arrived. The director of the La Rosière resort, Jean Regaldo, told France’s BFM TV that Ulliel was not wearing a helmet when rescuers arrived. Helmets are not required on French ski slopes. Regaldo also said weather conditions were “perfect” at the time of the accident and that there were no rocks in the area of the collision, which he described as easily accessible. The other skier, a Lithuanian man in his forties, was wearing a helmet and was not injured. He told the investigators that the collision was not very violent. Ulliel was airlifted by helicopter to the trauma unit of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes in nearby La Tronche, where he died the following day around 4:00 p.m. at the age of 37. Upon hearing the Lithuanian skier and other witnesses of the accident, the public prosecutor of Albertville, Anne Gaches, stated that wearing a helmet “would not necessarily have changed things”, and that “it was not noted excessive speed, inappropriate behavior or fault of one of the two skiers”. Following their testimonies, the prosecutor also declared that the two skiers evolved side by side and ran into each other. “For the moment, it is difficult to say whether it was the shock or the fall that led to Mr. Ulliel’s death”, she said. Gaches also stated that no autopsy would be performed on Ulliel’s body. The resort offered psychological support for both the Lithuanian skier, who was very shocked, and for Ulliel’s relatives. On 27 January 2022, a memorial service for Ulliel was held at the Church of St. Eustache in Paris. It was attended by nearly a thousand people including his family, friends and co-stars such as Audrey Tautou, Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel, Jérémie Rénier (who also acted as a pallbearer), Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Lindon, Nathalie Baye, Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel. He was buried in a private ceremony at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. The La Rosière resort also paid tribute to Ulliel by symbolically stopping the ski lifts for one minute in tribute to him at 3:58 p.m., which was the time of his accident on January 18.
