Gaspard Ulliel

Gaspard Thomas Ulliel ([ɡaspaʁ yljɛl]; 25 November 1984 – 19 January 2022) was a French actor. He was known for portraying 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 the Chanel men's fragrance Bleu de Chanel. He was cast as Anton Mogart / Midnight Man in the Disney+ series Moon Knight (2022).

Ulliel was nominated for a César Award for the category of Most Promising Actor in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, he won that award for his role in A Very Long Engagement, which co-starred Audrey Tautou. In 2017, he won the César Award for Best Actor for his role in It's Only the End of the World. Ulliel died on 19 January 2022, following a skiing accident at La Rosière resort in Savoie, France.

Ulliel was born in Boulogne-Billancourt (a suburb of Paris), to Christine, a runway show producer, and Serge Ulliel, a stylist. He had a scar on his left cheek as a result of an attack from a doberman when he attempted to ride the dog like a horse at the age of six. He once quipped that the scar increased his emotional acting abilities because it looked like a dimple and his obituary for French newspaper Libération opened by describing him as having the "most famous scar in French cinema".

Ulliel attended the University of Saint-Denis, where he studied cinema.

Ulliel began acting while he was still at school, appearing in Une Femme En Blanc, a film for French television. He also performed at the Cours Florent, where he was discovered by Les égarés director André Téchiné.

He began appearing in made-for-television films during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and then began to be known as a film actor in France, as well as starring in the title role in the movie Hannibal Rising, his first English-language film.

In 2004, he starred in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement and won a César Award for Most Promising Actor for his performance.

In 2007, he appeared on the cover of the January issue of French Vogue with supermodel Doutzen Kroes. Ulliel later was chosen as the face of Chanel for its new men's fragrance, Bleu de Chanel. The film for the campaign was directed by Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese and debuted in August 2010.

He portrayed French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the 2014 biopic film Saint Laurent, 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; and in Stéphanie Di Giusto's The Dancer, an unconventional biopic of American dancer Loie Fuller. He also starred in Guillaume Nicloux's Les Confins du Monde, opposite Gérard Depardieu.

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).

Ulliel was the face of Longchamp, a French leather and luxury goods company, along with Kate Moss.

In July 2021, Ulliel joined the cast of the upcoming superhero streaming series Moon Knight, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He portrayed Anton Mogart / Midnight Man.

Ulliel dated actress Cécile Cassel from 2005 to 2007. He had a brief relationship with Charlotte Casiraghi in 2007, and dated Jordane Crantelle from 2008 to 2013.

From 2013 on, Ulliel had been in a relationship with model and singer Gaëlle Pietri. On 9 November 2015, it was announced that the couple were expecting their first child together. The birth of the couple's son was announced on 9 February 2016.

On 18 January 2022, Ulliel was critically injured during a ski incident at the La Rosière resort in Savoie, France, when he collided without a helmet with another skier at an intersection between two slopes and suffered serious brain trauma. He was transported by helicopter to the trauma unit of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes in nearby La Tronche. He died the next day at the hospital, at the age of 37.

Film

Television

Theatre

• Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (2015)