Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu CQ (born December 27 1948, pronunciation (help·info)) is one of France's most prominent actors. He has won a number of honors including a nomination for an Academy Award for the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac and the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in Green Card.

Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France. He is one of six children of Anne Jeanne Josèphe "la Liette" (née Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel "le Dédé" Depardieu, a metal worker and volunteer fireman. Depardieu spent more time in the street than in the classroom and left school at 13. At the age of 16, Depardieu left Châteauroux for Paris. There, he studied acting under Jean-Laurent Cochet, and went on to become one of France's most renowned actors. In 1986, his fame grew as a result of his performance as a doomed, hunchbacked farmer in the film Jean de Florette. Five years later he won a César for his starring role in Cyrano de Bergerac. More recently, he has played Obélix in the three Astérix movies.

In 1970 Depardieu married Élisabeth Guignot with whom he had two children, actor Guillaume (1971–2008) and actress Julie (1973). In 1992, while separated from Élisabeth, he had a daughter, Roxane, with the model Karine Sylla. In 1996 he divorced Élisabeth and began a relationship with actress Carole Bouquet, with whom he was married from 1997 to 2005. On 14 July 2006, he had a son, Jean, with French-Cambodian Hélène Bizot, according to the issue 3089 (31 July 2008) of Paris Match. Since 2005, Depardieu has lived with a Harvard-educated novelist, Clémentine Igou.