Gaspard Ulliel

The Face of a Scar

Gaspard Ulliel was six years old when a Doberman leaped at his face while he was trying to ride it like a horse. That scar on his left cheek ended up becoming his most distinctive feature on screen. But he never saw it as a physical flaw.

He was born in Seine-Saint-Denis in 1984.

His parents worked in the fashion world, which partly explains his natural elegance in front of photographers. He started out on French television as a teenager and soon moved into film with a small role in Brotherhood of the Wolf in 2001. On that shoot he had barely any lines, but his physical presence already stood out among the supporting cast.

André Téchiné gave him his first big break in 2003 with Fugitives. He played a mysterious young man who helped a widow during the Nazi occupation of France. That role earned him his first César nomination and put his name on the radar of the top casting directors in Paris.

The Trench Explosion

Jean-Pierre Jeunet cast him to star in A Very Long Engagement in 2004 alongside Audrey Tautou. The role of Manech earned him the César for Most Promising Actor after two failed attempts. Suddenly his face was on movie posters across the country.

Hollywood came calling to have him play the young Hannibal Lecter in 2007. The film Hannibal Rising received harsh reviews from the specialized press. But Ulliel came out of the disaster unscathed because his performance was the only thing that worked in that unnecessary prequel.

He decided to return to Europe and step away from big American productions for a while. He preferred French art-house cinema and projects that would push him out of his usual comfort zone.

And the gamble paid off.

In 2014 he took on the challenge of playing Yves Saint Laurent in the film directed by Bertrand Bonello. The competition was fierce, since another biopic about the designer came out that same year. Ulliel lost weight and worked on his voice until the fragility of a genius felt real in every scene of the film.

The Silence of the Alps

Xavier Dolan called him to lead the cast of It's Only the End of the World in 2016. The shoot relied almost entirely on suffocating close-ups in which Ulliel had to convey everything with barely any dialogue. That effort earned him the César for Best Actor against some of the most powerful names in the French industry.

For 2021, he filmed the Marvel series Moon Knight in Budapest, where he played the villain Anton Mogart. He wasn't especially drawn to superhero movies, but he took the role to share scenes with Oscar Isaac. He spent several months shooting in Hungary before returning to France to rest.

On January 18, 2022, he was involved in an accident at the La Rosière ski resort in Savoie. He collided with another skier at a trail intersection while trying to turn left. He was not wearing a helmet at the time.

He died the following day at the hospital in Grenoble at age 37.

His last film was Plus que jamais, which screened posthumously at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Critics noticed his weary gaze in the scenes he shared with Vicky Krieps. The Disney+ production dedicated the first episode of its series to his memory with a plaque at the end of the credits. The autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was severe traumatic brain injury.