Background and career
Gaspard Thomas Ulliel (French pronunciation: [ɡaspaʁ tɔmɑ yljɛl]; 25 November 1984 – 19 January 2022) was a French actor and model. He was known for having portrayed the young Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising (2007), fashion designer 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 also voiced Jack Frost in the French version of Rise of the Guardians (2012) and portrayed Anton Mogart in the Disney+ miniseries Moon Knight (2022). Ulliel made his feature film debut in Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) and had his breakthrough in Strayed (2003). He was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actor for three consecutive years for his performances in Summer Things (2002), Strayed (2003), and A Very Long Engagement (2004)—winning in 2005 for A Very Long Engagement as the World War I soldier Manech. In 2015 he earned his first César nomination for Best Actor for Saint Laurent. In 2017 he won the César Award for Best Actor for his role as a terminally ill playwright in It's Only the End of the World (2016). He became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2015. His other notable works include The Last Day (2004), Paris, je t'aime (2006), Jacquou le Croquant (2007), The Princess of Montpensier (2010), To the Ends of the World (2018), Sibyl (2019), and Twice Upon a Time (2019). Ulliel died on 19 January 2022 at the age of 37 following a skiing accident at La Rosière resort in Savoie, France.
Ulliel was born in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the only child to Christine, a stylist and runway show producer, and Serge Ulliel, a fashion designer. His great-grandfather, Raoul Ulliel (1889–1943), was a bronzesmith. His paternal grandmother was of Italian and Spanish descent. He had a scar on his left cheek as a result of a doberman attacking him with its claws when, at the age of six, he attempted to ride the dog like a horse. He once quipped that the scar increased his emotional acting abilities because it looked like a dimple. His obituary in the French newspaper Libération described him as having the "most famous scar in French cinema". Ulliel attended the bilingual school École Jeannine Manuel in Paris where he learned English. Ulliel wanted to be a jazz musician and even tried playing the saxophone for a couple of years, but he quit because he thought he wasn't talented. He also learned how to play the piano and was interested in architecture and photography. He dreamed of becoming a film director and attended the University of Saint-Denis in Paris, where he studied cinema for two years until he quit to focus on his acting career.
While he was still at school, Ulliel began acting at the age of eleven when a friend of his mother's friend was working at an agency and looking for young actors. She asked Ulliel if he wanted to give it a try and he said yes, but just for fun. It was only after he turned seventeen that he really decided to continue working in the industry. He left the University of Saint-Denis after two years because he was getting more offers as an actor, but he still dreamed of writing and directing his own film, stating in a 2011 interview for Anthem Magazine: "I wake up every morning with this idea stuck in my mind that I want to write and direct my own film one day. As I work more and more on different sets, I see how hard it is to be a director. It's insane the amount of work and confidence that goes into it. I’m so respectful of filmmakers and I admire what they do. I hope that one day I'll find the right subject and the confidence to try it. I'm still young." He made his acting debut with a small part in one episode of Une femme en blanc, a 1997 miniseries for French television starring Sandrine Bonnaire. He continued appearing in made-for-television films and TV series 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 alongside Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci. 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 and won the Lumière Award for Most Promising Actor. He also performed at the drama school Cours Florent, where he was discovered by director André Téchiné, who cast him in the lead role of his World War II drama Strayed in 2003, starring opposite Emmanuelle Béart as a mysterious teenager who protects her family. For this breakthrough performance Ulliel was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actor, and he won the Étoiles d'Or for Best Male Newcomer.
Ulliel had his first English-speaking role in Peter Greenaway's 2004 film The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea, in which he played a French man named Leon. In 2004 he starred in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's World War I drama A Very Long Engagement, co-starring with Audrey Tautou and Marion Cotillard. For this he won a César Award for Most Promising Actor as soldier Manech Langonnet, the fiancé of Tautou's character Mathilde. Manech disappears in the trenches in 1917, but Mathilde refuses to believe that he is dead and starts investigating what happened to him. That same year, he also starred in Rodolphe Marconi's drama The Last Day, opposite Mélanie Laurent and Nicole Garcia. In 2005 Ulliel played Izik in Richard Dembo's World War II drama Nina's House. In 2006 he appeared opposite Marianne Faithfull and Elias McConnell in Gus Van Sant's segment ("Le Marais") in the anthology film Paris, je t'aime, in which he played Gaspard, a young gay man flirting with a male print shop worker (McConnell). In 2007 Ulliel portrayed the title role of the young Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising, his first major English-language film. He also played the title role in Laurent Boutonnat's historical film Jacquou le Croquant, based on the 1899 novel by Eugène Le Roy about a peasant who leads a revolt against the Count of Nansac. In 2008 he starred as François, a scientist researching black holes in the sci-fi film The Third Part of the World, directed by Eric Forestier. He also 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 starred opposite Jean Reno in the thriller Inside Ring (also known as Ultimate Heist), directed by Laurent Tuel. He also portrayed the angel Xas in Niki Caro's English-language romantic drama film The Vintner's Luck, based on the 1998 novel The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox, with Jérémie Renier, Vera Farmiga, and Keisha Castle-Hughes. Later that year he starred as Nathanaël in Alain Tasma's drama Ultimatum, set in 1990's Israel during the Gulf War. In 2010 he portrayed Henry I, Duke of Guise, in Bertrand Tavernier's romance film The Princess of Montpensier, based on the 1662 novel of the same name by Madame de La Fayette. The following year he played William in Emmanuel Mouret's comedy film The Art of Love. In 2012 Ulliel made his stage debut as the lead in Que faire de Mister Sloane?, an adaptation of English author Joe Orton's 1963 play Entertaining Mr. Sloane directed by Michel Fau at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. He then voiced Jack Frost in the French version of the animated film Rise of the Guardians and played Balthazar, one of the four sons of Nicole Garcia's character, in Brigitte Roüan's comedy film A Greek Type of Problem.
He portrayed French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the 2014 biographical film Saint Laurent, directed by Bertrand Bonello, which earned him a Lumière Award for Best Actor and nominations for the César and the Globe de Cristal for Best Actor. In December 2014 Ulliel was a member of the jury of the Cinecoles Short Film section at the 14th Marrakech International Film Festival. In 2015 Ulliel starred as Tomas in an adaptation of Lars Norén's play Démons, directed by Marcial Di Fonzo Bo, at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris. In 2016 he appeared in two films: 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, with 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, in which Ulliel portrayed Count Louis d'Orsay. In 2017 he was nominated for the Jury Prize for Best Actor at the Riviera International Film Festival for It's Only the End of the World alongside co-star Vincent Cassel. Ulliel won his second César Award, this time for Best Actor, for his performance in the film and also received his second nomination for Best Actor for both the Lumière Awards and the Globe de Cristal awards (with Cassel also nominated for the latter). 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 voiced British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in Le Brasier Shelley, a pictureless film in 3D sound. He also starred in Guillaume Nicloux's First Indochina War drama To the Ends of the World as French soldier Robert Tassen opposite Gérard Depardieu; F. J. Ossang's science-fiction film 9 Fingers ; and Pierre Schoeller's French Revolution film One Nation, One King with Louis Garrel, Niels Schneider, and Adèle Haenel.
In 2019 he portrayed actor Igor Maleski in Justine Triet's comedy-drama film Sibyl. He also played the lead role in the Arte/Netflix's time-travel miniseries Twice Upon a Time, directed by Guillaume Nicloux, as Vincent Dauda, a man who mistakenly gets delivered a mysterious wooden box that allows him to travel back in time to save his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, portrayed by Freya Mavor. In 2007 and 2019 Ulliel was a member of the jury for the Deauville American Film Festival in France.
