On screen, he was a magnetic Saint Laurent and a moving writer at the end of his life: at only 37 years old, Gaspard Ulliel died suddenly after a skiing accident, ending a career that had been awarded several times.
“Victim of a skiing accident” on Tuesday, the actor “died”, his family said in a brief statement sent to AFP by his agent.
The actor who was spending a family vacation in Savoie collided on Tuesday afternoon with another skier at the crossroads of two blue slopes, according to a spokeswoman for the La Rosière resort. Seriously injured, he was then transported by helicopter to the Grenoble University Hospital, where he died.
The second skier did not need to be airlifted, according to the spokesperson.
The announcement of his accident came on Wednesday morning, evoking the fate of other celebrities who were victims of ski accidents. The Grenoble University Hospital had already admitted at the end of 2013 the German Formula 1 star Michael Schumacher, hospitalized for six months after a fall against a rock which occurred while he was skiing off-piste with his son in Méribel (Savoie).
He had finally left the hospital in June 2014 in a vegetative state to be installed in a medical bed in his family’s Swiss villa in Gland (canton of Vaud).
Located on the borders of the French and Italian Alps, La Rosière is a Savoyard family resort with reputedly easy slopes, but where the risk of collisions is present, such as in Flaine (Haute-Savoie), where a five-year-old British girl died this weekend. -end after being hit by a 40-year-old man who was skiing at excessive speed.
“This certain gaze”
The death of Gaspard Ulliel, a young actor with the face of an angel and an eclectic career, aroused a flood of emotional reactions from the distributor Gaumont, colleagues and members of the government.
“Gaspard Ulliel grew up with cinema and cinema grew with him. They loved each other madly. It is with a heavy heart that we will now see his most beautiful interpretations and meet this certain look. We are losing a French actor,” reacted Prime Minister Jean Castex on Twitter.
“His sensitivity and the intensity of his acting made Gaspard Ulliel an exceptional actor. The cinema today loses an immense talent. I send my condolences to his loved ones and my loving thoughts to all those who mourn him today,” said Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot.
Pierre Niney, who had also played Yves Saint Laurent on screen, and won the César for this role, said he was “heartbroken”.
“Gaspard was benevolence and kindness. Beauty and talent,” he said on Twitter.
Gaspard Ulliel was known to the general public for films such as “A Long Engagement Sunday” (2004) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, “Saint Laurent” (2014) by Bertrand Bonello and “Just the End of the World” (2016) by Xavier Dolan, who had won him the César for best actor in 2017. He played a writer there reuniting with his family after twelve years of absence, to whom he came to announce his impending death.
During an eclectic career, he had toured alongside big names in French cinema, such as Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu.
With his slight scar linked to a dog scratch in childhood, he was also the face of a Chanel perfume.
He led a career in France but also internationally and will soon be featured in the Marvel series “Moon Knight” broadcast on Disney +.