Gaspard Ulliel; 25 November 1984 – 19 January 2022) was a French actor.

He was best 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.

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.

Life and career

Ulliel was born in Boulogne-Billancourt (a suburb of Paris), to Christine, a runway show producer, and Serge Ulliel, a stylist. He has 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 quipped that the scar increases his emotional acting abilities because it looks like a dimple.

Ulliel attended the University of Saint-Denis, where he studied cinema. He 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 a César Award for Best Actor nomination.

In 2016, he appeared in two films: the lead role in Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World; and in Stephanie 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 nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Picture as well.

Ulliel has been 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 would have portrayed Anton Mogart/Midnight Man.

Personal life

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

On January 19, 2022, Ulliel was critically injured during a ski incident at the "La Rosière" resort in Savoie, and was recovered at the Grenoble hospital. He died the next day at the hospital, aged 37.