The best French actors and actresses
List activity
13K views
• 2 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
22 people
- Actress
- Music Department
- Producer
Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then studied at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique and followed an illustrious theatrical career, which includes Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country", Euripides' "Medea" (title role) etc. She made her movie debut in Le Prussien (1971) and soon became one of the top actresses of her generation, giving fine performances in important films, like Claude Goretta's The Lacemaker (1977), as a simple-minded girl who falls in love with - and is betrayed by - a student, Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man for Himself (1980), as a prostitute, and Maurice Pialat's Loulou (1980), as an upper-class woman who is physically attracted by a young vagabond. She made an inconsequential US debut in Otto Preminger's Rosebud (1975) before playing a brothel madam in Michael Cimino's disastrous Heaven's Gate (1980), but she fared better in Curtis Hanson's The Bedroom Window (1987) (as an adulteress who witnesses an attack). Huppert has an extremely productive collaboration with Claude Chabrol, who cast her in several movies, including Violette (1978), in which she played a woman who murders her parents, and Story of Women (1988), in which she gave an excellent performance as a shameless abortionist, the last woman to be executed in France. More recent good films include Patricia Mazuy's Saint-Cyr (2000) and Michael Haneke's controversial The Piano Teacher (2001), as a sexually repressed piano teacher.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Blue-eyed Vincent Cassel was born in Paris to a leading actor father, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and a journalist mother, Sabine Litique. Often labeled as a tough guy because of his roles, eclectic choices and talent have made of him a star of European cinema. First in La haine (1995), the young actor, actually coming from upper classes, succeeded to express the despair of a social class living in the suburbs of towns. This veracity in his play comes from the fact that he was in fact since years in connection with many hip-hop artists from the rising generation, (his own brother was leader of a legendary french rap group). Then the success of The Crimson Rivers (2000), where he plays a young French cop alongside Jean Reno, made of him "the man to count on." He never hid his taste for rap music, break dance, Capoeira, Brasil and his endless energy, but Vincent is also a family man, married to Monica Bellucci, his Italian co-star from The Apartment (1996) (aka The Apartment); and recently a father.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Nathalie Baye was born on 6 July 1948 in Mainneville, Eure, France. She is an actress and writer, known for Catch Me If You Can (2002), Laurence Anyways (2012) and Venus Beauty Institute (1999).- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Valérie Lemercier was born on 9 March 1964 in Dieppe, France. She is an actress and director, known for The Visitors (1993), Aline (2020) and Monte Carlo (2011).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Appealing actor Romain Duris is the exact example of those who arrived in the movie industry by chance, and to stardom without really desiring it. Discovered by a casting director while he was waiting in front of a high school in Paris, he was offered a role. Between popular successes such as Good Old Daze (1994), Dobermann (1997), Tom Thumb (2001), The Spanish Apartment (2002) or Arsène Lupin (2004), and independent films like Seventeen Times Cécile Cassard (2002), Exils (2004), The Crazy Stranger (1997), Being Light (2001), Déjà mort (1998) or When the Cat's Away (1996), Duris proves to be versatile enough to be credible as a bandit, as a homosexual, or simply as a French student in the streets of Barcelona. The consecration has been The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005); now Duris is seen as an excellent and touching actor by the critics and by the audience.- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Director
Audrey Justine Tautou was born on August 9, 1976 in Beaumont, France, to Evelyne Marie Laure (Nuret), a teacher, and Bernard Tautou, a dental surgeon. Audrey showed an interest for comedy at an early age and started her acting lessons at 'Cours Florent'. In 1998 she won the best young actress award in the ninth 'Jeune Comedien de Cinema Festival' in Bezier. Then, she came to the attention of Tonie Marshall who gave her a role in her film Venus Beauty Institute (1999) for which she won a Best New Actress Cesar. It came as a surprise to even Audrey: "I was so certain I could not be chosen that I told her that she probably dialled a wrong number." The director chose her for her natural nature: "She came, she gaffed, she turned reddish, her ears were in a funny position and her hair was relaxed. In five minutes, she gave me the heart of the character, a petite young girl who would like to be a lady and will become a woman." In 2000, Audrey was again nominated for a Cesar and her movie Amélie (2001) has been a phenomenal success worldwide.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France, to Anne Jeanne Josèphe (Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu, who was a metal worker and fireman. Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Café de la Gare", along with Patrick Dewaere and Miou-Miou. After minor roles in cinema, at last, he got his chance in Bertrand Blier's Going Places (1974). That film established a new type of hero in the French cinema and the actor's popularity grew enormously. Later, he diversified his screen image and became the leading French actor of the 80s and 90s. He was twice awarded a César as Best Actor for The Last Metro (1980) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), also received an Oscar nomination for "Cyrano" and a number of awards at international film festivals. In 1996, he was distinguished by the highest French title of "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur". He married Elisabeth Depardieu in 1971, and they divorced in 1996; she appeared with him in Jean de Florette (1986) and Manon of the Spring (1986); their children Guillaume Depardieu and Julie Depardieu are both actors.- Actor
- Writer
Pascal Greggory was born on 8 September 1954 in Paris, France. He is an actor and writer, known for La Vie En Rose (2007), Pauline at the Beach (1983) and Par le sang (2018).- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Julie Depardieu was born on 18 June 1973 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France. She is an actress and director, known for Rush Hour 3 (2007), A Very Long Engagement (2004) and La petite Lili (2003).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Clovis Cornillac was born on 16 August 1967 in Lyon, Rhône, France. He is an actor and director, known for A Very Long Engagement (2004), Eden Log (2007) and Asterix at the Olympic Games (2008). He has been married to Lilou Fogli since 30 August 2013. They have one child. He was previously married to Caroline Proust.- André Dussollier was born on 17 February 1946 in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, France. He is an actor, known for Tell No One (2006), A Very Long Engagement (2004) and Amélie (2001).
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Sabine Azéma was born on 20 September 1949 in Paris, France. She is an actress and director, known for Mélo (1986), A Sunday in the Country (1984) and Private Fears in Public Places (2006).- Actor
- Writer
Jean-Pierre Bacri was born on 24 May 1951 in Castiglione, Alger, France [now Bou Ismail, Algeria]. He was an actor and writer, known for Look at Me (2004), The Taste of Others (2000) and Family Resemblances (1996). He was married to Agnès Jaoui. He died on 18 January 2021 in Paris, France.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Jean-Pierre Darroussin was born on 4 December 1953 in Courbevoie, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France. He is an actor and director, known for Family Resemblances (1996), Le pressentiment (2006) and Le Havre (2011).- Actress
- Writer
- Composer
Charlotte Gainsbourg was born in London, England in 1971. She is an Anglo-French actress and singer. The daughter of English singer and actress Jane Birkin and French songwriter, singer and actor Serge Gainsbourg, she was raised in Paris. Charlotte made her motion picture debut in 1984. In 1986, Charlotte won a César Award for "Most Promising Actress", and, in 2000, she won "Best Supporting Actress" for the film The Log (1999). In 1993, Charlotte made her English speaking debut in The Cement Garden (1993), written and directed by her uncle, Andrew Birkin. She made her stage debut in 1994 in David Mamet's Oleanna at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse. In 1996, Charlotte starred as the title character in Jane Eyre (1996), a film adaption of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel. In 2006, Charlotte appeared alongside Gael García Bernal in Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep (2006). In 2007, she appeared as Claire in the Todd Haynes directed Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There (2007), also contributing a cover of the Dylan song "Just Like a Woman" to the film soundtrack. In 2009, she won the award for Best Actress at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for the film Antichrist (2009). Charlotte starred in the French/Australian production, The Tree (2010), released in 2010, and in Lars von Trier's science fiction disaster film, Melancholia (2011).- Jean Reno was born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez in Casablanca, Morocco, to Spanish parents (from Andalucía) who moved to North Africa to seek work. His father was a linotypist. Reno settled in France at 17. He began studying drama and has credits in French television and theater as well as films. His first two marriages both ended in divorce, and he had two children with each of them. He keeps homes in Paris and Los Angeles.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Daniel Auteuil was born on 24 January 1950 in Algiers, Alger, France [now Algeria]. He is an actor and director, known for Caché (2005), Jean de Florette (1986) and The Well-Digger's Daughter (2011). He has been married to Aude Ambroggi since 22 July 2006. They have one child. He was previously married to Emmanuelle Béart and Anne Jousset.- Actor
- Soundtrack
François Cluzet was born on 21 September 1955 in Paris, France. He is an actor, known for The Intouchables (2011), Tell No One (2006) and French Kiss (1995). He has been married to Narjiss Slaoui-Falcoz since 2011. He was previously married to Chantal Perrin.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Aïssa Maïga is a Senegalsese actress working in France. She was born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1975 to a Senegalese-Gambian mother and Malian father, an acclaimed journalist. She moved with her family to France when she was 4. She discovered her vocation as an actress in middle school, and won various professional roles while studying theater in high school. Her big screen début was in Saraka bô (1997), directed by Denis Amar.
Since then, Aïssa has worked with a number of internationally renowned directors, including Michel Gondry (in Mood Indigo (2013), Abderrahmane Sissako (in Bamako (The Court) (2006)), and Michael Haneke (in Code Unknown (2000) and Caché (2005)). Throughout, Aïssa has continued to perform onstage in celebrated plays such as "Brooklyn Boy" (2004), "Les Grandes Personnes" (2011), and the French production of David Lindsay-Abaire's "Good People" (2015).
Aïssa is at ease in a wide range of film roles, from African to young parishioner, aided by her fluency in multiple languages. She has won or been nominated for a number of prestigious prizes, including a Best Newcomer César (French Oscar) nomination in 2007 for Bamako (The Court) (2006) and the Best Actress Prize in 2009 at the Bastia Film Festival for Bianco e nero (2008) by Italian director Cristina Comencini. She also won the Best Actress Prize in 2013 at the Luchon Film festival for her role in Denis Malleval's Deadly Summer (2013), as well as the Crystal Globe for Best Actress in 2016 for her role in Anything for Alice (2014).
From comedic and dramatic roles to genre and action movies, from popular to art house films, Aïssa Maïga has become one of the unforgettable faces of international cinema.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Roschdy Zem was born on 28 September 1965 in Gennevilliers, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France. He is an actor and director, known for The Cold Light of Day (2012), Chocolat (2016) and Mauvaise foi (2006).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Fabrice Luchini was born on 1 November 1951 in Paris, France. He is an actor and writer, known for In the House (2012), Molière (2007) and Beaumarchais the Scoundrel (1996).- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Emmanuelle Béart was born August 14, 1963, in Gassin, France. She lived with her mother, brothers, and sister on a farm not far from Saint-Tropez in Provence (southern France), because her father, singer and poet Guy Béart, did not want his children to be affected by the glamour world of Paris. When Emmanuelle was thirteen, she saw Romy Schneider in the movie Mado (1976). From that time on, she wanted to be an actress. In Emmanuelle's teens, her parents sent her to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for four years, so she could learn English. There, she was engaged for a Robert Altman movie that was never made. After returning to France, she took drama classes and got her first TV role, in Raison perdue (1984). David Hamilton, the photographer/director, was impressed by her beauty and gave her a role in First Desires (1983). She met her spouse-to-be, Daniel Auteuil, while making Love on the Quiet (1985). The film that made her famous in France was Manon of the Spring (1986), in which she played the role of a blonde shepherd dancing nude in the fields. Director Tom McLoughlin chose her out of 5,000 candidates for her first Hollywood picture, Date with an Angel (1987). Emmanuelle is a very sensitive and a perfectionist. For the part of Camille in the film A Heart in Winter (1992), she took violin lessons for a whole year. Her biggest success was as a nude model in the art film La Belle Noiseuse (1991), which starred Michel Piccoli and was directed by Jacques Rivette.