Guillaume Depardieu, son of actor was star in own right

Guillaume Depardieu won the prize in 1996 as the most promising young actor at the Cesar awards - France's equivalent of the Academy Awards. (Michael Sohn/Associated Press/File 2008)

PARIS - Guillaume Depardieu, the often-troubled son of renowned French film star Gerard Depardieu who gained praise for his own career as an actor, died yesterday, hospital officials said. He was 37.

Mr. Depardieu died at Raymond-Poincare hospital in Garches, west of Paris, from complications related to a sudden case of pneumonia, the Paris area hospitals authority said.

He had been rushed to the hospital late Sunday. Family lawyer Jean-Yves Lienard said the actor flew to France on Sunday from Romania, where he contracted a pulmonary illness while filming.

Mr. Depardieu won the prize in 1996 as the most promising young actor at the Cesar awards - France's equivalent of the Academy Awards - for his role in the film "Les Apprentis" (The Apprentices).

"I loved him infinitely. He was a wonderful guy, an immense actor," said Alain Corneau, who directed both father and son in the 1991 movie "Tous les Matins du Monde" (All the Mornings of the World), on French radio RTL. The film marked the start of the younger Depardieu's professional acting career.

As a teenager and young adult, Guillaume Depardieu faced problems with drugs, alcohol, and violence that led to convictions for traffic violations, insults, and narcotics.

He had a public falling-out with his father in 2003. That year, Guillaume Depardieu had his right leg amputated to end years of pain from a bacterial infection that followed a motorcycle accident in 1996.