French actor Gaspard Ulliel, known for his roles in It's Only the End of the World and the upcoming Marvel Studios series Moon Knight, has passed at the age of 37 due to injuries sustained in a skiing accident in the French Alps.
Before Marvel Studios' Moon Knight, Ulliel enjoyed a promising and successful acting career in French cinema since the early 2000s, when he won the César for Most Promising Actor two years straight for his performances in Summer Things and Strayed. However, to American audiences he was probably better known for playing a young Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising. More recently, Ulliel gained praise for his performance playing fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent in the designer's biopic and the aforementioned It's Only the End of the World, directed by Xavier Dolan.
As Deadline reports, Ulliel was taken to a hospital in Grenoble on Tuesday after suffering a head injury due to a crash in France’s Savoie region, where the actor had been enjoying vacations with his family, wife Gaëlle Piétri and their son Orso. The couple had just celebrated their son’s sixth birthday last week, and the tragic event is believed to be among a series of rising accidents in the skiing region. At the time of writing neither his family nor Ulliel's representatives had published any statements on the matter.
Ulliel was not featured in the first Moon Knight trailer that was just released this Monday. In Moon Knight, Ulliel plays Anton Mogart, a.k.a. Midnight Man, a notorious thief and antagonist to Oscar Isaac's Marc Spector, to join Ethan Hawke among the series' cast of villains. Aside from being an accomplished actor, Ulliel was a recognized model too, acting as the face of several campaigns for high-end brands such as Chanel and Longchamp.
Moon Knight is scheduled to premiere in March on Disney Plus, so expect some form of tribute for the late French actor to be included in the released cuts just like the ones posted by several French cinema icons today. Nevertheless, since not much is known about Moon Knight up to this point, it’s impossible to tell whether Ulliel's passing will alter any future plans for the show or its main character within the wider MCU, as was the case with Chadwick Boseman and Black Panther 2.
Besides his César-winning portrayal of a terminally ill playwright in It's Only the End of the World, where he co-stars with Marion Cotillard (The Dark Knight Rises) and Léa Seydoux (No Time to Die), Ulliel's legacy also includes To the Ends of the World (Les Confins du Monde), Sibyl, and French romantic drama Il Était Une Seconde Fois, available on Netflix as Twice Upon A Time.
Marvel Studios' Moon Knight is scheduled to be released on March 30, 2022, on Disney Plus.
Source: Deadline