A burly, highly talented leading man and one of Europe's most prolific screen performers from the 1970s onward, Gerard Depardieu was once described as both a "loutish giant" and an international sex symbol, As an actor, he brings to his portrayals an intensity and attention to detail that endows all his characters with a sense of urgency.Born to an impoverished family -- his father was an illiterate sheet metal worker with a fondness for drink -- Depardieu spent a Dickensian childhood replete with brushes with the law. A classic "juvenile delinquent", he dropped out of school at age 12 and
