Editing Gérard Depardieu (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Gérard Depardieu 1976 Novecento.jpg|left|thumb|Depardieu in 1975 on the set of ''[[Novecento (film)|Novecento]]'']]
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu was born on 27 December 1948 in [[Châteauroux]], [[Indre]], France. He is one of the five children of Anne Jeanne Josèphe (née Marillier), a stay-at-home mother known as "La Lilette", and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu (better known in his neighborhood as "Dédé" because he could write only two letters),<ref name=rigoulet/>{{rp|12}} a metal worker and volunteer fireman.<ref name="filmreference1948">{{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/74/Gerard-Depardieu.html |title=Gerard Depardieu Biography (1948–) |publisher=Film Reference |access-date=26 February 2010}}</ref><ref name="genindre1">{{cite web |url=http://genindre.org/arbpdf/depardieu.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030112220/http://genindre.org/arbpdf/depardieu.pdf |archive-date=30 October 2008 |title=Les ancêtres de Gérard Depardieu (1948) }}</ref> His father and mother were both born in 1923 and both died in 1988.

Depardieu grew up in poverty in a two-room apartment at 39 rue du Maréchal-Joffre, [[Châteauroux]], in a working-class family, with five brothers and sisters.<ref name=rigoulet/>{{rp|19}} Depardieu helped his mother when she was in labour with his younger brothers and sisters.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cojean|first=Annick|date=2002|title=Il était une fois… Dédé et Lilette Depardieu, racontés par leur fils Gérard|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2002/08/28/gerard-depardieu_4257514_1819218.html|journal={{Lang|fr|Le Monde}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Djian|first=Jean-Michel|date=2012|title=Interview de Gérard Depardieu|url=https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/voix-nue/gerard-depardieu-15|journal=France Culture}}</ref> He spent more time on the streets than in school, leaving at the age of 13. Practically illiterate and half stammering, he learned to read only later.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2010|title=Depardieu passe les livres|url=http://www.liberation.fr/culture/0101638121-depardieu-passe-les-livres|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130701221024/http://www.liberation.fr/culture/0101638121-depardieu-passe-les-livres|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 July 2013|journal=Libération|access-date=2 September 2022}}</ref> He worked at a printworks, and took part in boxing matches in his spare time.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Godard and Pédron|title=Gérard Depardieu. L'homme blessé|url=http://www.parismatch.com/People-Match/Cinema/Actu/Gerard-Depardieu.-L-homme-blesse-453422/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121223074356/http://www.parismatch.com/People-Match/Cinema/Actu/Gerard-Depardieu.-L-homme-blesse-453422/|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 December 2012|journal=Paris Match|access-date=2 September 2022}}</ref> He also became involved in selling stolen goods, and was put on probation.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Atkin|first1=Tim|date=4 September 2005|title=Voulez-vous poulet avec moi?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/sep/04/houseandgarden.books|access-date=27 April 2014|website=The Observer}}</ref>

During a difficult adolescence, he turned to theft and smuggling all kinds of goods, notably cigarettes and alcohol, to the [[G.I.|GIs]] at the large American [[air base]] of Châteauroux-Déols. He also acted as a [[bodyguard]] for prostitutes who came down from Paris on weekends, the GIs' payday.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2012|title=Sur les traces berrichonnes de Gérard Depardieu|url=http://www.lamontagne.fr/france-monde/actualites/2012/12/18/sur-les-traces-berrichonnes-de-gerard-depardieu-1377661.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005021053/http://www.lamontagne.fr/france-monde/actualites/2012/12/18/sur-les-traces-berrichonnes-de-gerard-depardieu-1377661.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 October 2013|journal=La Montagne|access-date=2 September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Delahousse|first=Laurent|date=2009|title=Gérard Depardieu : blessures secrètes|journal=Un Jour, Un Destin}}</ref> His family nicknamed him "Pétard" or "Pétarou", because of the habit he had acquired of [[Flatulence|breaking wind incessantly]].<ref name=rigoulet>{{Cite book|last=Rigoulet|first=Patrick|title=Gérard Depardieu. Itinéraire d'un ogre|publisher=Éditions du Rocher|year=2007|isbn=978-2-268-06288-4 | oclc=166454940 | language=fr}}</ref>{{rp|23}} In 1968, Depardieu's childhood best friend Jacky Merveille, also a [[crime boss|kingpin]] from Châteauroux, died in a car accident, prompting him to take decisive control over his future.<ref name="rigoulet" />{{rp|37}}[[File:Gérard Depardieu Cannes 1994.jpg|thumb|upright|Depardieu at the [[1994 Cannes Film Festival]]]]