French actor Gérard Depardieu gets 18-month suspended sentence in sexual assault case-OxBig News Network

File photo of Actor Gerard Depardieu.
| Photo Credit: AP

A Paris court on Tuesday found actor Gérard Depardieu guilty of having sexually assaulted two women on a 2021 film set, giving him an 18-month suspended prison sentence.

The actor, 76, has been convicted of having groped a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant during the filming of “Les Volets Verts” (“The Green Shutters”).

The case was widely seen as a key post-#MeToo test of how French society and its film industry address allegations of sexual misconduct involving prominent figures.

Depardieu, who has denied the accusations, didn’t attend Tuesday’s hearing.

Depardieu’s long and storied career — he told the court that he’s made more than 250 films — has turned him into a French movie giant. He was Oscar-nominated in 1991 for his performance as the swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac.

During the four-day trial in March, Depardieu rejected the accusations, saying he’s “not like that.”

Paris’ public prosecutor had requested that Depardieu be found guilty and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of €20,000. The prosecutor denounced the actor’s “total denial and failure to question himself.

Depardieu has been accused publicly or in formal complaints of misconduct by more than 20 women, but so far only the sexual assault case has proceeded to court. Some other cases were dropped because of a lack of evidence or the statute of limitations.

For more than a half-century, Depardieu stood as a towering figure in French cinema, a titan known for his commanding physical presence, instinct, sensibility and remarkable versatility.

A bon vivant who overcame a speech impediment and a turbulent youth, Depardieu rose to prominence in the 1970s and became one of France’s most prolific and acclaimed actors, portraying a vast array of characters, from volatile outsiders to deeply introspective figures.