Celebrated French Actors Who Made a Global Impact

France is currently the most successful film industry in Europe. More than 100 years since the first film by Auguste and Louis Lumière was projected onto a screen in 1895, the French film industry has been at the forefront of cinema. Throughout the year’s french film has influenced and shaped modern cinema. There is a long list of directors and French actors and actresses who have helped the business grow into one of the most respected in the world. 

When you talk about the greatest movies in the world, France is responsible for many incredible movies that have made an impact, especially on American cinema. You only need to look at the annual Cannes Film Festival as evidence of how big and influential French cinema is. 

While we could go on and on about the best French films and directors, we want to take a look at the actors who have made their mark. These French masters are not only big names in their native country but also around the world. Many have made the jump to America and found fame and fortune, but they all credit their home country as the place that gave them their start as actors. So read on and discover more about the best French actors the world has ever seen. 

1. Gérard Depardieu

When talking about French actors who are well known around the world, Gérard Depardieu is one of the first names that comes to mind. He is one of the most prolific actors not only in France but the world, with over 240 acting credits to his name. When looking at his filmography it’s hard to know where to start, but his performance in The Last Metro, a historical drama from 1980 that won Depardieu the coveted César Award for Best Actor, is a good place to start.

Other highlights from his 55-year career include Police, Going Places, Les Misérables, Cyrano de Bergerac, La Vie En Rose, Green Card, Hamlet, The Man in the Iron Mask, and Astérix & Obélix. As well as movies, Depardieu has performed in almost 20 theatre plays, released over a dozen albums, and written nine books. 

2. Vincent Cassel

Mathieu Kassovitz’s incredible 1995 film La Haine (Hate) gave Vincent Cassel his breakthrough role. He was nominated for two César Awards, for Best Actor and Most Promising Actor, and while he didn’t win, Cassel soon found himself scoring great roles in a multitude of movies.

L’Appartement (with former wife and actress Monica Bellucci), Brotherhood of the Wolf, Dobermann, Mesrine, and Irréversible are some of Cassel’s standout French-speaking roles, while Eastern Promises, Ocean’s Thirteen, Black Swan, and Jason Bourne are up there with his best English-speaking roles. 

Cassel is also known for voicing Diego in the French-language versions of the Ice Age movies and for marrying 21-year-old French model Tina Kunakey in 2018 after first getting together when she was 19 and he was 51. They have one daughter together. 

3. Omar Sy

French comedy series Service après-vente des émissions is Omar Sy’s most recognized work in his country of birth. And while funny, he has done a lot more great work over the past two decades. He came to the attention of American audiences with his performance in Intouchables, which earned him the César Award for Best Actor, making him the first black actor to ever win. 

While he continues to make films in his native France like Two Is a Family and The Takedown, along the French mystery series Lupin, Sy has also had great success in America, appearing in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Jurassic World, Inferno, Transformers: The Last Knight, and Jurassic World Dominion. 

4. Jean Dujardin

Starting off as a stand-up comedian, Jean Dujardin has established himself as a great actor. He first appeared in French TV shows before he really got noticed around the world for his role as George Valentin in the 2011 Academy Award-winning movie The Artist.

While still making movies in France, the recognition The Artist gave him meant that Dujardin had many offers from Hollywood. Some of his best American roles have come in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, and Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy. 

5. Jean Reno

As far as French actors that have transitioned into the Hollywood system go, Jean Reno is at the very top. Although not born in France (he’s Morrocan but gained French citizenship after moving there as a teenager), Reno is one of the country’s great actors who has over 100 acting credits to his name. 

Some of Reno’s best movies include French movies The Big Blue, Les Visiteurs, Wasabi, La Femme Nikita, and The Crimson Rivers, and American flicks Godzilla, Léon: The Professional (although it’s English-made), Ronin, The Da Vinci Code, and Mission: Impossible. Reno has also walked the boards over the years and is a much-loved actor. 

6. Alain Delon

Alain Delon is a stalwart of the French film industry. He has been acting for an amazing 65 years and has won several major awards. When it comes to his most acclaimed performances, it’s movies such as Purple Noon, The Leopard, La Piscine, Rocco and His Brothers, and Monsieur Klein that critics and fans praise. 

Delon has done so much for the French cinema that he was awarded the Officier of the Ordre national du Mérite in 1995 and Chevalier (knight) of the Légion d’honneur in 2005. While he did dabble in Hollywood during the 60s, Delon couldn’t break through and returned to France where his career has thrived. 

7. Guillaume Canet

Brought up around horses, Guillaume Canet initially wanted to be a show jumper, but a fall from a horse at age 18 was the catalyst for Canet to take up acting. It proved an astute decision, with Canet starring in The Beach, Joyeux Noël, and Love Me If You Dare.

Canet took up writing and directing in the early 00s and after several short films made a big splash with the neo-noir flick Tell No One. The movie was a big hit in France and won Canet the César Award for Best Director. While he continues to act, it’s his writing and directing credits that are getting the praise these days, with his next movie a live adaptation of Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom. Canet is also currently in a relationship with Marion Cotillard, another great product of French cinema.

8. Jean Paul Belmondo

Part of the 60s French new wave period of cinema, Jean Paul Belmondo was a huge movie star during the heyday of French cinema. A huge box office draw, Belmondo often starred in crime dramas as a policeman or detective. Some of the movies that turned him into a star include Breathless, That Man from Rio, Pierrot le Fou, Borsalino, and The Professional.

Strangely Belmondo had no desire to move to Hollywood and give it a crack, turning down multiple roles in English-language speaking movies. Handsome and talented, Belmondo was often cited as the French James Dean or Marlon Brando. 

9. Lambert Wilson

Anyone that has seen the Matrix movies will be familiar with The Merovingian. He plays a major role in The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Matrix Resurrections. What you might not know is that he’s played by French actor Lambert Wilson. Although not a fan of acting as a youngster, Wilson soon gravitated to the medium in his teen years and decided he wanted to become an “American actor” and star in big Hollywood movies. 

He appeared in several Hollywood movies, such as Fron Hell To Victory, Sahara, and The Blood of Others, but didn’t become the big movie star he had hoped. Tucking his tail between his legs, Wilson returned to France and became one of the best French actors of the past few decades. This has allowed him to dip his toes back into Hollywood and have a successful career in both countries. 

10. Gaspard Ulliel

Although he is no longer with us, Gaspard Ulliel deserves a spot on this list. At the time of his death from a tragic skiing accident, he was part of the new wave of French actors taking the world by storm. He made his acting debut in the 2001 movie Brotherhood of the Wolf at the age of 17 and broke out with his performance in the 2003 war drama Strayed. 

It didn’t take him long to score his first English-speaking role, being cast in The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea a year after Strayed. While he appeared in American movies like Hannibal Rising and Paris, Je T’aime, it was the movies he made in France, like Saint Laurent, The Dancer, and Inside Ring that showcased his immense talent. He is sadly missed by his family, friends, and those in the movie business. 

11. Mathieu Amalric

Every good Bond movie needs an interesting villain. Enter Mathieu Amalric. In Quantum of Solace, he plays baddie Dominic Greene. But this wasn’t the film that got him known. Amalric became a household name after his performances in Kings and Queen (2004), Munich (2005), and Heartbeat Detector (2007). This led to his award-winning role as French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. 

For the past 15 years, Amalric has divided his time between France and Hollywood, with some of his best work coming in movies Venus in Fur, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Very Private Life of Mister Sim, Oxygen, and The French Dispatch. 

12. Tahar Rahim

Tahar Rahim has been acting for less than a decade but already has some great roles under his belt. Working in a factory and nightclub while he studied acting in Paris, Rahim’s first appearance on film came in the documentary Tahar, l’étudiant, which was about his days as an acting student. 

His first actual acting roles came in the French horror Inside and the police drama La Commune in 2007. He broke out with the French drama A Prophet and soon found himself cast in English-speaking movies such as The Eagle, Mary Magdalene, and The Mauritanian. Rahim also received critical acclaim for his role in the hit TV series The Serpent.

13. Romain Duris

French actor Roman Duris is better known in his homeland than in America, but that doesn’t mean he is any less of a thespian. Before taking up acting he studied music and was the drummer in an acid-jazz band. His first time on camera was in the music video for pop star Princess Erika, with his first acting role coming in 1993 after he was noticed in a queue and cast in the movie Le péril jeune.

When looking at his filmography some of the best picks include the movies The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Heartbreaker, The New Girlfriend, and Our Struggles.

14. Christopher Lambert

Few French actors are as praised and maligned as Christopher Lambert. Although born in New York and raised in Geneva, Lambert spent his formative years in Paris, hence his weird accent.

France is where he made his bones as an actor, appearing in several small movies before drawing critical acclaim for portraying Tarzan in the 1984 flick Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. He then won the César Award for Best Actor for his role in the Luc Besson-directed 1985 movie Subway and got cast in the 1986 science fiction surprise hit Highlander. 

The rest of the 80s and the 90s were good times for Lamber, with the unique actor appearing in solid flicks such as mafia drama The Sicilian, thriller Knight Moves, sci-fi actioner Fortress, and video game adaptation Mortal Kombat.

Since the turn of the century, Lambert’s output has been a steady mix of American and French films that have failed to hit the heights of his early career, but he’s always a welcome presence no matter the movie.

15. Louis de Funès

When you’re talking about great French actors, this man is always in the conversation. Louis de Funès might not be known to English-speaking nations, but throughout Europe, he is considered one of the best to ever appear on the big screen. He played piano as a young man and didn’t act until the age of 31, having a bit part in La Tentation de Barbizon.

Between 1945 and 1964 Funès starred in over 150 movies and over 100 theatre productions. He was known for his facial expressions and great comedic timing and was made a knight of France’s Légion d’honneur in 1973. His legacy continues today, with many actors influenced by him and two museums dedicated to his life.

16. Gérard Philipe

Gérard Philipe was one of the icons of French cinema after World War II. He starred in 32 films between 1944 and 1959 before he suddenly passed away from liver cancer at the age of 36. While his time on earth was short, Philipe made the most of it, starring in a string of big hits and French classics including The Idiot, Devil in the Flesh, La Ronde, and The Grand Maneuver. 

His legacy has been firmly established with “Rue Gérard Philipe,” a street in the 16th arrondissement of Paris named in his honor, and the “Gérard Philipe Theatre” (TGP) in Paris, which was also named after him.

17. Jean Rochefort

Not every big-name French actor starts life in the movies. Jean Rochefort worked in the theatre for seven years before finally making the jump to film. He had small roles in Cartouche, Captain Fracasse, and Marvelous Angelique, before taking a lead role in Hearth Fires. 

Rochefort was off to the races and would go on to feature in over 160 movies during his career. He also continued to perform on the stage, appearing in 35 plays across his 87 years on the planet. He won many awards during his time as an actor and was a passionate horse breeder and equestrianism lover. 

18. Olivier Martinez

For over three decades Olivier Martinez has been starring in both French and American movies. After winning the César Award for the Most Promising Actor for his role in the film Un, deux, trois, soleil, Martinez appeared in several French hits before making his Hollywood debut alongside Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp in Before Night Falls in the year 2000. 

This led to Martinez moving to Los Angeles and establishing a career in America, appearing in movies such as the erotic thriller Unfaithful, action movie S.W.A.T., horror thriller Dark Tide with former wife Halle Berry, and biblical drama Paul, Apostle of Christ. Although he hasn’t acted as frequently over the past decade, Martinez remains a leading man. 

19. Jean Gabin

There aren’t too many actors that left their profession to join the army and fight in the war. But that’s exactly what Jean Gabin did when he joined General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Forces and fought the Nazis in World War II. Before that Gabin had established himself as one of France’s best actors with roles in La grande illusion, Pépé le Moko, La bête humaine, and Le jour se lève.

Gabin went to Hollywood in the late 30s but failed to break through, while his post-war career wasn’t much better until he earned critical acclaim for his role in the 1954 movie Touchez pas au grisbi. This sparked two decades of hits for Gabin who acted right up until his death from leukemia in 1976. 

20. François Cluzet 

Making his stage debut in 1976 at the age of 21, François Cluzet scored his first film role three years later in the drama Cocktail Molotov. He slowly began to win more roles and soon found himself heralded as one of the best French actors during the 80s and 90s. 

Cluzet has a varied career that covers many different genres and has seen him work with a wide range of directors. Some of his outstanding movies include The Untouchables, Rose Island, Turning Tide, Tell No One, Irreplaceable, and Little White Lies. 

21. Yves Montand

Although born in Italy, Yves Montand grew up in France when his parents fled their homeland after Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime took power. He worked at his sister’s beauty saloon and on the docks before being spotted by the great Edith Piaf while performing as a music-hall singer in 1944.

Montand became part of Piaf’s touring act and first found fame that way before giving acting a crack. He made both French and American films and was very popular in the 80s with English-speaking audiences. He also released over 30 albums and performed on Broadway throughout his 45-year career.