Emmanuelle Debever Death; Missing French Actor Found Dead at 60

May 2024 · 3 minute read

French actor Emmanuelle Debever, one of several women who accuse Gerard Depardieu of sexual assault and harassment in recent years, died. She was 60.

Following France’s National Audiovisual Institute’s Monday post on X (previously Twitter), other outlets reported Debever’s probable suicide Thursday. Debever’s death is under investigation by the Paris prosecutor. Authorities told ABC News and Variety that her partner reported her missing on Nov. 29 after she left their home with a “worrying note”.

Debever was hospitalized after jumping from a bridge into Paris’ Seine River, according to those accounts. Multiple sources in the U.S. and France said Debever died on Dec. 7, but Variety says Paris prosecutors simply said media outlets confirmed her death.

According to some accounts, Debever died on the same day that France 2 aired an episode of Complément d’Enquête on actor Depardieu, 74,’s recent charges. Debever was unrelated to the documentary.

A France Television spokesman tells PEOPLE Thursday that the Complément d’Enquête episode does not reference Debever or her 2019 Facebook post charges against Depardieu. The show never contacted Debever about the allegations, the spokeswoman claimed.

In 2018, Depardieu was charged of raping a teenage actress at his Paris residence. The case is still pending. He was charged with rape and sexual assault in December 2020 after being alleged in 2018. According to The Independent, his probe was temporarily halted in June 2019 due to a lack of evidence. Debever then posted her assault and harassment claims on social media.

Mr. Depardieu, acquitted of rape and sexual assault. No remark,” she posted in English on June 4, 2019 on Facebook. Debever claimed Depardieu groped her on the 1983 film Danton in the post.

In an October open letter in Le Figaro, Depardieu declared he has “never, ever abused a woman” and accepted charges. The first time a woman arrived to my residence, she walked lightly to my room on her own. She claims she was raped there today. She returned,” the French actor stated in his open letter, per Deadline’s translation.

“I played Danton’s young wife Louison. The sacred beast let himself much during filming… At the time, she claimed she enjoyed carriage privacy. “Slipping his big paw under my skirts, supposedly to make me feel better… Me, not letting myself do it.”

According to IMDb, Debever participated in 13 French-language films and TV episodes between 1982 and 1989.

Mediapart, a French news outlet, investigated Depardieu in April, citing 13 women who worked with him on 11 films between 2004 and 2022.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit rainn.org.

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