Guillaume shared the screen with his father several times throughout his career, beginning with his first film role, aged three, playing Gérard's son in Claude Goretta's That Wonderful Crook ("Pas Si Méchant Que Ça") in 1974. His next appearance beside his father was in Tous les matins du monde in 1993, followed by Count of Monte Cristo in 1998, and Aime Ton Père (titled "A Loving Father" in English) in 2002. In 1996 he won a César Award (France's national film award) as the most promising newcomer in Les Apprentis. In 2007, he began rebuilding his career with the films Don't Touch the Axe ("Ne Touchez Pas La Hache") and La France, and starred in the 2008 film De la guerre.
Guillaume was often called an enfant terrible by the French magazine Paris Match and was called eccentric and bohemian by others. By 1993, he had already served two jail sentences for drug offences which included dealing heroin and theft. In 2003, he was fined and given a nine-month suspended prison sentence for threatening a man with a gun. In 2008, he was arrested for driving his scooter while intoxicated.
In 1995 Depardieu crashed on his motorcycle when he overran a suitcase that had fallen off a car and onto the roadway. He underwent surgery to repair damage to his knee. The wound developed a Staphylococcus aureus infection. Seventeen subsequent operations were conducted in an attempt to clear the infection and save the leg, however these were unsuccessful and in June 2003 he underwent an above the knee amputation of the leg.
Depardieu married Actress Elise Ventre on 30 December 1999. They had a daughter, and separated in 2001. Guillaume was known to have had a strained relationship with his famous father, which he detailed in his 2004 autobiography Tout Donner (Giving Everything). The two were said to have reconciled shortly before his death.
Guillaume Depardieu contracted a severe viral pneumonia while filming The Childhood of Icarus (L'Enfance d'Icare). He was unable to clear the infection, and on 13 October 2008, he died at the Garches hospital. He was 37 at the time of his death.
