How did a runaway boy with a severe speech handicap become one of Europe's most acclaimed modern actors? This biography is the first one written with Depardieu's co-operation and reveals him as the most unlikely of international stars. He ran away from home when he was twelve and quickly got into trouble; when he first joined a drama course in Paris his speech handicap brought him to the point of dumbness. Acting, speech therapy and the support of his wife Elisabeth taught him to overcome his difficulties. Who can forget him as the bawdy Porthos in The Man In The Iron Mask, marching into the barn bent on suicide, clad only in his hat and boots?