AP PHOTOS: A timeline of the rise and fall of French movie star Gérard Depardieu

For over half a century, Gérard 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.

In recent years, however, Depardieu’s illustrious career had been overshadowed by multiple allegations of misconduct. His fall from grace was completed Tuesday when a a Paris court found him guilty of sexually assaulting two women on the set of a movie in which he starred in 2021.

Here is a timeline of key moments in Depardieu’s rise and fall:

Dec. 27, 1948: Born in Châteauroux, in a modest family of six children. His youth is tumultuous. Depardieu lives close to an American military base and rubs shoulders with small-time hoodlums, smuggling all kinds of goods.

1960s: Depardieu arrives in Paris. He takes acting classes and discovers all the great classics of literature while undergoing therapy to correct his speech difficulties.

1967: Depardieu makes his screen debut in the short film “Le Beatnik et le Minet” and appears in his first stage play.

1972: Features in “Nathalie Granger,” directed by Marguerite Duras.

1974: First big hit in France with “Les Valseuses,” (“Going Places”), Bertrand Blier’s classic farce about two wandering thugs.

1980s: Depardieu becomes the most sought-after French actor. Maurice Pialat casts him in “Loulou,” the highly acclaimed “Police,” for which he won an acting prize at the 1985 Venice Film Festival, and “Under Satan’s Sun,” a provocative tale about a monk’s encounter with the devil which won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 1987. Depardieu stars in many hits: “The Woman Next Door,” “Jean de Florette,” “The Last Metro,” “Danton," “The Return of Martin Guerre.″

1991: Depardieu receives a nomination for the best actor Oscar for his performance in “Cyrano de Bergerac.” But controversy ensues after Time magazine carries an affirmation by Depardieu that he took part in a rape as a 9-year-old. The movie suffers a bloody nose at the Oscars. Depardieu categorically denies saying he took part in rape. “It’s outrageous at 9 years old or at any age,” he told the French newspaper Le Monde. “Yes, one can say I had sexual experiences when I was very young, but a rape, never. I respect women too much.”

1990s: Depardieu’s career is unaffected in France. He stars in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Hélas pour moi.” Meanwhile, Depardieu reinforces his popularity with mass audiences with the Astérix & Obélix film series.

1998: Depardieu crashes his motorcycle. His blood-alcohol limit is five times the legal level. He escapes with leg and face injuries. The incident was one of several encounters with the law for Depardieu, who also grabbed headlines when he urinated in the aisle of a plane before takeoff on a Paris to Dublin flight, and when he was detained for allegedly driving drunk on his scooter.

1999: Depardieu returns to the French stage for the first time in 13 years as a guilt-ravaged emperor in a murder-mystery.

2000: Depardieu undergoes successful coronary bypass surgery.

Oct. 13, 2008: Death of his son Guillaume Depardieu.

2013: After sparring with his native country over taxes, Depardieu is granted Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin.

2014: Depardieu plays the leading role in “Welcome to New York,” the film inspired by the life of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former director of the International Monetary Fund who was accused in 2011 of sexually assaulting a hotel maid.

2018: Prosecutors in Paris open a preliminary investigation after actor Charlotte Arnould accused Depardieu of raping her at his home. That case is still active, and in August 2024 prosecutors requested that it go to trial.

2023: His wax figure is removed from Paris’ most famous wax museum following negative reactions from visitors over allegations about his conduct with women. The decision to remove the figure from the Grevin Museum followed a TV documentary showing him repeatedly making obscene remarks and gestures during a 2018 trip to North Korea.

2025: Depardieu goes on trial in Paris on charges of sexually assaulting two women on a movie set. He is accused of having groped a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant during filming in 2021 of “Les Volets Verts.”

May 13, 2025: Depardieu is found guilty of sexually assaulting the two women and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence. He is also fined a total of 29,040 euros (around $32,350), and the court requests that he be registered in the national sex offender database. Depardieu’s lawyer says he will appeal.

FILE - The coffin of late French actor Guillaume Depardieu is being carried out of the church after the funeral ceremony for Guillaume Depardieu in Bougival, west of Paris, Friday, Oct. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

FILE - Actors Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve are seen in Cannes, southern France, on May 11 1984. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz, File)

FILE - Actor Gerard Depardieu arrives to face trial for the alleged sexual assaults of two women on a film set in 2021, on March 24, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)

FILE - French actor Gerard Depardieu poses for photographers on the red carpet of the Rome Film Festival, on Oct. 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)

FILE - Women's rights activists demonstrate outside the Paris palace of justice as French actor Gérard Depardieu is facing trial for the alleged sexual assaults of two women on a film set in 2021, on Oct. 28, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte, File)

FILE - French actor Gerard Depardieu holds a hand scythe in the presidential residence of Ozerny, outside Minsk, Belarus, Wednesday, July 22, 2015. (Andrei Stasevich/BelTA Photo via AP)

FILE - French actor, film-maker, businessman and vineyard owner, Gerard Depardieu, attends a press conference for the presentation of the first Russian Film Festival in Nice, southern France, on June 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)

FILE - French actor Gerard Depardieu smiles shortly visits museum of Akhmad Kadyrov, war lord, who switched side and became pro-Russian leader, in Chechnya's provincial capital Grozny, Russia, on Feb. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev, File)

FILE - French actor Gerard Depardieu tests a glass of wine during a gastronomy fair in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Sept 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Roberto Pfeil/dapd, File)

FILE - French actor Gerard Depardieu, left, and French actress Carol Bouquet arrive at the red carpet for the closing ceremony of the 10th Sarajevo Film Festival at the National Theater in Sarajevo, on Aug 28, 2004. (AP Photo/Hidajet Delic, File)

FILE - French actor Gerard Depardieu, left, and Belgian actress Cecile de France pose during a photo call for the film "Quand J'etais Chanteur," at the 59th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

FILE - French actor Gerard Depardieu receives warm applause from the models at the unveiling of the Maska fashion show in Milan, Italy, Thursday, March 7, 1996. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)