Niels Arestrup death: French actor and War Horse star Niels Arestrup dies at 75 following short illness
Acclaimed French actor and director Niels Arestrup has died at the age of 75 following a short illness, his devastated wife has confirmed.
His press officer confirmed the news to Le Parisien and shared a statement from his wife, Isabelle Le Nouvel, 51, a French actress and director.
“I am extremely sad to announce the death of my husband, the immense actor Niels Arestrup, after a courageous fight against illness. He passed away surrounded by the love of his family,” a rough translation reads.
The AFP, Agence France-Presse, also shared the news in a tweet on X and said his press agent and wife confirmed the news to the outlet.
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French politician Rachida Dati shared a tweet on X and called the late star “one of our greatest actors”.
“The immense Niels Arestrup has left us. We were dazzled by the strength of his performance and his magnetic presence in front of the camera,” she wrote in part of her tribute, before sending condolences to his family.
Arestrup, who hailed from Montreuil near Paris, was known for films including Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, in which he played a French grandfather, A Prophet, By the Sea and the show the Suite Noire.
One of his last acting credits according to IMDb is the 2022 miniseries Les Papillons noirs and the 2020 film Villa Caprice.
Following news of his death, it was reported a French network was planning to air one of his final films to honour the late star.
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Arestrup married Le Nouvel back in 2012. They shared two children together. Le Nouvel is known for Love Street and A+ Pollux.
The actor, who is half Danish, also spent years in the theatre which he began in the seventies.
Some of the shows he appeared in over the years including Life Is a Dream, Miss Julie, Letters to a Young Poet and Each In His Own Way.
His first film credit was also from the seventies.
“You can imagine that as the son of a worker in Bagnolet in the 1950s, show business, theater and cinema were not at all on my mind,” he reportedly told Le Figaro in the years before his death about his upbringing and why he chose the career he did in the arts.
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Throughout his career, he won awards including César Awards and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for works including A Prophet.
He soon turned to theatre directing as part of his career and worked a lot with acclaimed French film director Jacques Audiard.
The Hollywood Reporter reports there were two accusations of violence against him by two actresses, once in the eighties and once in the nineties. After he fired one actress from a production, she won damages for dismissal but the actor was reportedly “never charged with any offense”.
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