Award-Winning ‘War Horse’ Star Dead at 75

Niels Arestrup, a legendary French-Danish actor who worked with famed directors like Steven Spielberg, Claude Lelouch, and Bertrand Tavernier has died. He was 75.

The actor’s wife, Isabelle Le Nouvel, confirmed his death to Agence France-Presse on Dec. 1 (via The Hollywood Reporter). Le Nouvel gave no details regarding Arestrup’s death, just that he passed “at the end of a courageous fight against illness.”

Arestrup appeared in Spielberg’s War Horse (2011) and worked with acclaimed director Julien Schnabel on two of his Oscar-nominated films: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007); and At Eternity’s Gate (2018). He made his screen debut alongside French New Wave stars Anouk Aimée and Catherine Deneuve in Lelouche’s Second Chance (1976).

In more recent years, Arestrup worked closely and served as a mentor to Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard. Arestrup played the fearsome criminal father of Romain Duris’ sensitive wannabe pianist in The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), and an equally volatile Corsican mob boss conducting his affairs from prison in 2009’s acclaimed A Prophet.

Arestrup won three César Awards (the French equivalent of an Oscar) throughout his career, the most recent of which was in 2014 for Tavernier’s political satire The French Minister. The actor’s final performance came in the 2022 limited series Black Butterflies.

“We were dazzled by the strength of his acting and his magnetic presence in front of the cameras of Jacques Audiard, Bertrand Tavernier, Julian Schnabel or Albert Dupontel,” Rachida Dati, France’s Culture Minister, wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “He will remain one of our greatest actors.”