‘A Prophet,’ ‘War Horse’ Actor Niels Arestrup Dies at 75

The French-Danish actor Niels Arestrup, a muse to Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard, who appeared in international features including Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, has died, aged 75.

Arestrup’s wife, Isabelle Le Nouvel, confirmed his death to Agence France-Presse on Sunday, December 1, saying he died “at the end of a courageous fight against illness.”

Arestrup will forever be linked to Jacques Audiard and his performances in Audiard’s The Beat that My Heart Skipped in 2005 — playing the criminal father to Romain Duris’ would-be concert pianist, and A Prophet in 2009, where he embodies a terrifying Corsican mob boss who runs his operation from within prison. Arestrup won best supporting acting César awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscar, for both roles, and the performances solidified his image as an on-screen villain with a piercing blue gaze who is barely holding back the violence within. Arestrup picked up his third César in 2014 for Bertrand Tavernier’s The French Minister, a comedy about French diplomacy.

English-speaking audiences will recognize Arestrup for his turn against type as the kindly French grandfather in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse (2011). He also appeared in Julian Schnabel’s Oscar-nominated dramas The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) and At Eternity’s Gate (2018).

“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. He will remain one of our greatest actors,” French Culture Minister Rachida Dati wrote on X.

Born in France to a Danish father and French mother, Arestrup grew up poor in the Paris suburbs, but a passion for theater brought him to the stage. He made his theatre debut at the age of 23, playing in a version of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, directed by Alain Barsacq, who suggested he change his name. Arestrup refused.

He made his film debut in 1976 in Claude Lelouch’s Second Chance (1976) alongside French stars Anouk Aimée and Catherine Deneuve. Over the following decades, he would appear in dozens of films and TV series. His final turn was in the French limited series Black Butterflies from 2022.

But his career was marred by accusations of violence. French actress Isabelle Adjani claims Arestrup slapped her violently during rehearsals for the play Mademoiselle Julie in 1983. In a 1996 stage performance of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which Arestrup produced, the actress Myriam Boyer accused him of almost strangling her. Arestrup fired Boyer from the production. She was subsequently awarded 800,000 francs in damages for the dismissal, but Arestrup was never charged with any offense.

Asked by the French newspaper Le Parisien to comment on his death, Adjani conceded that Niels Arestrup “was a great actor [but] personally, I unfortunately have nothing positive to say about the man.”