French actor Gerard Depardieu has revealed in an autobiography that he worked as a male prostitute on the streets of Paris and Chateauroux as a teen.
In the tell-all memoir "It Happened Like That," Depardieu said that as a 10-year-old boy, he looked more like a 15-year-old and was often approached by men seeking sex. He admitted that as he got older, he would occasionally
beat up and mug his clients, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Besides being a male prostitute, Depardieu revealed he was jailed for for auto theft, and he once helped a man dig up freshly buried bodies and then loot the graves for clothing and jewelry.
The Daily Mail said a theater talent scout plucked Depardieu from his life of crime and paid for his drama classes in France.
In the autobiography, Depardieu shares about his well-known appetite for liquor and his impoverished childhood. He said his mother told him she tried to abort him and that he had to help her give birth to his siblings because there was no money for a midwife.
Depardieu’s friendship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who liked his “hooligan side,” is also detailed in the memoir, as well as the 2008 death of Depardieu's son, Guillaume.
In the U.S., Depardieu is best known for his role in the 1990 romantic comedy, Green Card.
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