Paris - Once memorably described as "a cross beween Cary Grant and a caveman", the biggest name in contemporary French cinema risks being stripped of the country's highest honours after being found guilty this summer of driving his motorbike with five times the legal limit of alcohol in his bloodstream.
The Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honour said yesterday it had started formal disciplinary proceedings against Depardieu (left), who won an Oscar nomination in 1991 for Cyrano de Bergerac.
Under the rules of the Chancellery, which distributes and administers the awards, members of the Legion of Honour or the National Order of Merit can be expelled and stripped of their medals by the French president if they commit a "dishonourable act". A criminal conviction or a jail sentence of more than a year entails automatic expulsion. Depardieu (49) was given the National Order of Merit in 1988 and presented with the Legion of Honour, France's highest award, by President Jacques Chirac in 1996.