Rape charges against Gerard Depardieu dropped

French prosecutors have dropped an investigation into rape allegations made against actor Gerard Depardieu.

The 70-year-old had always denied the accusations made by a young French actress last year. The prosecutor's office said the investigators were not able to stand up the allegations, reports bbc.com.

Depardieu is one of France's most recognisable actors and has starred in films such as "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "Jean de Florette".

The accuser claimed the alleged crimes occurred in August last year in one of Depardieu's Paris residences when she was 22 years old, the French media reported then.

When the allegations emerged, his lawyer, Herve Temime, said the actor was "shaken" and that the claims went against "everything (the actor) is".

In a statement, the prosecutor's office said: "A number of investigations undertaken as part of this procedure have not enabled us to characterize the crimes alleged in all of their individual parts."

Depardieu has acted in some 170 films and got his big break in 1973 with "Les Valseuses (Going Places)".

He won the best actor award for Cyrano at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990 and was nominated for an Oscar for the same role.

"Green Card", an English-language comedy made the same year, brought him further acclaim outside the French-speaking world.

Off-screen, he has made headlines in recent years for attacking French tax laws, moving to Belgium in protest and later developing close ties to Vladimir Putin's Russia.

--IANS

dc/rb/mr