French actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz, 56, was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident at the Montlhery race track in the Essonne region near Paris today. This was announced by BFM TV, citing sources close to the artist. In what was described as a “serious” condition, Kassovitz, who became famous in the 1995 film Hate, was urgently transferred to the Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital in Paris.
Mathieu Kassovitz was born in Paris on August 3, 1967 and experienced cinema at home from an early age (his mother worked as an editor while his father was a director and screenwriter). He made his acting debut very early, at the age of just 11, in “Au bout du bout du banc,” directed by his father. In 1993 he made his directorial debut with the film Mesticcio and won the César for best male talent. But his turning point as one of French cinema’s most promising young auteurs came with his second feature, Hate (1995), which won the Best Director prize at Cannes. As an actor, however, the film “The Fabulous World of Amélie”, in which he played alongside the protagonist Audrey Tautou, gave him the greatest popularity. As a director, he made other films, including Assassin(s) (1996), The Purple Rivers (2000) and Gothika (2003).