PARIS: Guillaume Depardieu, the actor son of Gerard, who lived a life of angry rebellion in the shadow of his celebrated father, has died at the age of 37.

"He passed away early this afternoon after having contracted a virus which led to a devastating bout of pneumonia," Gerard Depardieu's agents said on Monday.

Recognised and loved in France as an actor in his own right, the younger Depardieu starred in about 30 films, including the recently released Versailles .

Guillaume's life was nonetheless rarely discussed without the mention of his estranged father.

Many believed that their troubled relationship was the cause of Guillaume's difficult youth, marked by drug addiction, male prostitution and high-speed road accidents, one of which eventually led to the amputation of his right leg after the contraction of a hospital superbug. He also served two prison sentences, one for theft, the other for heroin dealing.

In 2004 Guillaume released a tell-all book in which he accused his father of having neglected him in his pursuit of money and fame. "I love him and I detest him for the same reasons," he wrote in Tout Donner ( Giving Everything ). "For his impotence. For his way of fleeing life, and existence and fighting against it at the same time."

He also admitted "wasting six years of my life" through narcotic-fuelled rebellion and refused to blame the Jean de Florette star for everything.

"Even before my father became known, I was never easy," he said. "I was always the first person to do something really stupid."

Guillaume starred alongside his father for the first time in the director Alain Corneau's Tous Les Matins Du Monde ( All The World's Mornings ) in 1991. Father and son would later be seen together in two television movies, although their relationship was strained.

It was only in 2002, with the film Aime ton Pere ( Love Your Father ), that the relationship showed signs of improving.

Guardian News & Media, Agence France-Presse