Charlotte Rampling has joined nearly 60 French actors and other prominent figures to denounce the “lynching” of disgraced film star Gerard Depardieu, who is charged with rape and facing a litany of sexual assault claims.

Depardieu, who has made more than 200 films and television series, was charged with rape in 2020 and has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women.

“Gerard Depardieu is probably the greatest of all actors,” said an open letter published in French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday.

The signatories included Rampling, the British actress, Carla Bruni, the former French first lady and singer, and Pierre Richard, a French actor. 

Rampling has a long association with French cinema and was awarded France’s Legion of Honour in 2002.

Many of the signatories of the letter are contemporaries of Depardieu, who is 74.

“We can no longer remain silent in the face of the lynching he is facing,” they wrote, calling the attacks against him a “torrent of hatred”.

The letter said Depardieu was being attacked “in defiance of a presumption of innocence from which he would have benefited, like everyone else, if he weren’t the cinema giant he is”.

The actor faces fresh scrutiny over sexist comments caught on camera during a trip to North Korea in 2018 that were broadcast for the first time in a documentary on national television this month.

The letter, which was also signed by the actor’s former partner, Carole Bouquet, also an actor, added: “When people attack Gerard Depardieu in this way, they are attacking art.”

“France owes him so much. Cinema and theatre cannot do without his unique and extraordinary personality,” the celebrities said.

“Nobody can erase the indelible imprint of his work on our times”.

Last week Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said Depardieu had become the target of a “manhunt”, while his family has denounced an “unprecedented conspiracy” against him.

Rights activists have denounced Macron’s comments as an “insult” to all women who have suffered sexual violence.

The letter titled “Don’t erase Gerard Depardieu” sparked a new wave of indignation.

“Is rape part of the ‘work’ when it’s produced by an artist?” Sandrine Rousseau, a French lawmaker and feminist, said on X, formerly Twitter.

Laurent Boyet, founder of Les Papillons, an association that fights against violence against children, said that the letter in Depardieu’s support was “indecent” and the organisation was dropping actor Richard as one of its ambassadors.

“We are and always will be on the side of the victims,” Boyet said on social media.

Emmanuelle Dancourt, head of #MeTooMedias, an association fighting against sexual violence in French media and society, said she was “saddened” and “appalled.”

But she also added that she understood how the signatories of the letter felt, noting that people accused of misconduct are often the very people we know and care about.

“The people who do this are our friends, our fathers, our husbands, our neighbours, our colleagues, people we know,” she said on BFMTV.

Rima Abdul Malak, the French culture minister, has said the actor might be stripped of the Legion of Honour, the country’s top award.

Depardieu has created a number of scandals over the years, including by public brawling, drunk driving and urinating in the cabin of a commercial aircraft. He has openly praised Vladimir Putin and has a Russian passport.