Gerard Depardieu detained by police for allegedly driving drunk

Police say French actor Gerard Depardieu was detained Thursday for allegedly driving drunk on his scooter.

The 63-year-old actor, who has appeared in more than 150 films, was brought in to a Paris police station Thursday afternoon, an official with the Paris police department said.

The Paris prosecutor's office ordered him detained, the official said. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss ongoing investigations.

The burly actor was picked up after he fell off his scooter in northwest Paris, the Sipa news agency reported. He failed a sobriety test and was taken to a police station, according to Sipa.

The New York Daily News reports that Depardieu slightly injured his elbow when he fell, but one else was hurt in the accident.

A call to Depardieu's management company was not returned Thursday night.

Thursday's incident was one of several encounters with the law for Depardieu. He grabbed headlines last year when he urinated in the aisle of a plane before takeoff on a flight from Paris to Dublin. He was removed from the aircraft.

In 1998, he crashed his motorcycle when his blood-alcohol limit was five times over the legal level, escaping with leg and face injuries.

Depardieu was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in  the 1990 film "Cyrano de Bergerac."