Alain Delon: the great French film actor dies at the age of 88

Caption: Delon was known for his heartthrob looks.Article information

• Author, Editor
• Title by the author, BBC News World

• August 18, 2024

Film legend Alain Delon has died aged 88.

The actor was a star of the golden age of French cinema, known for his tough-guy on-screen persona in hits like Le samurai and Borsalino.

“He passed away peacefully at his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and family,” according to a statement sent to the AFP news agency, adding that the family had requested privacy.

Delon had been in poor health in recent years and lived virtually secluded in his mansion, built on a wooded estate 120 kilometres southeast of Paris.

In 2019, she suffered a stroke and was suffering from another serious condition. That year, when she received the honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, she gave an emotional speech in which she seemed to say goodbye to cinema.

Caption: For decades she was one of France’s most beloved film stars.

Once described as the most beautiful man in cinema, Delon starred in 1960s hits such as The Leopard and Rocco and His Brothers.

With these two films by Italian director Luchino Visconti, the actor would rise to fame and his beauty and magnetism would continue to fascinate the greatest directors since then.

His highlights also include the 1969 erotic thriller “La Piscine” (“The Swimming Pool”), in which Delon paired his real-life lover, Romy Schneider, in a sensual saga of jealousy and seduction set on the French Riviera.

For the French, Delon is the great fauve (great beast) of cinema who captivated and seduced his passage through Europe, whether playing a murderer, a thug or a hitman.

One Caesar

His face, his gaze and his gestures captivated the directors of the so-called “Thirty Glorious Years”, both in France and in Italy (Clément, Visconti, Antonioni, Melville, Losey, etc.)

From the 1990s onwards, her film appearances became rare, but she remained a fixture in celebrity columns.

For decades, the French media followed the ins and outs of her prolific career and equally prolific love life, through Paris-Match and other gossip magazines.

Although she appeared in more than 90 films in total throughout her career, many of which became iconic, she only won one César – the awards given by the French Film Academy – in 1985 for Bertrand Blier’s “Notre-Dame”.

Caption: He also starred in the films ‘A pleno sol’ and ‘El silencio de un hombre’.

In a statement, the actor’s family said: “Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony and (his dog) Loubo are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father.”

The “family asks that their privacy be respected at this extremely painful time of mourning,” it added.

Parisian newspaper LeMonde called Delon a “legend of cinema”, while Liberation described him as “a symbol of dark masculinity, the actor with crazy charisma”.

More recently, the breakup of his family had made headlines in France, due to disagreements between his three children over his medical treatment.

Caption: Alain Delon with his wife Nathalie and his son Anthony on the beach in Monte Carlo, 15 August 1965

Several controversies

Delon has caused controversy off stage on several occasions, most notably when he said he regretted the abolition of the death penalty and at another time when he spoke disparagingly of gay marriage, which was legalised in France in 2013.

He publicly defended the far-right National Front party and telephoned its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, an old friend, to congratulate him when the party did well in local elections in 2014.

In a January 2018 interview, Delon told Paris Match that he was fed up with modern life and had a chapel and grave ready for himself in the grounds of his home near Geneva, and for his Belgian Shepherd dog, named Loubo.

Caption: In 2019, she received the honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Born on the outskirts of Paris in 1935, he was placed in foster care at the age of four when his parents divorced.

As a child he was a rebellious truant. He joined the navy and saw action in Indochina, but was court-martialed for stealing a jeep.

Returning to Paris in the late 1950s, he lived among prostitutes and gangsters before his blue eyes and imposing physique led him into the world of cinema.

“I have had many dealings with organized crime, I have even touched it,” he confessed in 2021.

A turbulent life

She made her film debut in 1957 in “Quand la femme s’en mele”, in which she acted alongside the great stars of the time Edwige Feuillère, Jean Servais and Bernard Blier.

Delon repeatedly declared that he had drawn his “motivation to be what he was” from women. First from his long romance with the actress Romy Schneider, then from Nathalie Delon, whom he married in 1964 – his only marriage – and also from Mireille Darc, his partner for 15 years, and the Dutch model Rosalie Van Breemen.

He was an art lover and a great collector of paintings, wines and weapons.

“A hero must always know how to die,” the actor told Le Monde in 2018. “I loved dying.” [en las películas] because it is an end point.”

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