PARIS (AP) — Alain Delon, the internationally acclaimed French actor who thrilled audiences around the world playing both villains and police officers, has died at the age of 88, French media reported.
This prolific actor’s handsome looks and gentle manner combined toughness with a charming vulnerability to make him one of France’s most memorable leading men.
Delon was also a producer and starred in plays and, in later years, television films.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the “French monument” with the X.
“Alain Delon gave the world dreams with his legendary roles,” he wrote. “Melancholic, popular and secretive, he was more than just a star.”
Delon’s children announced his death in a statement to the French news agency AFP on Sunday, a common practice in France. Condolences to Delon quickly flooded social platforms, and all major French media outlets began covering his illustrious career in earnest.
Earlier this year, his son Anthony said his father had been diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma, a type of cancer.
Over the past year, Delon’s fragile health has been at the centre of a family dispute over his care, sparking heated exchanges in the media between his three children.
At the height of his career in the 1960s and 1970s, Delon was commissioned by some of the world’s top directors, from Luchino Visconti to Joseph Losey.
However, he continued to work frequently into his 70s, appearing in several television films.
Whether playing a morally corrupt hero or a romantic leading man, Delon’s presence was unforgettable: he first gained acclaim in 1960 in Rene Clement’s Purple Noon, playing a murderer attempting to disguise his victim’s identity.
He appeared in several Italian films, most notably in the 1961 film “Rocco and His Brothers,” with Visconti, in which Delon played a self-sacrificing older brother trying to save his younger brother, which won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival.
In 1963, Delon starred in Visconti’s film The Panther, which won the Palme d’Or, the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival. His other films include Clement’s Is Paris Burning? (written by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola), Jacques Deray’s The Sinners and, more unusually, Losey’s 1972 film The Assassination of Trotsky.
In 1968, Delon began making films, and by 1990 he had made 26, part of a frenetic, self-confident momentum that he maintained throughout his life.
Delon’s confidence was evident when he told Femme magazine in 1996, “I want to be loved the way I love myself!”, a reflection of his charismatic on-screen persona.
Delon continued to charm audiences for many years, but along the way he also faced criticism for comments that were considered outdated. In 2010 he starred in “Un mari de trop” (“Too many husbands”), and in 2011 he returned to the stage in “An Ordinary Day” alongside his daughter Anoushka.
He briefly served as president of the Miss France jury but stepped down in 2013 following disagreements over his controversial comments, including his criticism of women, LGBTQIA+ rights and immigration. Despite these controversies, he was awarded the Palme d’Honneur at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a decision that sparked further debate.
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which works to protect animals, paid tribute to “an extraordinary person, an unforgettable artist and a great friend to animals” in a statement posted on social media. The statement said Delon was a “deep friend” of French film legend Brigitte Bardot and that they were “deeply saddened by her passing,” adding, “We have lost a great friend and a great heart.”
French film producer Alain Terzian described Delon as “the last giant.”
“This is a new page in the history of French cinema,” he told France Interradio. Terzian, who produced several of Delon’s films, recalled, “Every time he came somewhere, there was an almost mystical, almost religious reverence. He was fascinating.”
Delon was born on November 8, 1935 in Sceaux, just south of Paris, and was raised in foster care after his parents divorced when he was four, after which he attended a Roman Catholic boarding school.
Delon joined the navy at age 17 and was sent to Indochina, then returned to France in 1956 and worked a variety of odd jobs, from waiter to porter at a Paris meat market, before turning to acting.
Delon had a son, Anthony, in 1964 with his then-wife Nathalie Canovas, who co-starred with Delon in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai in 1967. Delon had two children, Anoushka and Alain-Fabien, with his future partner Rosalie Van Bremen, with whom he collaborated on a song and video clip in 1987. Delon was widely believed to be the father of Ary Boulogne, the son of German model and singer Nico, although Delon never publicly acknowledged paternity.
“I’m very good at three things: work, silly things and kids,” he told L’Express in a 1995 interview.
Throughout his life, Delon engaged in many activities, from establishing a stable of trotting horses to developing colognes for men and women, followed by watches, glasses and other accessories. He also collected paintings and sculptures.
Delon announced he was ending his acting career in 1999, but continued to work, appearing in Bertrand Blier’s Les Acteurs that same year, and later in several TV detective dramas.
His good looks have helped him: in August 2002, Delon told the weekly magazine L’Humanité Hebdo that without them he probably wouldn’t be in the industry today.
“You’ll never see me old and ugly,” he said as he approached 70, “because I’ll either be gone or dead before then.”
But at a gala event honoring him at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, Delon shared his thoughts on the meaning of life: “What I’m sure of is that if there’s anything I can be proud of, it’s really just my career.”
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Retired Associated Press correspondent Elaine Ganley provided biographical material for this article.
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