Alain Delon, the internationally acclaimed French actor who embodied both the bad guy and the policeman and made hearts throb around the world, died at age 88, French media reported. With his handsome looks and tender manner, the prolific actor was able to combine toughness with an appealing, vulnerable quality that made him one of France's memorable leading men. Delon was also a producer, appeared in plays and, in later years, in television movies.
His children announced the death on Sunday in a statement to the French national news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), a common practice in France. Tributes to Delon immediately started pouring in on social media platforms, and all leading French media switched to full-fledged coverage of his rich career.
At the prime of his career, in the 1960s and 1970s, Delon was sought out by some of the world's top directors, from Luchino Visconti to Joseph Losey.
In his later years, Delon grew disillusioned with the movie industry, saying that money had killed the dream. "Money, commerce and television have wrecked the dream machine," he wrote in a 2003 edition of the newsweekly Le Nouvel Observateur. "My cinema is dead. And me, too."
But he continued to work frequently, appearing in several TV movies in his 70s. Delon's presence was unforgettable, whether playing morally depraved heroes or romantic leading men. He first drew acclaim in 1960 with "Plein Soleil," directed by René Clément, in which he played a murderer trying to take on the identity of his victims.
He made several Italian movies, working, most notably with Visconti in the 1961 film "Rocco and His Brothers," in which Delon portrays a self-sacrificing brother intent on helping his sibling. The movie won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
The 1963 Visconti film "Le Guepard"(The Leopard) starring Delon won the Palme d'Or, the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival. His other films included Clément's "Is Paris Burning," with a screenplay by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola among others; "La Piscine" (The Sinners), directed by Jacques Deray; and, in a departure, Losey's "The Assassination of Trotsky" in 1972.
In 1968, Delon began producing movies, 26 of them by 1990, part of a frenzied and self-assured momentum that he maintained throughout his life.
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Alain Delon with his daughter Anouchka in 2007
(Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP)
Delon's confidence was palpable in his statement to Femme in 1996, "I like to be loved the way I love myself!" This echoed his charismatic screen persona.
Delon continued to captivate audiences for years, on the way courting criticism for comments deemed outdated. In 2010, he appeared in "Un mari de trop" ("One Husband Too Many") and returned to the stage in 2011 with "An Ordinary Day," alongside his daughter Anouchka.
He briefly presided over the Miss France jury but stepped down in 2013 after a disagreement over some controversial statements, which included critiques on women, LGBTQIA+ rights, and migrants. Despite these controversies, he received a Palme d'Honneur at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a decision that sparked further debate.
Born on Nov. 8, 1935, in Sceaux, just south of Paris, Delon was placed with a foster family after his parents' separation when he was 4. He then attended a Roman Catholic boarding school.
At 17, Delon joined the navy and was sent to Indochina. Back in France in 1956, he held various odd jobs from waiter to a carrier in the Paris meat market before turning to acting.
Delon had a son, Anthony, in 1964, with his then-wife Nathalie Canovas, who played alongside him in Jean-Pierre Melville's "The Samurai" in 1967. He had two more children, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, with a later companion, Rosalie van Breemen, with whom he produced a song and video clip in 1987. He was also widely believed to have been the father of Ari Boulogne, the son of German model and singer Nico, although he never publicly acknowledged paternity. "I am very good at three things: my job, foolishness and children," he said in a 1995 L'Express interview.
Delon juggled diverse activities throughout his life, from setting up a stable of trotting horses to developing cologne for men and women, followed by watches, glasses and other accessories. He also collected paintings and sculptures.
Delon announced an end to his acting career in 1999, only to continue, appearing in Bertrand Blier's "Les Acteurs" (The Actors) the same year. Later he appeared in several television police shows. In 2022, in the last movie he made before his retirement, he starred with Juliette Binoche in "The Empty House," directed by Patrice Leconte.
His good looks sustained him. In August 2002, Delon told a weekly magazine, L'Humanite Hebdo, that he wouldn't still be in the business if that weren't so. "You'll never see me old and ugly," he said when he was already nearing 70, "because I'll leave before, or I'll die."
However, it was in 2019 that Delon encapsulated his feelings about his life's meaning during a gala event honoring him at the Cannes Film Festival. "One thing I'm sure about is that if there's something I'm proud of, really, the only thing, it's my career."