A sacred monster of French and world cinema, an instinctive actor with fiery beauty, but also a declared reactionary with a hypertrophic “I”, Alain Delon passed away today at the age of 88.
“Alain Fabian, Anouska, Anthony, as well as (his dog) Lubo, announce with immense sadness that their father has passed away. He passed away peacefully at his home in Duchy, surrounded by his three children and his own,” his children announced in unison, turning their backs on months of family wrangling through the media and justice over the fate of the star, who he was weakened by the disease.
“The actor of ‘Naked in the Sun’, ‘The Pool’ and ‘The Killer with the Angel Face’ passed away around 03:00,” his son, Anthony, told AFP.
From heartthrob lonely
The actor, who rarely appeared in films after the end of the 1990s, had returned to the headlines in the summer of 2023, when his three children had taken legal action against the woman who looked after him and who sometimes appeared as his partner , accusing her of taking advantage of his weakness. A battle ensued between them over the health of the actor, who had weakened in 2019 after a stroke.
A few days earlier, in May 2019, he had returned to the Cannes red carpet to be awarded an honorary Palme d’Or. “It’s kind of a posthumous honor, done to me during my lifetime,” the actor had said.
“I will leave, but I will not leave before thanking you,” added Alain Delon, who lived his last years at his property in Duchy (Loire), which is surrounded by high walls and which he had long said he wanted to he is buried, not far from his dogs.
“Alain is in a deep, chosen solitude, in another world, in the past together with creatures he loved very much (…) His misery was always present,” he told AFP in 2015, before the star’s 80th birthday. his ex-partner Mireille Darhk.
“The best and the worst, at the same time inaccessible and so accessible, cold and hot”, Brigitte Bardot summed up the actor’s 80 years.
The actor with the devilish beauty
Delon, a genius instinctive actor, was a far cry from cerebral actors. He prided himself on never working on his technique and relying on his charisma, a unique blend of fiery beauty and sharp coldness.
“He is not a normal actor, Alain Delon. It is an object of desire. It’s not even sexy, it’s not masculine, it’s not even feminine: it’s a devilish beauty,” underlined the actor Vincent Landon in the documentary “Revolvers” in 2012.
“I can look at pictures of Alain Delon for hours,” he added. “He is the most beautiful thing to see in the world, Alain Delon. Everything is perfect. He is nicer to look at than a beautiful woman.’
This material was gold for the directors and a number of his films are monuments of the Seventh Art. Among them the films “Naked in the Sun” by René Clément (1960), which gave him international fame, “Rocco and his brothers” (1960) and “The Cheetah” (1963 by the Italian Luchino Visconti or “The Pool” by Jacques Derét (1969).
In this latest film, Delon stars alongside the one with whom he was the most famous couple a few years ago, Romy Snyder.
The most important director in his career was Jean-Pierre Melville, who directed him in two masterpieces, The Killer with the Angel Face (1967) and The Red Circle (1970), before the film The cop” in 1972.
Controversial
Alain Delon’s political stance has been admittedly controversial. One of the most characteristic examples of his political stance was his support for France’s far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen. Delon has openly expressed his sympathy for the party, saying he understands French concerns about immigration and security.
However, the positions in favor of the death penalty or against homosexuality, which he characterized as “contrary to nature”, had also caused reactions.
His return to Cannes in May 2019 had also been preceded by a polemic, as feminists had questioned the honor that was going to be given to him.
An avowed right-winger, nostalgic for the de Gaulle years, he was also criticized for his egotism and his habit of talking about himself in the third person.
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