GettyAlain Delon in 1960
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 09:30
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Petra Steenhoff
editor Online
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Petra Steenhoff
editor Online
French film star Alain Delon has died at the age of 88, Delon’s children told the AFP news agency. The statement said he “died peacefully at home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family.”
Delon was one of the most famous actors and socialites in France. With his good looks, characteristic stare and his many roles as a silent anti-hero, he was also considered the French counterpart to the American actor James Dean.
The movie star was known for titles such as The Leopard (1963), The Samurai (1967), The Swimming Pool (1969) in A Cop (1972). He worked with renowned directors such as Visconti, Malle and Melville. There were many women in his life, including the German actress Romy Schneider and the Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen, with whom he was together for fourteen years at the end of the last century.
AFPDelon in a photo from 1976
Behavioral problems
The actor, born in Sceaux in 1935, had an unhappy and lonely childhood as the child of divorced parents. He lived with foster parents for a while and after their deaths he was sent to various boarding schools, from which he was expelled each time for unruly behavior.
At fourteen, he left school and went to work in his stepfather’s butcher shop. Three years later, he enlisted in the French navy and was sent to Indochina, now Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Here too, his behavior got him into trouble. He spent eleven months in a military prison for being undisciplined. He was eventually dishonorably discharged from the navy.
Speak as you speak to me, stare as you stare at me.
Yves Allégret, director
The turning point in his life came when a friend, actress Brigitte Aubert, introduced him to director Yves Allégret, who gave him a role in Send a woman when the devil fails.
“I had no idea what to do,” Delon said in an interview in GQ. “Allégret looked at me and said, ‘Listen to me, Alain. Speak as you speak to me. Stare as you stare at me. Listen as you listen to me. Don’t act. Live.’ It changed everything.”
It turned out to be good advice because a year later Delon was already facing the world-famous actress Romy Schneider in Christine.
To America
Starring in Full sun, a film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s book The talented Mr. Ripley at Visconti’s Rocco and his brothers (Rocco and his brothers) was also his international breakthrough in 1960. Delon made the big crossing, but attracted few visitors to the cinemas in America.
After six failed Hollywood films, he returned to France to appear in gangster films such as The Sicillian clan (1969) in Borsalino (1970) to play.
He also produced and directed films in which he played himself, such as For the skin of a flic (1981) in The fighter (1983), which did well in France. After that, his appearances on the silver screen became less frequent and he retired from acting in the late 1990s.
Political scandal
In the late 1960s, Delon became involved in a major political scandal. Among his best friends were criminal Yugoslavs and Corsicans. One of them, Stevan Markovíc, organised sex and drug parties attended by celebrities, including Delon. Markovíc allegedly secretly took photos of the guests at these parties and used them to blackmail them.
When Markovíc was found dead in a container in 1968 and compromising photos of the wife of presidential candidate Georges Pompidou were found in his car, Delon was arrested and questioned by the police. He was soon released because he was then murdered on the film set of The swimming pool was.
Because of his reputation as a womanizer, Delon’s private life has always been in the spotlight. Between 1959 and 1963, he was engaged to Romy Schneider. He would later call the actress, who died in 1982, “the love of my life”.
During their engagement, he had a relationship with German singer Nico, who worked with The Velvet Underground. According to Nico, he was the father of her son, but Delon has always denied it. The child was adopted against his will and raised by his mother and her husband.
‘Words words’
In 1964, Delon married Nathalie Barthélémy, with whom he also had a son. During that marriage, he had a brief relationship with French singer Dalida, with whom he would later have a big hit with the duet Lyrics lyrics.
After their divorce in 1969, he was together with actress Mireille Darc for fifteen years. In 1987, he met Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen with whom he remained together for fourteen years. They had two children, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien.
AFPDelon and Rosalie van Breemen in 1992
“I was made for success, but not for happiness,” Delon said about the many women in his life. According to Van Breemen, the actor suffered from severe depression and had suicidal thoughts. “It is very bad for him and his environment. But no one can help him,” she said after the divorce at the beginning of this century in an interview in De Telegraaf.
Brigitte Bardot
It remained a well-kept secret all those years whether Delon also had an amorous relationship with Brigitte Bardot, with whom he had married in 1961. THE loves famous was visible. He eventually revealed that this was not the case. However, they were good friends and were both supporters of the far-right political party Front National. Delon was also good friends with Jean-Marie Le Pen, the former leader of that party.
In 2019, he was awarded an honorary Palme d’Or for his entire oeuvre at the Cannes Film Festival. This was criticized in advance by #MeToo activists, who labeled the actor as a misogynist, homophobic and racist due to past comments. Despite a petition with 20,000 signatures against the award, Delon received it anyway.
In 2022, Delon interviewed Ukrainian President Zelensky for a television program about the war in Ukraine. In it, he expressed his support for Ukraine and Zelensky invited the 86-year-old actor to come to Kyiv.
AFPAlain Delon when he received the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival
