The actor’s three children announced his death on Sunday, August 18.
Alain Delon, a legendary figure of French cinema known for his striking beauty, passed away at the age of 88, as stated by his three children in a joint announcement to AFP on the morning of Sunday, August 18.
>> Follow our Live Coverage on the death of Alain Delon
“Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, and (his dog) Loubo are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father. He peacefully departed in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and loved ones. (…) His family requests that you please respect their privacy during this extremely painful time of mourning,” the statement read.
Having been severely weakened since a stroke in 2019, the actor lived in his property in Douchy, while his three children, Anthony (59 years old), Anouchka (33 years old), and Alain-Fabien (29 years old), who had differing views on their father’s health and the best way to care for him, publicly clashed in the media.
Alain Delon was honored at Cannes in 2019, where he received an Honorary Palme d’Or for his entire career. “Tonight is a bit of a posthumous tribute, but while I’m still alive,” the emotional actor remarked. “I will leave, but I won’t go without thanking you.”
“I will leave this world without regrets,” he stated in an interview tinged with bitterness published in Paris Match in early 2018. The iconic actor complained about the times and also about loneliness, despite being surrounded by the most beautiful women.
Loneliness had been a part of his life since childhood. Born in Sceaux in 1935, little Alain was only four years old when his parents divorced. He was placed in a foster family, where the father was a prison guard. “How many know that I spent my childhood in a prison? At least in the yard of Fresnes prison—my adoptive father was a guard there—where I played with other prison guards’ children,” he confessed to TV Mag in 2015.
From Charcuterie to the Cannes Festival
His mother remarried a butcher, Paul Boulogne, and young Alain Delon obtained a professional certificate in butchery. But at 17, to escape a fate that did not excite him, he enlisted early and served in the navy. Involved in the theft of military equipment, he had to choose between prison and Indochina and ended up in Saigon until the end of the Indochina War.
“The only time I was truly very happy was when I was a soldier in the army,” he shared in 2016 with Léa Salamé during Stupéfiant. “I learned everything there. Everything I have become, I owe to the army.”
Upon returning to France, he lived off odd jobs, such as working as a stevedore at Les Halles. Actor Jean-Claude Brialy recognized his beauty and took him to the Cannes Festival, where he received his first film offers. Yves Allégret gave him his first role in 1957 in Quand la femme s’en mêle. The machine was set in motion.
“Being an Actor is an Accident”
Cinema was a happy accident for someone who had no idea of what his future would be. “I had no idea what I would do and I was open to anything,” he recounted in 1979 on the TV show Les oiseaux de nuit. He never learned acting formally, did not take classes, nor attended school, unlike his contemporaries Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Rochefort, or Jean-Pierre Marielle, who met at the Conservatory.
“Being an actor is an accident,” Alain Delon explained to Le Figaro in 2015. “It’s someone you take and put at the service of cinema; being an actor is a profession that is learned. Burt Lancaster, Jean Gabin are accidents (…). I am also an accident!”
Yet, he is a born actor whose magnetic beauty radiates on screen, attracting the best directors of his time. “He is a very animalistic actor; he’s a wild beast, in the good sense of the term. He has an incredible presence,” noted Bertrand Blier in a documentary titled Alain Delon: The Birth of a Myth. Throughout the 1960s, he starred in a series of films, including many masterpieces.
Two years later, he portrayed the charming Tom Ripley in Plein soleil by René Clément. He then played the young and innocent Rocco, opposite Annie Girardot, in Rocco and His Brothers, directed by Luchino Visconti, during the same year. This was followed by L’éclipse by Michelangelo Antonioni, featuring Monica Vitti, Mélodie en sous-sol by Henri Verneuil, alongside Jean Gabin, one of his idols, and Il Gattopardo, again with Visconti.
“The Samurai is Me!”
In 1958, he met German actress Romy Schneider, known for her role in Sissi, on the set of Christine. She would become one of the great loves of his life.
He also starred in L’insoumis by Alain Cavalier in 1964, and in Les félins by René Clément opposite Jane Fonda in 1964. That same year, he portrayed the Black Tulip, the hero of Alexandre Dumas, in the film directed by Christian-Jacque. In 1966, he played Jacques Chaban-Delmas in Paris brûle-t-il?. So many films have become classics and secured his legendary status.
In 1963, he left Romy Schneider for a young photographer, Nathalie, whom he married in 1964. A year later, their son Anthony was born. Despite a passionate relationship, Nathalie eventually left Alain Delon, and they divorced in 1968.
Professional Love at First Sight
In 1967, he shot his first film with Jean-Pierre Melville. This marked a significant meeting for both the filmmaker and the actor. Between the two men, there was a genuine professional love at first sight. Delon recounted in an interview with Le Figaro how he received Melville at his home on Avenue de Messine, with his wife Nathalie.
“We sit down. He tells me: ‘I have a film I want to make with you, no one else. It will be called Le Samouraï.’ He begins to read the script. After a while, I stop him: ‘I accept. It’s been six or seven minutes, and my character hasn’t said a word. This is me! Let’s stop talking about it. Let’s go!’
Together, they made Le Samouraï, then Le Cercle Rouge, with Bourvil and Yves Montand in 1970, and Un flic in 1972, featuring Catherine Deneuve. These were roles of relatively mute heroes that suited Delon well. The actor with steel-blue eyes continued to star in crime dramas, collaborating with Melville as well as Henri Verneuil. He reunited with the director of Mélodie en sous-sol for Le clan des Siciliens in 1969, alongside Jean Gabin and Lino Ventura.
Romy, Nathalie, Mireille…
Alain Delon reunited with Romy Schneider in 1968 in the film La Piscine by Jacques Deray. The film marked a reunion of a legendary couple at the height of their beauty. Delon later confessed that this shoot was one of his fondest memories. “My most beautiful memory was the summer of 1968. The house in Saint-Tropez; the light was magnificent. Romy… I was the age of Christ, 33, the ideal age for a man.”
However, there was nothing sentimental left between them. Romy Schneider was involved with German director Harry Meyen, and Alain Delon had just met Mireille Darc, with whom he would live for fifteen years.
“Women saved me; without them, I would have gone astray,” he often said. “For them, I wanted to be the greatest, the most beautiful, the strongest.”
Jacques Deray once again orchestrated the most flamboyant encounter between Delon and his lifelong “rival,” Jean-Paul Belmondo. In Borsalino, released in 1970, their friendship soured during the film’s promotion. When Belmondo discovered the film’s poster, he was furious, as it read, “Alain Delon presents: Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Borsalino,” given that Delon was also the producer. “The contract clearly stated that Delon’s name would not appear twice on the poster,” said Laurent Bourdon, author of Definitively Belmondo, on RMC. Upset, Jean-Paul Belmondo even refused to attend the premiere.
Absurd Rivalry
The two heroes—one popular and affable, the other dark and solitary—are often compared.
“Jean-Paul is my friend. (…) I have acted with him, lived with him, vibrated with him, laughed and cried with him on film sets that will not be recreated. I love and admire him, despite those who have pitted us against each other in an absurd rivalry. Precisely because we are unique in our own right and incomparable, we have never been competitors, neither in our film lives nor in our private lives,” Delon wrote in 2006 in Paris Match.
Although they shared the screen in other films (Les 101 nuits by Simon Cinéma, Les acteurs), it was not until 1995 that they truly appeared together on screen in 1 chance sur 2 by Patrice Leconte, featuring Vanessa Paradis. The film, uniting the two legendary figures, was a modest success.
In 1976, Alain Delon starred in another masterpiece, Mr. Klein, by Joseph Losey. He also dabbled in American cinema with The Assassination of Trotsky by Joseph Losey in 1972, alongside Richard Burton and Romy Schneider, or Red Sun, a Western with Charles Bronson and Ursula Andress.
“I Have Never Voted Extreme Right”
In the 1980s, Alain Delon transitioned into roles as solitary superhero types: super cop, super doctor, or gangster… almost to the point of caricature. He starred in Le toubib, Pour la peau d’un flic, and Le battant (some of which he directed himself). On television, he portrayed yet more cops, Fabio Montale, in a series based on the Marseille trilogy by Jean-Claude Izzo, and Franck Riva, alongside Mireille Darc.
In 1987, he met Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen. Two children were born from their union, Anouchka in 1990 and Alain-Fabien in 1994. The couple separated in 2001.
Delon has faced criticism for his closeness to Jean-Marie Le Pen, with whom he maintains “a 50-year friendship.” “I am a sympathizer of his person. I have never voted extreme right. There are things in his platform that satisfy me and others that do not,” he stated on the France 3 talk show.
His appearance at the Cannes Festival last May was marred by controversy when feminists accused the actor of being “racist, homophobic, and misogynistic,” according to the American organization Women and Hollywood, based on comments he made in the past. A petition calling for him “not to be honored” garnered over 25,000 signatures.
“An Extraordinary Life”
In 1997 and 1998, the actor became an unintended “star” of the Guignols de l’info on Canal+. Speaking in the third person when discussing himself (the famous ‘he begs you’), his puppet played on the immodest side of Alain Delon. One of his last film appearances was in 2008, where he played a self-mocking Julius Caesar in Asterix at the Olympic Games. “I have had an extraordinary life,” he confided in 2016 to Léa Salamé, explaining that he was not afraid of death.
Alain Delon : Légende du Cinéma Français S’éteint à 88 Ans
Les trois enfants de l’acteur Alain Delon ont annoncé sa mort ce dimanche 18 août. À 88 ans, ce monstre sacré du cinéma français, connu pour sa beauté éclatante et son impressionnante carrière, a quitté ce monde. Dans un communiqué commun à l’AFP, ils ont exprimé leur immense chagrin : “Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, ainsi que (son chien) Loubo, ont l’immense chagrin d’annoncer le départ de leur père. Il s’est éteint sereinement dans sa maison de Douchy, entouré de ceux qu’il aimait.” La famille a également demandé le respect de leur intimité en ce moment de deuil douloureux.
La Vie Marquante d’Alain Delon
Affaibli depuis un AVC en 2019, Delon vivait dans sa propriété de Douchy. Ses trois enfants, s’étant souvent déchirés dans les médias sur l’état de santé de leur père, ont néanmoins partagé un amour inconditionnel pour l’acteur. En 2019, il a reçu une Palme d’Honneur au Festival de Cannes, où il a déclaré : “Je vais partir, mais je ne partirai pas sans vous remercier.” À plusieurs reprises, Delon a exprimé son sentiment de solitude dans le monde du cinéma, une solitude qu’il a connue depuis l’enfance.
Les Débuts d’Alain Delon
Né à Sceaux en 1935, Alain Delon a perdu ses parents dans des circonstances difficiles, ce qui l’a amené à vivre dans une famille d’accueil. Sa mère, remariée à un boucher-charcutier, l’a poussé à obtenir un CAP de charcuterie. À l’âge de 17 ans, Delon a choisi de se lancer dans une carrière militaire pour échapper à cette vie. Sa période dans l’armée, qu’il a décrite comme l’une des plus heureuses de sa vie, lui a ouvert de nouvelles perspectives.
Transition vers le Cinéma
De retour en France, Delon a commencé à travailler dans divers petits boulots avant d’être repéré par l’acteur Jean-Claude Brialy. Ce dernier l’a emmené au Festival de Cannes, marquant le début de sa carrière cinématographique. Son premier rôle lui a été offert par Yves Allégret en 1957 dans Quand la femme s’en mêle.
Un Acteur au Talent Naturel
Alain Delon a souvent qualifié sa carrière d’accident, expliquant qu’il n’avait jamais suivi de cours de théâtre. Au lieu de cela, sa beauté magnétique et son charisme naturel ont attiré l’attention des plus grands réalisateurs de son temps. Dans une interview, il a déclaré : “Être acteur, c’est un accident.” Il a marqué le cinéma français durant les années 1960 avec des rôles emblématiques dans des films comme Plein soleil et Rocco et ses frères.
Les Films Célèbres d’Alain Delon
Durant sa carrière, Delon a joué dans un nombre impressionnant de films devenus des classiques. Voici quelques-uns de ses rôles notables :
- Plein soleil (1960) – Tom Ripley
- Rocco et ses frères (1960) – Rocco
- Le Guépard (1963) – Le prince Salina
- Le Samouraï (1967) – Jef Costello
- Mr Klein (1976) – Robert Klein
Sa Vie Personnelle
En dehors de sa carrière cinématographique, Delon a eu une vie personnelle tumultueuse. Son amour pour Romy Schneider, avec qui il a partagé une intense relation, est l’une des histoires d’amour les plus médiatisées de l’époque. Après leur séparation, il a épousé Nathalie, avec qui il a eu son fils Anthony, suivi d’autres relations notables, notamment avec Mireille Darc et Rosalie van Breemen, qui lui ont donné deux enfants : Anouchka et Alain-Fabien.
Une Image Controversée
La figure d’Alain Delon a également suscité des controverses, notamment en raison de ses liens avec des personnalités politiques controversées. Bien que des critiques aient remis en question ses opinions politiques, Delon a maintenu qu’il n’avait jamais voté pour l’extrême droite et a exprimé des sentiments mitigés envers des figures comme Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Sa Dernière Apparition au Cinéma
La carrière d’Alain Delon a véritablement pris fin après sa dernière apparition dans le film Astérix et les jeux olympiques en 2008, où il a interprété le rôle de Jules César, mettant en avant un sens de l’humour et de l’autodérision.
Héritage et Impact
Alain Delon laisse derrière lui un héritage cinématographique indélébile. Son charisme, son talent d’acteur et sa beauté intemporelle continueront à inspirer des générations de cinéastes et d’acteurs. Alors qu’il a toujours navigué entre un personnage public fascinant et une vie personnelle tumultueuse, Delon reste une figure emblématique du cinéma français.
Données Clés sur Alain Delon
| Événement | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Né à Sceaux | 8 novembre 1935 | Noint de départ de sa carrière |
| Premier rôle | 1957 | Dans Quand la femme s’en mêle |
| Palme d’Honneur | 2019 | Festival de Cannes |
| Décès | 18 août 2023 | À Douchy |
