Trigger warning: This article contains a reference to the death of a person.
French actor Alain Delon, who melted the hearts of millions of movie lovers by playing hitmen, gangsters and assassins, has died at the age of 88. According to his family’s statement to Agence France-Presse, the actor died on Sunday, August 18, at his residence in Duchy-Montcourbon, France.
While Delon’s family did not reveal the cause of his death, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that one of the celebrity’s sons, Anthony Delon, revealed that his health had been deteriorating since he suffered a stroke in 2019. Also, in 2022, he began treatment for a type of lymphoma that he was diagnosed with.
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born in Sceaux, an area in southern Paris, on November 8, 1935. His mother Edith worked in a pharmacy, while his father Fabien owned a neighborhood movie theater.
After his parents divorced in 1939 he was placed in a foster home and then sent to a Catholic boarding school. After obtaining a trade degree, he took a temporary job at his stepfather’s butcher shop in the Bourg-la-Reine neighborhood of Paris. At the age of seventeen, Delon was called up for duty and enlisted in the French Navy.
In 1956, Delon returned to Paris, where he worked odd jobs and frequented the cafes and clubs in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. It was here that he met Jean-Claude Brialy, who starred in early New Wave films, including Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau.
When he attended the 1957 Cannes Cinema Festival, a Hollywood talent scout spotted him and wanted him to study English before moving to the United States. This was the beginning of his cinematic career. Nevertheless, Delon decided to stay in France after meeting French filmmaker Yves Allégret and he made his debut in the director’s 1957 film Quand la femme s’en faire.
Delon became popular for his roles in the Italian films Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard, directed by Luchino Visconti in 1960 and 1963. Despite producing numerous films and acting in nearly 100, Delon received little recognition throughout his lifetime. He received an Honorary Golden Bear from the Berlinale in 1995 and an Honorary Palme d’Or from Cannes in 2019.
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