According to French media reports, internationally renowned French actor Alain Delon has died at the age of 88.
With his good looks and gentle demeanor, the prolific actor combined toughness with an appealing vulnerability that made him one of France’s unforgettable leading men.
DeLong also worked as a producer, appearing in plays and later in television movies.
His children announced his death on Sunday in a statement to French state news agency AFP, as is common in France. Tributes to Deron immediately began pouring in on social platforms, with all major French media turning to give full coverage of his rich career.
At the height of his career in the 1960s and 1970s, Delon was favored by some of the world’s top directors, including Luchino Visconti and Joseph Losey.
In his later years, DeLong became increasingly disillusioned with the film industry, saying money killed dreams. “Money, commerce and television have destroyed the dream machine,” he wrote in a 2003 edition of the newsweekly The New Observer. “My movie theater is dead. So am I.”
But he still worked regularly, appearing in several TV movies into his 70s.
Whether playing a morally bankrupt hero or a romantic leading man, DeLong’s presence is unforgettable. He first received acclaim in 1960 for Réne Clément’s Plein Soleil, in which he played a murderer trying to disguise the identity of his victim.
He made several Italian films, most notably the 1961 film Rocco and His Brothers with Visconti, in which Delon played a self-sacrificing man dedicated to helping his brothers and sisters. brother. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
In 1963, the Visconti film “Le Guepard” (The Leopard) starring Delon won the Palme d’Or, the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival. His other films include Clemente’s Paris Is Burning, from a script by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola, among others; La Piscine (The Sinner), directed by Jacques Delray; , Losey’s “The Assassination of Trotsky” in 1972.
In 1968, Delon began making films—and by 1990 had made 26 films—as part of a wild and confident drive that he maintained throughout his life.
In 1996, Delon expressed his confidence in a statement to Femme: “I love to be loved as much as I love myself!” which echoed his charming screen persona.
DeLong has captivated audiences over the years while also drawing criticism for outdated commentary. In 2010 he appeared in “Un mari de trop” (“One husband is too many”) and returned to the stage in 2011 with his daughter Anouchka in “An Ordinary Day”.
He briefly served as president of the Miss France jury but resigned in 2013 amid disagreements over some controversial comments, including criticism of women, LGBTQIA+ rights and immigration. Despite these controversies, he was awarded an Honorary Palme at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a decision that sparked further controversy.
Delon was born on November 8, 1935 in Sault, south of Paris. His parents divorced when he was 4 years old, and he was placed in a foster family.
At 17, DeLong joined the Navy and was sent to Indochina. Returning to France in 1956, he worked various odd jobs in the Paris meat market, from waiter to porter, before turning to acting.
In 1964, Deron gave birth to a son, Anthony, with his then-wife Nathalie Canovas, who married Jean-Pierre Canovas in 1967. He starred alongside him in Jean-Pierre Melville’s “The Samurai”. Rosalie van Breemen, with whom he collaborated in 1987 on a song and video clip. Father of Ari Boulogne, son of model and singer Nico, although he has never publicly acknowledged the paternity.
“I’m very good at three things: my job, stupidity and kids,” he told the Express in 1995.
DeLong engaged in a variety of activities throughout his life, from establishing a stable to developing men’s and women’s cologne, and later watches, eyewear and other accessories. He also collected paintings and sculptures.
Delon announced the end of his acting career in 1999, but continued acting that same year with a role in Bertrand Blier’s Les Acteurs. He later appeared on a number of TV police shows. In 2022, in the last film he shot before retiring, he starred with Juliette Binoche in “The Empty House” directed by Patrice LeConte.
His beauty sustained him. In August 2002, DeLong told the weekly Humane Weekly that if it hadn’t been like this, he wouldn’t have stayed in the industry.
“You will never see me old and ugly,” he said, nearly 70 years old, “because I will leave early or I will die.”
However, it was not until 2019 that DeLong summed up his feelings about the meaning of life at a commemorative event at the Cannes Film Festival. “One thing I know for sure is that if there’s one thing that I’m proud of, really, the only thing, it’s my career.”
