Alain Delon, the internationally renowned French actor who played both the villain and the cop and set hearts racing around the world, has died at the age of 88, his family announced to French media.
“Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as (his dog) Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the death of their father. He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family,” the actor’s children said in a statement to AFP, a common practice in France.
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With his good looks and tender manner, the prolific actor was able to combine toughness with an appealing, vulnerable quality that made him one of France’s most memorable leading men.
Delon was also a producer, appearing in plays and, later, in television films.
Tributes to Delon immediately began pouring in on social media, and all major French media outlets turned to comprehensive coverage of his storied career.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on X to “a French monument”.
“Alain Delon played legendary roles and made the world dream,” he wrote. “Melancholic, popular, secretive, he was more than a star.”
Earlier this year, his son Anthony said his father had been diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma, a type of cancer.
Over the past year, Delon’s fragile health has been at the heart of a family dispute over his care, which has led to bitter exchanges in the media between his three children.
At the height of his career in the 1960s and 1970s, Delon was in demand by some of the world’s greatest directors, from Luchino Visconti to Joseph Losey.
In his later years, Delon became disillusioned with the film industry, claiming that money had killed the dream. “Money, commerce and television have destroyed the dream machine,” he wrote in a 2003 edition of Le Nouvel Observateur. “My cinema is dead. And so am I.”
But he continued to work frequently, appearing in several television films at age 70.
Arthur Mola/Invision/AP
Delon’s presence is unforgettable, whether he plays morally depraved heroes or romantic leading roles. He first gained acclaim in 1960 with “Plein Soleil”, directed by René Clément, in which he plays a murderer who tries to usurp the identity of his victims.
He appeared in several Italian films, including with Visconti in the 1961 film “Rocco and His Brothers,” in which Delon played a devoted brother who wants to help his brother. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
In 1963, Visconti’s film “The Leopard” with Delon won the Palme d’Or, the highest distinction at the Cannes Film Festival. Other films include Clément’s “Is Paris Burning,” with screenplays by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola, among others; Jacques Deray’s “The Swimming Pool”; and, in 1972, Losey’s “The Assassination of Trotsky.”
In 1968, Delon began producing films—26 of them by 1990—in a frenetic, self-assured dynamic that he would maintain throughout his life.
Delon’s confidence was palpable in his declaration to Femme in 1996: “I like to be loved as I love myself!” It echoed his charismatic on-screen persona.
Delon continued to captivate audiences for years, while attracting criticism for his outdated language. In 2010, he appeared in “Un mari de trop” and returned to the stage in 2011 with “Un jour ordinaire”, alongside his daughter Anouchka.
He briefly chaired the Miss France jury, before resigning in 2013 after disagreeing over some controversial statements, including on women, LGBTQIA+ rights and migrants. Despite these controversies, he received an Honorary Palme d’honneur at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a decision that sparked further debate.
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, dedicated to animal protection, paid tribute to “an exceptional man, an unforgettable artist and a great friend of animals,” in a statement posted on social media. Delon was “a close friend” of French film legend Brigitte Bardot “who is deeply saddened by his passing,” the statement said. “We have lost a precious friend and a man with a big heart.”
French film producer Alain Terzian said Delon was “the last of the giants.”
“It’s a page that is turning in the history of French cinema,” he told France Inter radio. Terzian, who produced several of Delon’s films, recalls that “every time he arrived somewhere (…) there was a kind of almost mystical, almost religious respect. He was fascinating.”
Born on November 8, 1935 in Sceaux, south of Paris, Delon was placed in a foster family after his parents separated when he was 4 years old. He then attended a Roman Catholic boarding school.
At 17, Delon joined the Navy and was sent to Indochina. Returning to France in 1956, he worked various odd jobs, from waiter to carrier at a butcher’s shop in Paris, before turning to acting.
Delon had a son, Anthony, in 1964 with his then-wife Nathalie Canovas, who starred alongside him in Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samouraï” in 1967. He had two more children, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, with a later partner, Rosalie van Breemen, with whom he produced a song and music video in 1987. He was also widely believed to be the father of Ari Boulogne, the son of German model and singer Nico, although he never publicly acknowledged paternity.
“I am very good at three things: my work, mischief and children,” he said in an interview with L’Express in 1995.
Delon pursued a variety of activities throughout his life, from creating a stable of trotting horses to creating colognes for men and women, to watches, eyewear and other accessories. He also collected paintings and sculptures.
In 1999, Delon announced the end of his acting career, but continued the same year by appearing in Bertrand Blier’s “Les Acteurs”. He then appeared in several police series on television.
His good looks have kept him loyal. In August 2002, Delon told the weekly L’Humanité Hebdo that if it weren’t for that, he would no longer be in the business.
“You will never see me old and ugly,” he said when he was already approaching 70, “because I will leave before that, or I will die.”
But it was in 2019 that Delon expressed his feelings about the meaning of his life at a gala in his honor at the Cannes Film Festival. “One thing I am sure of is that if there is one thing I am proud of, really, the only thing, it is my career.”
