Alain Delon, the French actor who was considered by many to be one of the most handsome men to appear in cinema, died on August 18th at the age of eighty-eight. On screen, he could be remote and vacant yet smoldering and magnetic. His considerable looks certainly brought him plenty of attention but Delon was also a talented performer, helping him become popular and recognized as an international film sensation. No cause of death has been revealed to date but the actor had been in poor health recently, suffering a stroke in 2019 and treated for lymphoma three years later.
He was born to a lower-middle class family but his parents separated when he was four. His mother and father both remarried and had other children, leaving Delon with a foster family for a number of years. But he was eventually returned to his parents, who shared custody, and was shuttled back and forth between his second families. This lead him to become rebellious, misbehaving and disrespectful to his teachers which caused him to be expelled from his schools more than once. At seventeen, he joined the Navy and sent off to fight during the French-Indochina War. Near the end of his service, he was arrested for stealing a jeep and going on a joyride which caused damage the vehicle. This put him in prison for a short time before being expelled from the Navy.
Returning to France, Delon had to fend for himself, doing several odd-jobs and began to get more involved in the darker and seedier side of life. He became romantically involved with Brigitte Auber, an actress who recently had appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief". This brief relationship introduced Delon to other possibilities for his future. They attended the 1957 Cannes Film Festival together which lead him to met his future agent and get discovered by a talent scout.
The inexperienced Delon got a small part in the film, "Quand la femme s'en mêle (Send a Woman When the Devil Fails)" in 1957 where he learned on the job how to act with the help of the director, Yves Allégret. His next major break came when he was cast opposite the German actress, Romy Schneider (who had selected him herself) in the 1958 period drama, "Christine". They began a romance, with neither able to speak the other's language initially nor not particularly liking each other while onset, and became a celebrated couple for six years. After their relationship ended, Delon and Schneider remained friendly, even working together on screen again a couple of times, most notably in "La Piscine (The Swimming Pool)" in 1968.
Delon followed "Christine" up the following year with the comedy, "Faibles femmes (Women are Weak)" which became a big hit in France and was the actor's first movie to be released in the US. But what made audiences really take notice of Delon was his appearances in two films released in 1960; "Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers)", Luchino Visocnti's drama about a poor family from Southern Italy and their struggles to achieve a better life up north in Milan. "Rocco" won a Special Jury Prize during the 21st Venice International Film Festival. And a leading role in the first screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" called "Plein soleil (Purple Noon)" from René Clément. Together, these films helped make Delon a movie star.
He would go on to star in Michelangelo Antonioni's "L'Eclisse (The Eclipse)" with Monica Vitti; teamed with Visconti again for "Il Gattopardo (The Leopard)", a historical drama with Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale; and worked again with Clément for "Les félins (Joy House)" with Jane Fonda, shooting French and English language versions. Hollywood certainly became intrigued with the actor and after working on his English, Delon made a few movies stateside for about three years beginning in 1964. But his accent limited what roles he could play and the movies he did make never made much headway with American audiences.
However, Delon remained very popular in France and eventually he returned to his home country where he could feel more comfortable and had plenty of more options for film roles. Some notable films he made include "Histoires extraordinaires (Spirits of the Dead)", a 1968 all-star horror anthology, from directors, Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini, based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. And his work with Jean-Pierre Melville in three crime dramas: "Le Samouraï", "Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle)" and "Un flic (A Cop)" all became classics and cemented Delon as an actor who could convey so much emotion and intensity without uttering a word.
Delon made over ninety films throughout his career and later going on to receive many honors and accolades. He won the César Award for Best Actor for his performance in "Notre histoire" in 1985, became a member of France's Legion of Honour in 1991, received an Honorary Golden Bear from the Berlin Film Festival in 1995 and the Honorary Palme d'Or from the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.
The inexperienced Delon got a small part in the film, "Quand la femme s'en mêle (Send a Woman When the Devil Fails)" in 1957 where he learned on the job how to act with the help of the director, Yves Allégret. His next major break came when he was cast opposite the German actress, Romy Schneider (who had selected him herself) in the 1958 period drama, "Christine". They began a romance, with neither able to speak the other's language initially nor not particularly liking each other while onset, and became a celebrated couple for six years. After their relationship ended, Delon and Schneider remained friendly, even working together on screen again a couple of times, most notably in "La Piscine (The Swimming Pool)" in 1968.
Delon followed "Christine" up the following year with the comedy, "Faibles femmes (Women are Weak)" which became a big hit in France and was the actor's first movie to be released in the US. But what made audiences really take notice of Delon was his appearances in two films released in 1960; "Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers)", Luchino Visocnti's drama about a poor family from Southern Italy and their struggles to achieve a better life up north in Milan. "Rocco" won a Special Jury Prize during the 21st Venice International Film Festival. And a leading role in the first screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" called "Plein soleil (Purple Noon)" from René Clément. Together, these films helped make Delon a movie star.
He would go on to star in Michelangelo Antonioni's "L'Eclisse (The Eclipse)" with Monica Vitti; teamed with Visconti again for "Il Gattopardo (The Leopard)", a historical drama with Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale; and worked again with Clément for "Les félins (Joy House)" with Jane Fonda, shooting French and English language versions. Hollywood certainly became intrigued with the actor and after working on his English, Delon made a few movies stateside for about three years beginning in 1964. But his accent limited what roles he could play and the movies he did make never made much headway with American audiences.
However, Delon remained very popular in France and eventually he returned to his home country where he could feel more comfortable and had plenty of more options for film roles. Some notable films he made include "Histoires extraordinaires (Spirits of the Dead)", a 1968 all-star horror anthology, from directors, Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini, based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. And his work with Jean-Pierre Melville in three crime dramas: "Le Samouraï", "Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle)" and "Un flic (A Cop)" all became classics and cemented Delon as an actor who could convey so much emotion and intensity without uttering a word.
Delon made over ninety films throughout his career and later going on to receive many honors and accolades. He won the César Award for Best Actor for his performance in "Notre histoire" in 1985, became a member of France's Legion of Honour in 1991, received an Honorary Golden Bear from the Berlin Film Festival in 1995 and the Honorary Palme d'Or from the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.
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