French film legend Alain Delon, a divisive star known to some as a sex symbol and to others as an egotistical chauvinist, has died aged 88, his children announced Sunday. The actor, known for his roles in classics “Purple Noon” (1960) and “Le Samourai” (1967), died in the early hours of the morning, his son Anthony told AFP. He had been suffering with lymphoma. “Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as (his dog) Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father,” Delon’s children said in a statement to AFP.
“He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family,” said the statement, which came after months of public family feuding over the star’s weakening health. Delon had millions of fans around the world but also drew legions of critics, with feminists appalled by the lifetime achievement award the Cannes film festival gave him in 2019. In his later years he lived largely as a recluse, his personal life keeping him in the headlines despite being a rarity on-screen since the 1990s.
![A French gendarme stands on the road as journalists work in front of the entrance of the property of late French actor Alain Delon La Brulerie, in Douchy, central France, on August 18, 2024. --AFP photos](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144660.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![French actor Alain Delon (right) poses next to Egyptian actor Omar Sharif during the official entry ceremony at the Academie des Beaux-Arts (French Academy of Fine Arts) of French film director and producer, Regis Wargnier on February 1, 2012 in Paris.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144662.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![French actor Alain Delon poses on Red Square on June 20, 1990 before participating at the first Soviet Music Day Festival which celebrates the start of summer season.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144663.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![A portrait taken on May 26, 1979 shows French actor Alain Delon during the filming of](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144664.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![A photo taken on May 26, 1979 shows French actor Alain Delon during the filming of](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144665.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![French actor Alain Delon poses on April 18, 1988 aboard an Alphajet from the French Air Force Patrouille de France in Salon-de-Provence.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144666.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
In 2023, his three children filed a complaint against his live-in assistant Hiromi Rollin, accusing her of harassment and threatening behavior. The siblings went on to wage a public battle in the media and the courts, arguing over the star’s state of health, which included a stroke in 2019. He faced lifelong controversy over his relationship with women, with his sons previously accusing him of domestic violence. While Delon denied this, he admitted slapping women who attacked him during quarrels. He had a series of tumultuous affairs, describing German actor Romy Schneider as the “love of my life” after their relationship in the 1960s.
German-born Velvet Underground singer Nico claimed he was the father of her son, Christian Aaron Boulogne - something Delon continually denied up to Boulogne’s death in 2023 from a heroin overdose. Delon married Nathalie Delon in 1964 in a stormy relationship that ended in divorce in 1969, with other high-profile relationships including pop diva Dalida and model-turned-actor Mireille Darc.
![French actor Alain Delon (right) his son Anthony Delon arrives for the funeral ceremony for late French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo at the Saint-Germain-des-Pres church in Paris on September 10, 2021.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144667.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![French actor Alain Delon waves during the Opening Ceremony at the 42th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France on May 11, 1989.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144668.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![This photograph taken on Septembre 30, 1973 shows French actors Alain Delon (right) and Jean-Paul Belmondo (left) surrounded by the crowd as they arrive at Roland Garros in Paris to attend the middleweight world championship opposing Carlos Monzon and Jean-Claude Bouttier.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144669.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![French actor Alain Delon attends the funerals of French actor and singer Yves Montand, on November 13, 1991 at the Père Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144670.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![A portrait taken on October 28, 1980 shows French actor Alain delon on the TV set of French channel TF1, in Paris, to present his new film](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144671.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![A portrait taken on March 5, 1976 shows French actor Alain Delon smoking.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144672.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
Instinctive genius
Far from a cerebral actor, Delon was considered an instinctive genius. He prided himself on never having worked on his technique, rather relying on charisma. French President Emmanuel Macron said Delon was a “French monument” who “played legendary roles and made the world dream”. Former president of the Cannes festival, Gilles Jacob, paid tribute to Delon as “a lion... an actor with a steely gaze”, while Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice film festival, said he was an “icon” who had climbed “to the Olympus of the immortals”.
His looks were cinematic gold for filmmakers in the 1960s, playing roles of pretty boy killers and mysterious schemers like in “Purple Noon” - later remade as “The Talented Mr Ripley”. He went on to set the template for one of Hollywood’s favorite tropes - the mysterious, cerebral hitman - with his staggering performance as the silent killer in Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samourai”.
Directors from Martin Scorsese to Quentin Tarantino all acknowledge a debt to the inner life Delon gave his stylish killer - although the French actor never made it big in Hollywood. Delon made his last major public appearance on the red carpet to receive an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019. “It’s a bit of a posthumous tribute, but from my lifetime,” he said when receiving the award. Delon lived out his final years at home in a small village in France, surrounded by high walls, where he planned to be buried not far from his dogs.
![French actor Alain Delon delivers a speech May 27, 2007 during the Closing ceremony of the 60th edition of the Cannes Film Festival at the Festival Palace in Cannes, southern France.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144673.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![French actors Alain Delon (center left) acts in a scene of](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144674.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![French actor Alain Delon waves as he arrives with his daughter Anouchka Delon to be awarded with an Honorary Palme d'Or at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 19, 2019.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144675.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo (second left) shakes hands with French actor Alain Delon (L) after being awarded with the Legion d'Honneur during a ceremony at the Ministry of Culture in Paris on September 23, 1980 as his mother Madeleine Belmondo (third left) looks on.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144676.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
![French actor Alain Delon reacts as he arrives to be awarded with an Honorary Palme d'Or at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 19, 2019.](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://kuwaittimes.com/kuwaittimes/uploads/images/2024/08/18/144677.jpg&w=30&q=90&f=webp)
‘The best and the worst’
Outside the entrance to his home in Douchy-Montcorbon, fans on Sunday placed flowers and gathered to pay their respects. “It’s a part of our youth that is gone, it’s very sad,” said Marie Arnold, laying white flowers with her sister Michele. An accordion player, who gave his name as “Titi”, said Delon had asked him to play in front of the estate on the day of his death. “Alain is in a deep, chosen solitude, in another world, in the past with people he very much loved,” his former partner Darc told AFP in 2015.
“The best and the worst, both inaccessible and so close, cold and hot,” fellow 1960s star Brigitte Bardot had described him on his 80th birthday. Delon also drew criticism for his support of polarizing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, who was in favor of the death penalty and spoke against same-sex relationships. But fans who adored him will think back to his opening line in the film “Le Samourai”: “There is no deeper solitude than that of the samurai, except that of a tiger in the jungle.” — AFP