News

The death of Alain Delon leaves a 70-year body of onscreen work to be admired.

Following the French screen legend’s death at age 88 on Sunday, fans are remembering the memorable performances he served with such directors as Jean-Luc Godard, Luchino Visconti and Jean-Pierre Melville, earning a Palme d’Or and being inducted into France’s Legion of Honour during his storied career.

After a rough upbringing and serving in the First Indochina War, Delon was discovered at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival, despite having no training as an actor.

“I came down with a girl that I liked, who loved me… I took it all in, did the red carpet but even then, I felt at home… not least and I say this without pretension because it was made clear to me that I was not bad looking,” he told a Cannes masterclass in 2019.

Amid his affair with actress Michèle Cordoue,...

Alain Delon, an iconic actor of 1960s and 1970s French cinema, has died at age 88. Delon’s children said he died early in the morning of Sunday, August 18, at his château in Loiret, France, surrounded by family and his Belgian Shepherd Loubo, according to Deadline. The actor was known for his roles in films like 1963’s The Leopard and 1967’s Le Samouraï, the former of which earned him attention stateside with his Golden Globes nomination in the Most Promising Newcomer – Male category. In an X post on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Delon “played legendary roles and made the world dream” and that the “melancholic, popular, secretive” actor was not just a star but “a French monument.” After a stint fighting in the First Indochina War in the 1950s, Delon broke into show business through his relationships with the actors Brigitte Auber and Michèle Cordoue, who connected him...

French acting star Alain Delon, whose many iconic roles included Le Samouraï, Plein Soleil and The Leopard, has died in France at the age of 88.

The actor’s children said in a statement that their father had passed away in the early hours of Sunday, surrounded by his family and beloved Belgian Shepherd Loubo, in his long-time chateau home in the village of Douchy, in the Le Loiret region some 100 miles south of Paris.

Delon’s death marks the passing of one of the last surviving icons of the French cinema scene of the 1960s and 70s, when the country was on an economic roll as it reconstructed in the wake of World War II.

Related: French Pres. Emmanuel Macron Leads Tributes To Alain Delon: “More Than A Star, A Monument”

The star, who was at the peak of this career from the 1960s to the 1980s, fell into acting by chance.

Alain Delon, the dark and dashing leading man from France who starred in some of the greatest European films of the 1960s and ’70s, has died. He was 88.

“Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as (his dog) Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father. He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family,” a statement from the family released to Afp news agency said.

Delon had been suffering from poor health in recent years and had a stroke in 2019.

With a filmography boasting such titles as Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963), René Clément’s Purple Noon (1960), Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Eclipse (1962), Joseph Losey’s Mr. Klein (1976) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï (1967) and The Red Circle (1970), Delon graced several art house movies now considered classics.

His tense and stoical performances, often as...