French film legend Alain Delon passes away aged 88
The actor leaves behind a major cinematic legacy and a personality that managed to captivate as well as divide his audience throughout his career
The world of French cinema lost one of its most emblematic figures on Sunday as actor Alain Delon passed away aged 88. The news broke after his three children released a joint statement to the AFP.
A star of the big screen, Delon leaves behind a major cinematic legacy and a personality that captivated as much as it divided the audience throughout his career. His passing marks the end of an era for French art.
"Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as [his dog] Loubo, are immensely grieved to announce the departure of their father. He passed away peacefully in his Douchy home, surrounded by his three children and loved ones. (...) His family kindly asks you to respect their privacy, in this moment of extremely painful mourning," the statement said. Rare on the big screen since the late 1990s, Delon has left a mark on cinema with masterpieces such as "Purple Noon," "Mr. Klein," "The Leopard," "The Swimming Pool," and "The Samurai."
He had returned to taste the lights of the red carpet in Cannes in May 2019 to receive an honorary Palme d'or, between tears and speeches with testamentary accents, a few weeks before his stroke.
Alain Delon became a star at 25 after the release of "Purple Noon" (1960). His duo with Maurice Ronet is hailed as an incandescent film that lights up the silver screen. Yet, his life began in rather harsh start. An abandoned child, he was placed in a boarding school, and then served as a soldier in Indochina. As his career took off, he excelled playing complex roles in films such as "The Swimming Pool," "The Leopard," "The Sicilian Clan," and "The Widow Couderc." His greatest film is often said to be undoubtedly remain "Mr. Klein," a Holocaust story depicting an apparently non-Jewish Frenchman identified mistakenly as a Jew during the Nazi occupation of France.
"Alain Delon has played legendary roles and made the world dream. Lending his unforgettable face to shake up our lives. Melancholic, popular, secretive, he was more than a star: he was a French monument," French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X.