Alain Delon, Icon of the French New Wave, Dead at 88
Alain Delon, star of Le Samouraï, La Piscine, and The Leopard, has died. He was 88. His children said in a statement to France’s AFP news agency that he died Sunday surrounded by his children and beloved dog Loubo. According to CNN, Delon had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2019. “Melancholic, popular, secretive, he was more than a star: a French monument,” French president Emmanuel Macron said of Delon, one of the last vestiges of French New Wave cinema.
Born in 1935, Delon started doing odd jobs in Paris after serving in the French navy. He was discovered by actress Brigitte Auber, who introduced him to the luminaries of international cinema at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. “I came down with a girl that I liked, who loved me,” he said at a Cannes masterclass in 2019. “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 got his first role, a bit part in Quand la femme s’en mêle, by having an affair with the director’s wife. From there, he started getting regular work — including Christine, on which he met Romy Schneider. The pair would stay in a relationship for 5 years, but stay creatively connected for years later. They were known in the French press as “les amants terribles” (the terrible lovers), for their tempestuous relationship. After breaking up, Delon and Schneider costarred in La Piscine in 1969. On that film, he met Mirelle Darc. They were together until 1982. Delon was also connected romantically with Lana Wood, Ann-Margret, Marisa Mell, and more. He had an affair with Nico in 1961. Nico had a son in 1962, Ari, but Delon never recognized paternity for the child. Ari was raised by Nico, then adopted by Delon’s mother.
Delon’s later years were marked by a bitter feud between his children over his care. He was also criticized for his far-right political beliefs, antisemitism, and attitude towards women. When Delon was given an honorary Palm d’Or in 2019, French feminist organization Osez Le Feminisme told Variety “Cannes is sending a negative signal to women and victims of violence by honoring Delon in spite of the fact that he admitted to having slapped women.”
Delon played deadly conman Tom Ripley in Plein Soleil, worked with Luchino Visconti on Rocco and his Brothers and The Leopard, and most fruitfully with Jean-Pierre Melville. Delon starred in Melville’s Le Samouraï, Le Cercle Rouge, and Un Flic before Melville died of a heart attack in 1973. In 1990, he finally worked with Jean-Luc Goddard on Nouvelle Vague, a metatextual history of film.