Alain Delon

Alain Delon was a French-Swiss actor, director, singer, and producer, born on 8 November 1935 in Sceaux (Seine) and who passed away on 18 August 2024 in Douchy-Montcorbon (Loiret).

An emblematic figure and icon of European cinema, he was one of the most famous, representative, and influential French actors, both in France and abroad.

Revealed by René Clément's Plein Soleil (1960), which propelled him to sex-symbol status, Alain Delon followed up with Rocco et ses frères (1960) and Le Guépard (1963). These two masterpieces by Luchino Visconti cemented the French actor's international renown. Having become a global star, Delon was courted by Hollywood, but his inconclusive American experiences led him to abandon a career across the Atlantic. He then embodied the archetype of the French crime film, playing cold and enigmatic characters in films such as Mélodie en sous-sol, Le Samouraï, Le Clan des Siciliens, Le Cercle rouge, and Un flic. His intense and refined acting, marked by a sobriety captured and sublimated by Jean-Pierre Melville, influenced several generations of filmmakers.

His eclecticism led him to explore various genres: melodrama with La Piscine, drama with L'Éclipse, historical film with Monsieur Klein, adventure film with Les Aventuriers, political film with Deux Hommes dans la ville, western with Soleil rouge and Zorro, and psychological thriller with Le Professeur. In the 1980s, Delon continued his film career while increasingly turning to directing and producing. From the 1990s onwards, he made occasional appearances, such as in Une chance sur deux, where he reunited with Jean-Paul Belmondo, his on-screen rival and accomplice since Borsalino, or in Les Acteurs (2000), where he was invited by Bertrand Blier to play his own role as a melancholic actor. His appearance in Astérix aux Jeux olympiques (2008) marked one of his last film roles, where he self-deprecatingly played on his own image.

Delon also had a television career, with highly-rated series and TV films (Fabio Montale and Frank Riva).

Alain Delon achieved his greatest French box-office successes between the early 1960s and the mid-1970s. Over the period 1956-1990, he accumulated 55.8 million admissions, ranking 6th among French actors behind Louis de Funès, Bourvil, Belmondo, Jean Gabin, and Fernandel. The films he participated in attracted over 136 million viewers in France, in addition to several tens of millions of admissions abroad. Several of his works are among the greatest successes of French and Italian cinema, both critically and commercially, and Delon remains one of the most internationally recognised French actors. Four films in which he held a leading role are featured in the reference work 1001 films à voir avant de mourir: Rocco et ses frères, L'Éclipse, Le Guépard, and Le Samouraï.

Nominated in 1963 for the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Male for Le Guépard, he received a special David di Donatello for his career in 1972, as well as an Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. He also received honorary awards at several international festivals and the Honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. Monsieur Klein, which he co-produced, won the César for Best Film and earned him a nomination for the César for Best Actor.