Alain Delon, a universal icon

A few words that encapsulate it all: as the Presidency rightly points out, Delon often played in his film career many roles “of men tormented by rebellion or devoured by torment, because these roles intertwined his destiny”.

An unforgettable, astonishing beauty

Born in 1935, Alain Delon had a difficult childhood, with divorced parents, foster care, a long list of schools for short schooling. He first seemed destined for an anonymous future as a butcher, but severed ties with his family and joined the army fairly young, in the French Navy, where he was posted and sent to French Indochina. On his return to France in 1956, he sought a different way and socialised in Parisian circles, both muddled and artistic. He was soon spotted, thanks to his “unforgettable beauty” (he declared himself), and made his film debut. In 1960, he played in Purple Noon, directed by René Clément, a masterpiece in the opinion of all movie-goers, in which he “dazzles with his astonishing beauty”. The movie kickstarts his career to the stars.

An international career

His career then turned international incredibly fast. Delon was one of the most famous European actors of his time. And especially in Italy, where he was spotted by Luchino Visconti, who cast him in two films in 1963: Rocco and His Brothers, in which he played a fragile boxer, and The Leopard, an international masterpiece in which he starred alongside Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale. He also acted under the direction of Antonioni (L’Eclisse), but the great names of French cinema also sought him out: Henri Verneuil in particular, who cast him three times, in Any number can win, The Sicilian Clan and, above all, Le Samouraï, in which he played a gun for hire, freezing “for eternity his tragic and silent silhouette”.

A certain history of France

In the 1970s, he’s an international, which let him “choose more personal, darker, more ambitious works”. This was the case with Monsieur Klein, directed by Joseph Losey, arguably his most personal film, in which he played a man mistaken for a Jew during the Nazi-occupied France. He even played Baron de Charlus in Volker Schlöndorff’s film adaptation of Marcel Proust’s work. He then moved on to directing, but due to “lone wolf temper”, he increasingly retreated into solitude in the country, despite “his status as a popular legend”. Delon embodied “for the whole world a French sensibility, an aspiration to beauty” and is considered in many countries, notably in Japan but also in Argentina, Romania and the United States, as being the reflection of “a certain history of France”. As French newspaper Le Monde wrote, Alain Delon “enjoyed international renown in many other countries, where the actor and his films were revered”.

90 films, 136 million spectators

According to experts, Delon played in almost 90 films, attracting over 136 million cinema-goers, turning him into one of the highest-grossing actors in France. He has not made a career for himself in Hollywood, because he didn’t want to, some say, while others say he couldn’t, despite various offers and a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year. He has also won numerous awards, including two Césars awards for Best Actor and a Palme d’honneur at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 for his entire career. He decided to retire from acting in 1999 despite a role in 2008 as Caesar in Asterix at the Olympic Games), to become a singer, producer, businessman, art lover and the face of one of the world’s most famous French perfume brands, Dior, which still uses one of the actor’s most beautiful photographs in its advertising.

A unanimous tribute

Since the 1960s, Alain Delon has also received recognition and awards in various countries: Argentina, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Senegal, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, and more, and often to “honour his entire career”. So, it was no surprise that Delon received a “shower of tributes” when the news of his death was announced came out. All the national press naturally ran headlines on the death of this icon, who was certainly universal, but who was first and foremost French in essence.

According to the French Presidency, Alain Delon was “one of the most admired and celebrated actors of his time, who knew how to be from all eras, irregular, free, timeless, always French”. However, as the daily newspapers Libération, Ouest-France and Le Monde report, the international press is also unanimous in calling him “the last great myth of French cinema”. For the New York Times, for example, “the intense and intensely handsome French actor played cold Corsican gangsters as convincingly as hot Italian lovers”. The Guardian in turn praised Alain Delon as “a symbol of the lost beauty of the 1960s” and, according to the Japan Times, “his idol image and James Dean personality have made him one of his country’s most acclaimed actors”. The New Yorker went even further, calling Alain Delon “the most handsome man in the history of cinema”.

Explore more:

- Press release from the French Presidency

- Article in Le Monde

- Article in Ouest-France

- Article in Libération