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 196.