French film legend Alain Delon has died at the age of 88, his three children told AFP in a statement on Sunday, following a battle with ill health. Actor Alain Delon -- who has died Sunday aged 88 -- was 's greatest screen seducer. To some he was the sexiest man of the 20th century who played the impeccably tailored, ice-cold killers popularised by 1960s New Wave films to perfection.
To others, the man who often referred to himself in the third person and admitted to having slapped a woman, was an egotistical chauvinist, with feminists appalled by the lifetime achievement award the Cannes film festival gave him in 2019. His millions of fans, from France to -- where Delon was adored as an idol of male beauty -- were prepared to overlook his failings. The whiff of sulphur and his angelic face also proved an irresistible combination to a long line of glamorous actresses who fell for him.
In a note to Delon on his 80th birthday, one of his oldest friends, fellow 1960s icon , called him "an eagle with two heads...
the best and the worst." Delon's legend was launched in 1960, playing pretty boy killers and mysterious schemers in "Purple Noon" -- later remade as "The Talented Mr Ripley" -- and Luchino Visconti's "The Leopard". Directors from Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino to Hong Kong's John Woo all acknowledge a debt to the inner life Delon gave his stylish killer.
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