# Nathalie Delon

Nathalie Delon (born Francine Canovas, also known as Nathalie Barthélémy; 1 August 1941 – 21 January 2021) was a French actress, model, film director and writer.She is well known for her first acting role, appearing opposite her husband, actor Alain Delon, in the neo-noir film Le Samouraï directed by Jean-Pierre Melville (1967).

## Early life

Francine Canovas was born on 1 August 1941 in Oujda, then under the French Protectorate in Morocco to a French family of Italian-Spanish origin. She was the daughter of Louis Canovas (1915–2003), pied-noir of Oran (Algeria), manager of a transport company in Morocco, who abandoned the family when she was 8 months old in 1942 and Antoinette Rodriguez, who was from Melilla. Nathalie had a sister, Louisette, and a brother.

## Personal life

In 1957, Nathalie married a conscript from the north of France, Guy Barthélémy, who later became the signing officer for Omnium Marocain d'Assurance. They lived in Morocco and had a daughter named Nathalie Barthélémy. The marriage ended in 1960 and the following year she moved to Paris. Their divorce was granted in July 1964.
In August 1962, Nathalie met French actor Alain Delon at New Jimmy's, a Paris nightclub, and they began a secret relationship that night that lasted one year. In May 1963, Nathalie accompanied Delon to the shoot of his new film La Tulipe Noire. The couple became engaged in April 1964 and on 13 August 1964, they married in Loir-et-Cher. Their son, Anthony Delon, was born on 30 September 1964, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. They were one of the most glamorous and talked-about couples of the 1960s. In June 1968, Nathalie and Delon separated. The couple later divorced on 14 February 1969. They worked together on two films: Le Samouraï, whilst they were married, and Doucement les Basses after their divorce.
During the 1960s and 1970s she dated Bobby Keys, Marc Porel, Eddie Fisher, Renaud Verley, Louis Malle, and Franco Nero, among others. Her greatest love was Chris Blackwell, whom she was with for 15 years (1978–1993).

## Career

During the 1960s, Nathalie Delon was a model. She was photographed by top French and foreign photographers for famous magazines such as Vogue.
In 1967, Nathalie became a film actress, starring opposite her husband in the film Le Samouraï by Jean-Pierre Melville, which became a hit. Writing of the Delons' performances in Le Figaro, Bertrand Guyard notes husband and wife are both nearly silent but "their gazes, fraught with meaning, are enough to thrill the camera" with the director drawing from their portrayals "a mythical couple in the seventh art."
Afterwards, Nathalie Delon continued her acting career until the 1980s. In 1968 she appeared in The Private Lesson, which made her a star in Japan, ranking her in the top 10 of foreign actresses. In 1971, she appeared in When Eight Bells Toll with Anthony Hopkins and in 1972 she appeared in The Monk with Franco Nero. In 1973, she acted in Le Sex Shop, and her role was one of the film's "moments of real pleasure, as one of its "really marvelous girls", commented Roger Greenspun in The New York Times.
In addition to acting in 30 films during her career, she directed two: one was the story—also written by Delon—of a mother whose son dies in surgery, Ils appellent ça un accident [fr] (transl. They Call It an Accident) in 1982, and the other was Sweet Lies in 1988.

## Later life

In 2006, Delon published a memoir, Pleure pas, c'est pas grave (Don't cry, it isn't serious). Le Figaro described it as an account of "her darker period, her marriage to Delon, her descent into hell with drugs. But still full of life, she also recounts the exceptional encounters she has had with people who made her laugh and who make us laugh too. Delightful and entertaining anecdotes".
Nathalie Delon died at the age of 79 in Paris on 21 January 2021 from pancreatic cancer.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1967 | Le Samouraï | Jane Lagrange | Jean-Pierre Melville | With Alain Delon |
| 1968 | The Private Lesson | Frederique Dampierre | Michel Boisrond | |
| 1969 | Le sorelle (The Sisters) | Diana | Roberto Malenotti | |
| 1969 | La Main | Sylvie | Henri Glaeser | |
| 1969 | Army of Shadows | a friend of Jean-François | Jean-Pierre Melville | Uncredited |
| 1971 | Doucement les basses (Easy Down There!) | Rita | Jacques Deray | With Alain Delon |
| 1971 | When Eight Bells Toll | Charlotte Skouras | Étienne Périer | With Anthony Hopkins |
| 1972 | Bluebeard | Erika | Edward Dmytryk | With Richard Burton |
| 1972 | Le Sex Shop | Jacqueline | Claude Berri | |
| 1972 | Repeated Absences | Sophie | Guy Gilles | |
| 1972 | The Monk | Mathilde | Adonis A. Kyrou | With Franco Nero |
| 1973 | L'Histoire très bonne et très joyeuse de Colinot trousse-chemise | Bertrade | Nina Companeez | |
| 1973 | Profession: Aventuriers | Marie Chapuis | Claude Mulot | |
| 1974 | Vous intéressez-vous à la chose ? | Lise | Jacques Baratier | |
| 1974 | Hold-Up – Atraco en la Costa Azul | Judy | Germán Lorente | |
| 1975 | The Romantic Englishwoman | Miranda | Joseph Losey | |
| 1975 | Docteur Justice | Karine | Christian-Jaque | |
| 1976 | Une femme fidèle | Flora de Saint-Gilles | Roger Vadim | |
| 1976 | Un sussurro nel buio (A Whisper in the Dark) | Camilla | Marcello Aliprandi | |
| 1977 | Fire in the Water | as herself | Peter Whitehead | With Peter Whitehead |
| 1977 | L'avventurosa fuga: Gli ultimi angeli | Elisabetta | Enzo Doria | |
| 1978 | The Man in the Rushes | Loraine | Manfred Purzer | |
| 1978 | Seagulls Fly Low | Isabelle Michereau | Giorgio Cristallini | |
| 1978 | Occhi dalle stelle (Eyes Behind the Stars) | Monica Stiles | Mario Gariazzo | |
| 1979 | Le Temps des Vacances | Martine | Claude Vital | |
| 1980 | La Bande du Rex | Janine | Jean-Henri Meunier | |
| 1982 | Ils appellent ça un accident | Julie Fabre | Nathalie Delon | Also director and writer |
| 1983 | Pair-impairment | | Carole Marquand | Short film |
| 1988 | Sweet Lies | — | Nathalie Delon | Director only |
| 2008 | Nuit de chien | Risso | Werner Schroeter | |
| 2009 | Mensch | Liliane Hazak | Steve Suissa | |

## Television

Television credits of Nathalie Delon :
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1965 | Dim Dam Dom | Herself | | TV series documentary |
| 1967 | Dim Dam Dom | Herself | | TV series documentary |
| 1968 | Dim Dam Dom | Herself | | TV series documentary |
| 1978 | Madame le juge | Françoise Muller | Raymond Thévenet | Miniseries (6 episodes) |
| 1979 | Euphorie II | Danielle Saura | Philippe Ducrest | Television film |
| 1979 | Efficax | Hélène Chapel | Philippe Ducrest | Television film |
| 1978-81 | Histoires de voyous | Irène | Pierre Goutas | TV series (9 episodes) |

## Publications
### Novel

* Au plus fort de l'orage : roman (in French). Paris: R. Laffont. 1994. ISBN 978-2221075630.

### Memoir

* Pleure pas, c'est pas grave : souvenirs (in French). Groupe Flammarion. 2006. ISBN 978-2-08-123399-7. OCLC 937870010.