Alain Delon

**Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon** (; 8 November 1935 – 18 August 2024) was a French actor. He became famous quickly, and by the age of 23, he was already being compared to French actors like Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais. He was also compared to American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot. During his career, Delon worked with many well-known directors. Some of these are Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michelangelo Antonioni and Louis Malle.

Delon was given Swiss citizenship in 1999. He had a company managing product company, and it was based in Geneva.

## Early life

Delon was born in Sceaux, Seine (now Hauts-de-Seine), Île-de-France, which is a suburb of Paris. His parents, Édith (née Arnold) and Fabien Delon, divorced when Delon was four. Both remarried, and Delon has a half-sister and two half-brothers. He went to a Roman Catholic boarding school. This was the first school he was removed from because of bad behavior.

When he was 14, Delon left school. He then worked for at his stepfather's butcher shop for some time. He joined the French Navy three years later. In 1953 and 54 he served as a _fusilier marin_ in the First Indochina War. Delon has said that out of his four years of military service he spent eleven months in prison for being "undisciplined", meaning that his bad behaviour ended up getting him jailed. In 1956, he returned to France after being dishonourably discharged from the navy. He did not have any money, and lived on whatever money he could find.

## Products

Since his perfume company was started, Delon has had many products sold under his name. Some of these are wristwatches, clothes, eyewear, stationery and cigarettes.

Delon's sunglasses brand became very popular in Hong Kong after actor Chow Yun-fat wore them in the 1986 movie _A Better Tomorrow_. He wore these in two movies after this. It is said that Delon wrote a letter to thank Chow for helping the sunglasses sell out in the region. The movie's director John Woo has said that Delon is one of his idols. He wrote a short essay on _Le Samourai_ as well as _Le Cercle Rou_ for the Criterion Collection DVDs.

## Death

Delon suffered a stroke in June 2019. In August 2019, he was recovering in a Swiss hospital. In September 2022, he began treatment for a slow-progressing lymphoma. In the summer of 2023, Delon's three children made the decision to stop this treatment because it was weakening him.

Delon died on 18 August 2024 at his home in Douchy, France at the age of 88. He was diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma earlier in the year.

## Honours

- At the 45th Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Honorary Golden Bear.
- Delon is on the cover of the 1986 album The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths.
- He was made _Officier_ (Officer) of the Ordre national du Mérite in 1995.
- He was made _Chevalier_ (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur on 21 February 1991. He was promoted to _Officier_ (Officer) in 2005.

## Movies

|Year|Movie|Role|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1957|_Sois belle et tais-toi_|Loulou||
|1957|_Quand la femme s'en mêle_|Jo||
|1958|_Christine_|Franz Lobheiner||
|1959|_Faibles femmes_|Julien Fenal||
|1959|_Le chemin des écoliers_|Antoine Michaud||
|1960|_Rocco and His Brothers_|Rocco Parondi|directed by Luchino Visconti|
|1960|_Purple Noon_ (_Plein Soleil_)|Tom Ripley||
|1961|_The Joy of Living_ (_Quelle joie de vivre_)|Ulysse||
|1961|_Amours célèbres_|Prince Albert||
|1962|_Love at Sea_ (_L'Amour à la mer_)|The film actor||
|1962|_Eclipse_|Piero|directed by Michelangelo Antonioni|
|1962|_Carom Shots_ (_Carambolages_)|Lambert||
|1962|_The Devil and the Ten Commandments_ (_Le Diable et les Dix Commandements_)|Pierre Messager||
|1963|_Joy House_ (_Les Félins_)|Marc||
|1963|_Any Number Can Win_ (_Mélodie en sous-sol_)|Francis||
|1963|_The Leopard_|Tancredi||
|1963|_La Tulipe noire_|Count de Saint Preux||
|1964|_L'Insoumis_|Thomas||
|1965|_The Yellow Rolls-Royce_|Stefano||
|1965|_Once a Thief_|Eddie Pedak|directed by Ralph Nelson; written by Zekial Marko|
|1965|_Is Paris Burning?_ (_Paris brûle-t-il?_)|Jacques Chaban-Delmas||
|1966|_Texas Across the Rive_ (_Texas nous voilà)_|Don Andrea||
|1966|_Lost Command_|Capt. Philippe Esclavier||
|1966|_The Last Adventure_ (_Les Aventuriers_)|Manu||
|1967|_Diabolically Yours_ (_Diaboliquement vôtre_)|Pierre||
|1967|_Le Samouraï_|Jef Costello|directed by Jean Pierre Melville|
|1968|_Spirits of the Dead_ (_Histoires extraordinaires_)|William Wilson||
|1968|_Farewell Friend_ (_Adieu l'ami_)|Dino Barran|co-starring with Charles Bronson|
|1968|_The Girl on a Motorcycle_ (_La Motocyclette_)|Daniel||
|1968|_The Swimming Pool_ (_La Piscine_)|Jean-Paul||
|1969|_Jeff_|Laurent||
|1969|_Madly_|Julian||
|1969|_The Sicilian Clan_ (_Le Clan des Siciliens_)|Roger Sartet||
|1970|_Doucement les basses_|Simon||
|1970|_Borsalino_|Rocco Siffredi||
|1970|_Le Cercle rouge_|Corey|directed by Jean-Pierre Melville|
|1971|_The Assassination of Trotsky_|Frank Jackson|directed by Joseph Losey|
|1971|_Fantasia chez les ploucs_|A caïd||
|1971|_Red Sun_ (_Soleil Rouge_)|Gauche|directed by Terence Young|
|1971|_La veuve Couderc_|Jean||
|1971|_Un Flic_|Coleman||
|1972|_La prima notte di quiete_|Daniele Dominici|directed by Valerio Zurlini|
|1972|_Il était une fois un flic_|Man searching Rodriguez||
|1972|_Traitement de choc_|Devillers||
|1973|_No Way Out_ (_Tony Arzenta_)|Tony Arzenta||
|1973|_Scorpio_|Jean Laurier, alias Scorpio||
|1973|_The Burned Barns_ (_Les granges brûlées_)|Larcher||
|1973|_La Race des seigneurs_|Julien Dandieu||
|1973|_Two Men in Town_ (_Deux hommes dans la ville_)|Gino Strabliggi||
|1974|_Borsalino & Co._|Roch Siffredi||
|1974|_Les Seins de glace_|Marc Rilsen||
|1975|_Zorro_|Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro||
|1975|_Le Gitan_|Le Gitan||
|1975|_Flic Story_|Roger Borniche||
|1976|_L'Homme pressé_|Pierre Niox||
|1976|_Comme un boomerang_|Jacques Batkin||
|1976|_Armaguedon_|Dr. Michel Ambrose||
|1976|_Monsieur Klein_|Robert Klein|directed by Joseph Losey nominated– César Award for Best Actor|
|1977|_Death of a Corrupt Man_ (_Mort d'un pourri_)|Xavier Maréchal|nominated– César Award for Best Actor|
|1977|_Le Gang_|Robert le Dingue||
|1978|_Attention, les enfants regardent_|L'homme||
|1979|_The Concorde ... Airport '79_|Paul Metrand||
|1979|_The Medic_ (_Le Toubib_)|Jean-Marie Desprès||
|1980|_Teheran 43_ (_Teheran 43. Nid d'espions_)|Foche||
|1980|_Trois hommes à abattre_|Michel Gerfaut||
|1981|_Pour la peau d'un flic_|Choucas||
|1982|_The Shock_ (_Le choc_)|Martin Terrier||
|1983|_Swann in Love_ (_Un amour de Swann_)|Baron de Charlus||
|1983|_Le Battant_|Jacques Darnay||
|1984|Le Passage|Jean Diaz||
|1984|_Notre histoire_|Robert Avranche|won– César Award for Best Actor|
|1985|_Parole de flic_|Daniel Pratt||
|1988|_Ne réveillez pas un flic qui dort_|Commissaire Eugène Grindel||
|1990|_Dancing Machine_|Alan Wolf||
|1990|_Nouvelle Vague_|L'homme||
|1992|_The Return of Casanova_ (_Le Retour de Casanova_)|Casanova||
|1992|_Un Crime_|Maitre Charles Durand||
|1993|_L'Ours en peluche_|Jean Rivière||
|1995|_A Hundred and One Nights_ (_Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma_)|Alain Delon, en visite||
|1996|_Le Jour et la nuit_|Alexandre||
|1997|_Une chance sur deux_|Julien Vignal||
|1999|_Les Acteurs_|himself||
|2003–2004|_Frank Riva_|Frank Riva|television series|
|2008|_Asterix at the Olympic Games_ (_Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques_)|Jules César||

## Other websites

- alaindelon.ch , his official website

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Alain Delon
- **image**: Alain Delon 1961.jpg
- **caption**: Delon in 1961
- **birth name**: Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon
- **birth place**: Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, Sceaux, France
- **death place**: Douchy-Montcorbon, Douchy, France
- **death cause**: Problems caused by B-cell lymphoma
- **years active**: 1949–2019
- **citizenship**: France, French, Switzerland, Swiss
- **children**: At least 4, including Anthony Delon, Anthony, Anouchka Delon, Anouchka, Alain-Fabien Delon, Alain-Fabien, and Christian Aaron Boulogne
- **website**: [http://www.alaindelon.ch alaindelon.ch]