Happy 70th birthday to French film star Alain Delon. In the 50s Delon was a parachutist with the French marines in Indochina; later he worked as a waiter, a salesman and a porter, and was 22 when he made his French film debut. His first major success was in the role of Thomas Ripley in Plein Soleil (Purple Moon), a 1962 version of Patricia Highsmith'sThe Talented Mr. Ripley. Delon was awarded a "Légion d'honneur," the highest French decoration for his career.
Career Highlights: The Leopard, Rocco and His Brothers, Le Samouraï
First Major Screen Credit: Sois Belle Et Tais-Toi (1957)
Biography
The magnetic Alain Delon was among the most prominent French actors of the postwar era; an exotically handsome performer, he sprung from offscreen rumor and scandal to emerge as a uniquely enigmatic and sinister talent. Born November 8, 1935, in Sceaux, France, Delon spent his formative years primarily in the care of foster parents. He later was sent away to a series of boarding schools, and at the age of 17, he joined the marines, serving as a parachutist in Indo-China. Upon his discharge, Delon returned to Marseilles and struck up a friendship with aspiring actor Jean-Claude Brialy, who invited him to attend the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. There Delon's delicate good looks won him a number of movie offers, including a rumored seven-year deal with David O. Selznick. In the end, he accepted a small role in the Edwige Feuillere film Quand la Femme S'en Mele, followed by an appearance in 1957's Sois Belle Et Tais-Toi.
Delon's first lead role in a picture came opposite Romy Schneider, to whom he was later briefly engaged, in 1958's Christine. A handful of other supporting turns followed before he won the lead in Rene Clement's stylish 1960 thriller Plein Soleil, an international hit which cast him as a murderous American traveling abroad. In 1960, he appeared in Luchino Visconti's Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli. Under Visconti, he also reunited with Schneider on-stage in a production of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Next teaming again with Clement, Delon appeared in 1961's Che Gioia Vivere, followed by an appearance with Brigitte Bardot in Les Amours Celebres.
Despite mixed critical regard for his work, Delon was a favorite among many of the era's most prominent filmmakers, and in 1962 he starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's brilliant L'Eclisse followed by a turn in Visconti's 1963 masterpiece Il Gattopardo. These many high-profile projects boosted Delon to international prominence, and his next project, 1963's Melodie En Sous-Sol, was a big-budget gangster tale co-starring Jean Gabin. With 1964's Les Felins, he turned to producing as well as performing, later establishing his own company, Adel Productions. With 1965's Once a Thief, Delon made his Hollywood debut, followed by The Lost Command, Texas Across the River, and Yellow Rolls-Royce. By 1967, however, he was back in France, appearing alongside wife Nathalie Delon in Jean-Pierre Melville's cult classic Le Samourai -- a role which defined the self-absorbed loner persona he continued to develop over subsequent performances -- and with Marianne Faithfull in The Girl on a Motorcycle a year later.
In 1969, Delon and his wife found themselves at the center of a massive scandal when their bodyguard was found shot to death, his body left in a garbage dump. The subsequent investigation into his killing threatened to implicate many of France's most prominent celebrities and politicians in a sordid web of murder, drugs, and sex. Many predicted the demise of Delon's career, but he spun the tabloid headlines to his favor. In the eyes of many filmgoers, his myriad portrayals of gangsters, killers, and sexual deviants suddenly took on new reality in light of the similar exploits he experienced in his offscreen life, and a notorious television interview in which he admitted to past homosexual liaisons -- as well as many other seamy adventures -- tantalized audiences even more. In the wake of the controversy, Delon starred in four consecutive gangster films -- Jean Herman's Jeff, Henri Verneuil's Le Clan des Siciliens, Jacques Deray's Borsalino (with Jean-Paul Belmondo), and Melville's Le Cercle Rouge -- all of them hugely successful with European audiences; Hollywood fame continued to elude him, however, and English-language efforts like 1973's Scorpio failed to attract audiences.
Nevertheless, Delon spent much of the 1970s as France's biggest star. Monsieur Klein (1976), directed by Joseph Losey, won a Cesar as the year's best picture, and thrillers like 1977's Comme Un Boomerang and Le Gang continued to perform extremely well at the box office. In 1979, he again tried to penetrate the American market in the star-studded Airport '79: Concord, but, as before, he returned home without success. In 1981, Delon turned to directing with Pour la Peau d'un Flic, which he followed two years later with Le Battant. In 1984, he co-starred in Volker Schlöndorff's Un Amour de Swann, the most prestigious project he had graced in well over a decade. That same year he garnered a Cesar for his work in Notre Histoire, and in 1985 Parole de Flic became another major hit. Following miserable reviews and receipts for 1986's Le Passage, however, Delon's prolific shooting schedule began to taper off, and he selected projects with greater discretion. Among those chosen was 1990's Nouvelle Vague, which paired him for the first time with director Jean-Luc Godard. During the 1990s, his profile continued to recede from the screen as he focused on various business ventures, and he did not reappear before the camera prior to 1994's L' Ours en Peluche. After a cameo in Agnes Varda's all-star 1995 production Les Cent et une Nuits de Simon Cinema, he next resurfaced in 1997's Le Jour et la Nuit. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Delon was born in Sceaux, Seine (now Hauts-de-Seine), Île-de-France, a suburb of Paris. His parents, Édith (née Arnold) and Fabien Delon, divorced when Delon was four.[1] Both remarried, and Delon has a half-sister and two half-brothers. He attended a Roman Catholic boarding school, the first of several schools from which he was expelled because of unruly behavior. Teachers once tried to convince him to enter the priesthood because of his aptitude in religious studies.
At 14, Delon left school, and worked for a brief time at his stepfather's butcher shop. He enlisted in the French Navy three years later, and in 1953/54 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 11 months in prison for being "undisciplined". In 1956, after being dishonorably discharged from the military he returned to Paris. He had no money, and got by on whatever employment he could find. He spent time working as a waiter, a porter, and a sales clerk. During this time he became friends with the actress Brigitte Auber, and joined her on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival, where his film career would begin.
Career
At Cannes, Delon was seen by a talent scout for David O. Selznick. After a successful screen test Selznick offered him a contract, provided he learn English. Delon returned to Paris to study English, but when he met French director Yves Allégret, he was convinced that he should stay in France to begin his career. Selznick allowed Delon to cancel his contract, and Allégret gave him his debut in the film Quand la Femme s'en Mêle (When the Woman Butts In). Delon then got to show a comedic aspect of himself in the film Faibles Femmes (Women Are Weak/Three Murderesses). This was also the first of his films to be seen in America, where it became a success.
"Rocco's heartbroken steadfastness furnishes the film with the foremost of its ironic tragedies ... [I]ts believability rests finally on Mr. Delon's compelling performance."
In 1964, the Cinémathèque Française held a showcase of Delon's films and Delon started a production company, Delbeau Production, with Georges Beaume. They produced a film called L’insoumis, which had to be re-edited due to legal issues. Delon then started his own production company, Adel, and starred in the company’s first film, Jeff. Delon followed the success of the film with Borsalino, which became one of France’s highest grossing films of the time. In 1973, he made a duet with the French pop singer Dalida on "Paroles, paroles". He also played Johnston McCulley's popular masked hero in 1975's Zorro. In 1976 Delon starred in the César awards (French equivalent of Oscars) - winning Monsieur Klein, which proved to be an impressively controlled performance and a golden opportunity for Delon to add psychological depth to his acting style.
He was awarded the Best Actor César Award for his role in Bertrand Blier's Notre histoire (1984), and portrayed the aristocratic dandy Baron de Charlus with a subtly restrained comic touch in Swann in Love in the same year. Then followed a string of box office failures in the late 1980s and 1990s, culminating in the failure of Patrice Leconte's Une chance sur deux. Delon announced his decision to give up acting in 1997, although he still occasionally accepts roles.
In 1990, he worked with auteurJean-Luc Godard, on Nouvelle vague, in which he played twins. In 2003, the Walter Reade Theater showed a series of Delon's films under the aegis, Man in the Shadows: The Films of Alain Delon.
Products
Since the formation of a perfume label in his name, Delon has had a variety of products sold under his name including wristwatches, clothing, eyewear, stationery and cigarettes.[2]
Delon's sunglasses brand became particularly popular in Hong Kong after actor Chow Yun Fat wore them in the 1986 crime film A Better Tomorrow (as well as two sequels). Delon reportedly wrote a letter thanking Chow for helping the sunglasses sell out in the region.[3] The film's director John Woo has acknowledged Delon as one of his idols and wrote a short essay on Le Samourai as well as Le Cercle Rouge for the Criterion Collection DVD releases.[4]
Relationships
On 20 March 1959, Delon was engaged to actress Romy Schneider, whom he met when they co-starred in the film Christine (1958). During their relationship, it was speculated he had an affair with German actress and singer Nico. On 11 August 1962 Nico gave birth to a son, Ari (Christian Aaron), who she claimed was fathered by Delon. The child was raised mostly by Delon's parents.
In December 1963, Schneider and Delon decided to break the engagement. On 13 August 1964, Delon married Nathalie Barthélemy. Their son, Anthony Delon, was born in September. The couple divorced on 14 February 1969.
In 1968, during the shooting of Jeff, he met French actress Mireille Darc with whom he had a 15-year relationship until 1982.
In 1987, Delon met Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen on the shooting of the video clip for his song "Comme au cinéma" and started a relationship. They had two children: Anouschka (1990) and Alain-Fabien (1994). The relationship ended in October 2002.
Scandal
In 1968, one of Delon’s bodyguards, Stevan Markovic, was found shot in the head in a dumpster outside Delon’s home. Delon’s friend, Corsican gangster François Marcantoni, was charged with accessory to murder. Delon himself was held by police for questioning, despite the fact that the murder took place in Paris, and Delon was filming in St. Tropez. Delon's then-wife, Nathalie, was also questioned.
In love, we have to dare everything if we really love.
