French actor Alain Delon dies at 88

The death of the legendary actor Alain Delon The French film icon and international star of The Swimming Pool has died at the age of 88, his three children announced in a statement sent to AFP on Sunday morning. “Alain Fabien, Anouchka and Anthony, along with (his dog) Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the death of their father. He passed away peacefully at his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family. (…) His family asks you to respect his privacy in this time of painful mourning,” the statement read.

He was a giant of cinema, one of the most “handsome” in the history of the Seventh Art, although often surrounded by serious controversies. The star of The Clan of the Sicilians, the Leopard, has died five years after suffering a stroke. Between his approximately 90 feature films, his appearances on television and his numerous plays, he left behind an indelible mark on the history of culture.

After a chaotic childhood, between houses and boarding houses, young Alain Delon began working for his stepfather in a butcher’s shop while still a teenager. After several years in the army, and particularly in Indochina, he was forever marked. In 1956, back in Paris, Alain Delon, aged 21, met Dalida and then Brigitte Auber. Discovered by Jean-Claude Brialy, His career in cinema lasted almost seven decades.

Matrimonio con Romy Schneider

His love at first sight and his marriage to Romy Schneider put him in the spotlight of the press beyond his work. Year after year, he took on increasingly important roles until he reached star status. Among other awards, he had the César, an Honorary Golden Bear and an Honorary Palm, which he received at Cannes in 2019 for his entire career.

Although he was a world star as an actor, the various controversies that have marked his personal life were continuous. In 2019, on the occasion of the Cannes Film Festival during which Alain Delon was to receive this Palme d’Honneur, more than 17,000 people signed a platform to oppose it, arguing that the actor was “racist, homophobic and misogynistic” and that he did not deserve the recognition.

In November 2018, invited onto the set of the France 2 programme Thé ou Café , Alain Delon was interviewed by journalist Catherine Ceylac and asked about his relationship with women and whether he had ever behaved badly towards them or displayed “sexist behaviour”, he replied: “I don’t know what you call sexist. Is a slap sexist? Yes, I must have been sexist, but I was hit by them too.”

In 2013, he criticised women for wanting to “become men” and said, for example, that paternity leave for men “reverses roles”. He was also singled out for his openly homophobic comments, calling the adoption of children by “same-sex couples” “unnatural”.

Alain Delon, the family torn apart

He was married several times and from these unions three children (recognized) were born: Anthony Delon, son of Nathalie Delon, and Anouchka and Alain-Fabien Delon, children of Rosalie van Breemen. During the last months of his life, Alain Delon was the subject of a violent family dispute between his three children. However, until the summer of 2023 they had faced together Hiromi Rollin, the actor’s ex-girlfriend, even filing a joint complaint against the sixty-year-old Japanese woman who lived with her father for “moral harassment.”

Earlier this year, it emerged that the Delon family was the subject of an investigation by French police last summer into alleged mistreatment by the former carer of actor Alain Delon. Officers found the 88-year-old Delon in critical condition, falling asleep several times during questioning, unable to form coherent sentences and barely able to move on two crutches.

The gendarmes who came to take the French actor’s statement in July 2023 stated that he was very weak, and that months later he told one of the doctors who examined him: “I want to die, life is over,” said the protagonist of The Leopard. The agents had gone to his residence in Douchy, south of Paris, on July 13 to investigate allegations of abuse of weakness made by his children against Hiromi Rollin, the woman who began as his assistant on the set and later took on more responsibilities. They found Delon in a critical condition, who fell asleep several times during their questioning, unable to form coherent sentences and barely able to move supported by two crutches.

The three heirs of the actor They feared that Rollin, who spent the most time with him, wanted to take over his will and thus take away some of his legacy, so they filed this complaint, which was dismissed by the courts a few weeks ago. During the interrogation, Delon was very vague in defining his relationship with Rollin, which he said had “ups and downs” and that, over time, it became “more intimate.”

After undergoing various medical examinations, doctors concluded that the actor lacked discernment and, on July 20, a doctor who visited him said that he was “morally very weak” and had expressed a desire to die. The doctor added that Delon was suffering from “a state of physical and mental exhaustion with a significant risk of suicide.” The investigation, which also included the questioning of other people and the analysis of the actor’s and Rollin’s phones, determined that there was no evidence of the accusations made by the heirs against the woman who cared for him and who, apparently, tried to marry him.

The unity shown by the actor’s three children, the result of two relationships, during the trial against Rollin, was blown to the winds when the two sons reproached the daughter for wanting to take her father out of the Douchy residence to Switzerland. With lawsuits filed between them and a string of accusations in the media, the actor’s heirs revealed the internal squabbles in the family.

The eldest of them, actor Anthony Delon, was the first to open fire, accusing his sister of having concealed information from them about the true state of their father’s health, an argument also supported by the youngest, Alain-Fabien, the paternal and maternal brother of the middle daughter, Anouchka.

According to Anthony, the latter, who according to the will will receive half of the inheritance, while her brothers will share the rest, has always been her father’s favourite, as he himself has confessed. Resident in Switzerland, he intended to take the actor there so that, after his death, which occurred this Sunday, he would not be declared a tax resident in France, which would increase the bill to obtain the legacy, according to Anthony, who together with Alain-Fabian assure that the actor’s wish was to die in the residence he had built for himself in Douchy, near the Loire.