France paid tribute to film hero Alain Delon on Monday, following his death at the age of 88, with tributes flooding in for the actor who became one of his country’s biggest stars while also being surrounded by controversy.
Delon had stated that he did not desire a national memorial ceremony, but rather burial beside his dogs on his home in Douchy, central France, where he died.
According to local official Christophe Hurault, he had already reached out to authorities and received preliminary approval.
His three children, Anthony, Anouchka, and Alain-Fabien, who had fought furiously for months over his medical treatment, spoke in unison Sunday to announce their father’s death.
They must now organize the film icon’s burial, determining whether to limit it to close family members or to the entire cinema industry.
Delon dominated the front pages of France’s newspapers on Monday, with several showing full-page photos of the actor at his peak.
“The Last Samurai,” Le Figaro wrote for its front-page headline, referring to one of his most renowned characters, the enigmatic assassin in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 thriller “Le Samourai.”
End of an era
Delon’s performances in some of the best films of the 1960s and 1970s were universally acclaimed, and his charm on screen was impossible to ignore.
He was one of the few living legends from French cinema’s golden era in the 1960s.
Brigitte Bardot, 89, told AFP that Delon “leaves a huge void that nothing, nobody, can fill”.
Nathalie Baye, who starred alongside him in the film “Our Story,” described Delon as “not a fun guy” but “very endearing.”
French President Emmanuel Macron described him as a “French monument” who “played legendary roles and made the world dream”.
His death was reported in publications all around the world, with the New York Times, Washington Post, and New York Post all writing extended obituaries.
The Washington Post referred to him as the “angel-faced tough guy of international cinema,” while The Hollywood Reporter characterized him as the “seductive star of European cinema”.
“Mesmeric and beautiful, Alain Delon was one of cinema’s most mysterious stars,” The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw wrote.
Germany’s Spiegel called him “Europe’s James Dean”, while Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the “aura of the handsome angel of death made him a legend”.
In Italy, where he spent much of his career, Il Corriere della Sera said that “there will never be another actor like Delon, unique and immortal”.
“For me, he was a legend,” 26-year-old moviegoer Victor Roussel told AFP before a showing of his 1963 film “The Leopard” at a Paris cinema Sunday.
Controversial views
In Japan, another solid fanbase for Delon, many film buffs also mourned the death of the “handsome” actor from France.
“My friends in their 70s and 80s are still all madly in love with him. Even at 88, he looked great,” Delon fan Seta, 74, told AFP on Monday.
While he had legions of followers all over the world, his personal life and political views polarised opinion.
Delon’s involvement with women sparked criticism. His kids accused him of domestic violence, which Delon denied while confessing to slapping women during heated arguments.
Delon was also chastised for supporting Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founder of the far-right National Front, who advocated the death penalty and spoke out against same-sex unions.
Feminists were particularly outraged at the Cannes Film Festival’s lifetime achievement award for him in 2019.
He spent his last years mostly as a loner, although his personal life kept him in the spotlight.
In 2023, his three children filed a complaint against his live-in aide, Hiromi Rollin, alleging harassment and threatening behavior.
The siblings then engaged in a public struggle in the media and courts over his health, which deteriorated following a stroke in 2019.
Delon spent his final years in the little village of Douchy, encircled by thick walls.
Dozens of supporters piled flowers outside the entrance to his home to pay tribute.
“In our minds we believe that these icons are eternal,” said Marie Arnold, laying white flowers with her sister Michele.
“It’s a part of our youth that is gone.”