Alain Delon
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (French: [alɛ̃ dəlɔ̃]; born 8 November 1935) is a French actor, singer, filmmaker, and businessman. Acknowledged as a cultural and cinematic icon of the 20th century, he emerged as one of the foremost European actors of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.[3][4][5][6][7]
For the cigarette brand, see Alain Delon (cigarette).
Alain Delon
- France
- Switzerland
- Actor
- filmmaker
- businessman
1949–2019
- Romy Schneider (1958–1964)
- Mireille Darc (1968–1983)
- Rosalie van Breemen (1987–2001)
At least 3, including Anthony and Anouchka[1] and Alain-Fabien Delon[2]
1952–1956
Delon has received awards at prestigious festivals and has often been honored for his entire career. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor for his performance in Notre histoire (1984). In 1991, he became a member of France's Legion of Honour. At the 45th Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Honorary Golden Bear. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, he received the Honorary Palme d'Or.
Delon achieved critical acclaim for roles in the films Purple Noon (1960), Rocco and His Brothers (1960), L'Eclisse (1962), The Leopard (1963), Le Samouraï (1967), La Piscine (1969), Le Cercle Rouge (1970), Un flic (1972), and Monsieur Klein (1976). Over the course of his career Delon worked with many directors, including Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Louis Malle. As a singer, Delon recorded the popular duet "Paroles, paroles" (1973) with Dalida. He acquired Swiss citizenship in 1999.
Early life[edit]
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon, was born on 8 November 1935 in Sceaux, in the Seine department (now Hauts-de-Seine), a wealthy suburb of Paris in a humble house located at 99 Houdan Street. Son of François Fabien Delon (Craponne-sur-Arzon, 12 March 1904 - 1977), director of the cinema Le Régina in Bourg-la-Reine, and Édith Arnold (1911–1995), employed in a pharmacy, he was born into a petty-bourgeois family.[8] The Delons are originally from Saint-Vincent-Lespinasse, in Tarn-et-Garonne. Its genealogy goes back to Jean Delon, born in the fifteenth century. Delon's paternal great-grandfather, Fabien Delon (Saint-Vincent-Lespinasse, 28 December 1829 - Figeac (Lot), 12 December 1909), decorated with the Legion of Honour in 1892, is a civil engineer.[9] His paternal grandmother, Marie-Antoinette Evangelista (born in 1867 in Prunelli-di-Fiumorbo),[10] was Corsican; in her home town, she married, on 3 December 1888, Jean-Marcel Delon (Figeac, 4 November 1856 – 1926), then a tax collector in Gap, who was appointed in Corsica in 1886.
Delons maternal grandfather was Alfred Louis Arnold (1876–1959) who was born in Zürich, was a rider of the French army, gendarme. His parents were Just Arnold born in 1847, a shoemaker by trade, and Marie-Adéle Lienemann born in 1849 and worked as a cook. He married Maria Minard (1881–1913) who was a model for Jeanne Lanvin.[11][12][13]
In 1939, Delon was four years old when his parents divorced.[14] Both of his parents remarried, as a result he had three half siblings on his father's side and two half siblings on his mother's side. He was then entrusted to a foster family, which would remain for him a childhood wound that had never healed. The father of this family was a prison guard in Fresnes (Val-de-Marne), Delon, who lived next door, heard the salvo that executed Pierre Laval in the prison courtyard, the details of which he was told.[15]
The foster parents later died and Delon was sent back to his family and his parents took shared custody of him. He would spend time living with his father and his second family in L'Haÿ-les-Roses and his mother and her second family in Bourg-la-Reine. His parents then placed him in the Catholic boarding school of Saint-Nicolas d'Igny (Essonne), where he spent all his youth with one of his best friends, Gérard Salomé. He was expelled six times from the schools he attended because of his unruly behavior due to lack of attention he was receiving from his parents. When Delon was 14, he was again expelled from another boarding school and his family decided that studies were not for him. His mother, who had married Paul Boulogne, a butcher and delicatessen from Bourg-la-Reine, gave him a place in the family home, however Delon stated that he never really found a place in that family and never felt safe there. Delon passed a CAP in charcuterie and worked at his stepfathers delicatessen, which had sixteen employees.[16]
At the age of 14, he had the opportunity to shoot the role of a thug in Le Rapt, a 22-second silent short film directed by Olivier Bourguignon, a friend of his father. At the same age, he ran away to live in Chicago with one of his friends who also had an uncle living there, but they were both arrested in Bordeaux.[17]
Anticipating the call up for military service, he did his military service in the French Navy at the age of 17. After a stint at the Pont-Réan Maritime Training Centre, he continued his military service in 1953 at the Bormette Signals School. After he was caught for a theft of equipment,[18] the French Navy gave him the choice between leaving the Navy or extending his commitment from three to five years. As a 1st class seaman, he was then assigned to the protection company of the Saigon arsenal, in what was still French Indochina. Towards the end of the Indochina war, he was arrested for stealing a jeep and went on a trip during which the vehicle fell into an arroyo. His radio licence was revoked and he was expelled from the Navy.[19] He is celebrating his 20th birthday in a cell.[20] This period left a deep impression on him: he discovered military discipline, a sense of honour and the flag of France. He developed a passion for weapons and the actor was captivated by Jean Gabin in Touche pas au grisbi, a film he saw in the Indochinese capital.[21]
After his Naval service, Delon returned to France in 1956. He resented his parents for letting him go to Indochina (he was a volunteer but their permission was necessary) and did not get back in touch with them, deciding to fend for himself and having no idea what he would do for a living. His younger brother Jean-François Delon would later be the first in his family to reconnect with him in 1961 after seeing a Rocco and His Brothers poster. Delon settled in at the Regina Hotel and did a few odd jobs, notably as a longshoreman at Les Halles and a waiter in a café near the Champs-Élysées. He met the future singer Dalida, with whom he would have an affair later in life. In Pigalle and Montmartre, he rubbed shoulders with the world of the underworld, the thugs and gigolos, one of whom, a "homosexual named Carlos", will ensure his protection. He is fascinated by the values of this environment, in particular the sense of honour, friendship, respect and the law of silence. His pleasant physique and his "angelic face" capsize the girls and allow him to be housed and fed by several prostitutes, which is not to his displeasure. His future then seemed to be heading towards that of a pimp.[22][23]
Business career[edit]
In the 1970s, Delon expanded his commercial interests, buying harness racing trotters and promoting boxing matches.[86] He has also helped develop and promote a variety of products sold under his name including wristwatches, clothing, eyewear, perfume, stationery, and cigarettes.[87][88] Delon's brand of sunglasses 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 to promote and sell the sunglasses in Hong Kong and China.[89]
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.[90] In 2009 and 2015, Christian Dior used images of the young Alain Delon and excerpts of his 1960s films The Swimming Pool and The Last Adventure respectively in the Eau Sauvage cologne advertising campaigns.[91]
Influences[edit]
Delon's favourite actor is John Garfield. He also admires Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and Robert Walker.[156]
Influence on his contemporaries[edit]
Recognition by one's peers[edit]
Many filmmakers like Ramin Bahrani,[157] Daniel Brühl,[158][159][160] Jackie Chan,[161] Sofia Coppola,[162] William Friedkin,[163] Jack Huston,[164] Kazuo Ishiguro,[165][166] Meiko Kaji,[167] Eva Longoria,[168] Kyle MacLachlan,[169] Charles Melton,[170] Nicolas Winding Refn,[171] Mickey Rourke,[172] Mark Strong,[173] Quentin Tarantino,[174] Johnnie To, Bruce Willis,[175] John Woo,[176] Harvey Weinstein,[177][178] Edgar Wright,[179][180] expressed respect or admiration for Alain Delon's career and longevity.
Leonardo DiCaprio regards Alain Delon as one of the "coolest actors in the history of cinema".[181] The Canadian actor Keanu Reeves asserts that Delon is his role model as an actor: "He's such a charismatic actor. I think he has something in him between tension and melancholy."[182] British director Matthew Vaughn compares actor Michael Caine to Alain Delon, suggesting the unique cinematic influence of these two actors in their respective countries.[183] British actor Clive Owen says he is fascinated by Alain Delon's "natural grace", considering Le Samouraï and La Piscine among his favorite films.[184]
Also, LaCinetek[185] unveils several lists where various professionals in the field recommend and/or specify their favourite films. Several of the productions in which Delon plays the leading role are cited. For example, Nadav Lapid, Lynne Ramsay, Jerry Schatzberg recommend The Samurai while Plein Soleil seduced Akira Kurosawa (the latter also cites Any Number Can Win)[186] and Bertrand Blier.[187][188][186] Rocco and his brothers were members of the lists drawn up by Martin Scorsese, Michel Hazanavicius, Cristian Mungiu, and Aki Kaurismäki among others. Chan-wook Park and Bertrand Bonello choose Un Flic.[189] Christoph Hochhäusler, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Park Chan-wook prefer Mr. Klein.[190] Finally, The Eclipse has won over Raymond Depardon, François Ozon and James Franco.[191][192]
Joseph Losey, an American director, expressed his admiration for Alain Delon, saying, "Alain is one of those rare talents who can be honored as being difficult. To me, this word means professionalism, demand, dedication to work, warmth, and love. He's not a man to play with, but a man you can rely on."[193] American producer Robert Evans pays a vibrant tribute to Delon in his memoirs The Kid Stays in the Picture – Hyperion Books, 1994, considering him as his "brother in life as in cinema" and "the most beautiful actor in Europe".