French movie icon and heartthrob Alain Delon dies aged 88

French movie star Alain Delon, who rocketed to fame in the 1960s with his striking blue eyes and handsome looks, has died at the age of 88. - REUTERS

Transcript

00:00French actor Alain Delon, who melted the hearts of millions of film fans, whether playing

00:05a murderer, a hoodlum or a hitman in his post-war heyday, has died at 88, his three children

00:12said on Sunday.

00:13Delon shot to movie fame in the 1960s and was idolized for his looks, but he never made

00:19it big in Hollywood. This was his last major public appearance, receiving an honorary Palme

00:24d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019.

00:28Delon rose to stardom in two films by Italian director Lucchino Visconti, Rocco and His

00:33Brothers in 1960 and The Leopard in 1963. Other crowning achievements included the 1969

00:40erotic thriller La Piscine, or The Swimming Pool, and Borsellino in 1970. President Emmanuel

00:47Macron hailed him on Sunday as a giant of French culture who made the world dream.

00:52With striking blue eyes, Delon was sometimes referred to as the French Frank Sinatra for

00:56his looks, a comparison Delon disliked. Unlike Sinatra, Delon openly acknowledged having

01:02shady friends in the underworld of the French port city of Marseille. He'd started life

01:07on the back foot, born just outside Paris in 1935 and put in foster care aged four after

01:13his parents divorced. He served in the Marines, then was discovered in the bohemian cafe scene

01:19of Paris in the 1950s.

01:23On the streets of Paris on Sunday, his death was greeted with great sadness.

01:27I thought he was eternal, this woman says.

01:33But offstage, Delon courted controversy, saying he regretted the abolition of the death penalty

01:38and criticizing gay marriage, which was legalized in France in 2013. He publicly defended the

01:44far-right National Front and was friends with its late founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

01:49Delon had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2019, rarely leaving his estate

01:54in Douchy in France's Loire region.