Tributes poured in Sunday for film legend Alain Delon, the internationally acclaimed actor and heartthrob described as the “last of the giants” of French cinema’s golden age.
French President Emmanuel Macron led tributes on Sunday to Alain Delon, the iconic film star known for his roles in classics "Purple Noon" (1960) and "Le Samourai" (1967), who died aged 88.
“Alain Delon has played legendary roles and made the world dream,” Macron wrote in a post on X. “Melancholic, popular, secretive, he was more than a star: a French monument.”
With his handsome looks and tender manner, the prolific actor was able to combine toughness with an appealing, vulnerable quality that made him one of France’s memorable leading men.
Read moreAlain Delon, French cinema’s enigmatic, ‘angel-faced’ icon
Delon “bewitched generation after generation of spectators with his steely gaze and feline smile,” wrote former culture minister Jack Lang, describing the late actor as “the most beautiful face in French cinema”.
Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux recalled “an incredibly attentive, affectionate and funny man, with an irresistible sense of sarcasm and humour”. Delon was “the embodiment of what we call a star, not just in terms of popularity and fame, but also the huge works he left behind,” Frémaux told FRANCE 24.
He “represented the best of France’s ‘prestige cinema’. An ambassador of elegance, talent, beauty,” fellow silver screen icon Brigitte Bardot said in a written message. His death leaves “a huge void that nothing and no one will be able to fill,” she told AFP.
Far from a cerebral actor, Delon was considered an instinctive genius. He prided himself on never having worked on his technique, rather relying on charisma.
His looks were cinematic gold for filmmakers in the 1960s, playing roles of pretty boy killers and mysterious schemers like in "Purple Noon" – later remade as "The Talented Mr Ripley".
He went on to set the template for one of Hollywood's favourite tropes – the mysterious, cerebral hitman – with his staggering performance as the silent killer in Jean-Pierre Melville's "Le Samourai".
French film producer Alain Terzian, who produced several films directed by Delon, described the late movie star as “the last of the giants”.
“It’s a page being turned in the history of French cinema,” Terzian told France Inter radio. “Every time (Delon) arrived somewhere ... there was a kind of almost mystical, quasi-religious respect. He was fascinating,” Terzian recalled.
The star of Luchino Visconti’s “Rocco and his Brothers” (1960) and “The Leopard” (1963) was an “icon” who had climbed “to the Olympus of the immortals”, said Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice film festival.
Italy’s Claudia Cardinale, who starred alongside Delon in “The Leopard”, referenced his part in Visconti’s masterpiece, writing in a statement: “The ball is over. Tancredi has gone to dance with the stars”.
