Alain Delon died on 18 August 2024 at 88 at his home in Douchy, France, surrounded by his three children. Once, he and Romy Schneider were the dream couple in European cinema. The 19-year-old Schneider, world-famous from the ‘Sissi’ saga, fell for the steely blue eyes of the still-unknown French actor. She picked Delon as her leading man in the film Christine/Liebelei (1958). During the film's shooting, they succumbed to a passion that lasted five years. In 1964, their love story was over, but they remained close until death separated them.


Spanish postcard by Oscarcolor, no. 401. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2638. Photo: Safra / Gloria-Film / Vogelmann. Romy Schneider and Alain Delon in Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. FK 4457. Photo: UFA. This happy picture was shot at the engagement party of Romy Schneider and Alain Delon.

Liebelei
Alain Delon was 22 and Romy Schneider 19 when they first met at the Orly airport in 1958. Austrian Schneider, from a rich, bourgeois theatre family, was already a world star thanks to her role as Empress Elisabeth 'Sissi' of Austria. Delon was a then totally unknown French bad boy and starting actor. Romy didn’t speak French, Alain didn’t speak German, and while she found him uninteresting and in bad taste, he found her unattractive. Schneider initially described Delon in her diaries as "too handsome, too young, too coiffed," but their attraction was undeniable. Despite their initial distrust, Romy chose Alain as her counterpart in the film Christine/Liebelei (1958).

Almost always flanked on set by her mother Magda, Romy Schneider was just 15 when she made her screen debut in Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht/When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (Hans Deppe, 1953). In 1955, she was cast as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the romantic biopic Sissi (Ernst Marischka, 1955). She reprised the role in two sequels: Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin/Sissi – The Young Empress (Ernst Marischka, 1956) and Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin/Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress (Ernst Marischka, 1957). Sissi brought her immense popularity but also pigeonholed her somewhat. After a series of sentimental films in which she typically played the innocent ingenue, Schneider was desperate to change course.

The producers arranged an interview with the press at Orly airport. Alain Delon recalled years later: "You were arriving from Vienna and I was waiting for you at the Paris airport with a bouquet of flowers that I didn’t know how to hold. But the producers had told me: 'As soon as she comes down the runway go to her and hand her the flowers.' I waited with the flowers in my hand like an imbecile, amidst a horde of photographers. You got off the aeroplane, I approached. You said to your mother, 'That must be Alain Delon, my partner!' Nothing else, no bolt of lightning out of the blue. So I went to Vienna, where the film was being shot, and it was there that I fell madly in love with you. And you fell in love with me."

Christine/Liebelei (1958) tells the tragic history of love between an Austrian officer and a girl of modest condition in Vienna in 1906. The film was directed by Pierre Gaspard-Huit and based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler. The film was a remake of the classic film Liebelei (Max Ophüls, 1933), in which Schneider’s mother, Magda Schneider, played the same role. Christine represented a turning point in Romy Schneider’s career and was the first major test for Alain Delon.

When filming began, the two actors did not get along at all. After the film wrapped, the young couple moved in together in Paris. More than 65 years have passed since the premiere of Christine. At IMDb, Marcin Kukuczka reviews: 'A nice film far from a masterpiece, yet very worth watching as a sentimental, nice movie about gentle love. Yes, after all this time, there is still something valuable to discover. It is a pity that Christine has not become an important part of Romy's filmography because it is clearly Schneider-Delon's moment in the history of cinema.'


West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H, Minden / Westf, no. 454. Photo: Safra / Gloria Film / Vogelmann. Romy Schneider and Alain Delon in Christine/Liebelei (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 764. Photo: Alain Delon in Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken / 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 3917. Photo: Speva / Play Art Prod. / N.V. Meteor Film, Amsterdam. Romy Schneider and Alain Delon in Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken / 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 3918. Photo: N.V. Meteor Film / Speva / Play Art Prod. Alain Delon and Romy Schneider in Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken / 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 3922. Photo: N.V. Meteor Film, Amsterdam/Spava-Play Art Prod. Alain Delon and Romy Schneider in Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken / 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. AX 3919. Photo: Speva / Play Art Prod. / N.V. Meteor Film, Amsterdam. Romy Schneider and Alain Delon in Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).

A long engagement
In 1959, Romy Schneider took a big step and moved from Berlin to Paris for her great love. The German press and public wanted her to coincide with the image they had created of her and Schneider's engagement with Alain Delon and her move to France brought fury in Germany. "She was the sl*t who had left for France", observed Schneider biographer Alice Schwarzer. The couple announced their official engagement a year later. The engagement party was organised by Romy's mother and stepfather in Morcote, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Lugano, in front of the international press. Although it remained unclear until the very end whether Delon would show up at the party, finally the fairy prince gave his beloved the engagement ring.

In Paris, the roles between the two turned. Schneider had to prove herself professionally in France, while Delon quickly became a leading man and an international sex symbol. The legendary director Luchino Visconti, struck by Delon’s expressive eyes, cast him in Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960), then directed both Delon and Schneider on stage in Paris in a production of John Ford’s 'Tis Pity She’s a Whore'. The production broke box office records and was also made as a TV Movie, Dommage qu'elle soit une putain (Luchino Visconti, 1961).

The following year, Romy played Anna in Sacha Pitoeff’s production of Anton Chekhov’s 'The Seagull' and she played Pupe in Visconti's segment Il Lavoro of the anthology film Bocaccio '70 (Luchino Visconti, a.o., 1962). Delon's reputation was further enhanced when he worked with Visconti again in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).

The couple spent four years together, during which Delon’s career was reaching new heights, but his lover’s was slowing down. Constant tabloid rumours about Delon’s infidelity did not help. In 1962 the singer and Andy Warhol muse Nico had a child, Ari, believed to be Delon’s. The actor never recognised the boy as his own, but the child was later adopted by Delon’s mother. The couple weathered these early storms, and Delon called Schneider 'puppelé' or 'baby doll'. For a brief moment, Delon and Schneider had it all. Their fairytale romance rivalled anything the actors had portrayed on screen. They were the golden couple of the European cinema which was documented in endless tabloid coverage.

Their wedding was postponed several times. Romy went to Hollywood, where she had a contract with Columbia. When she returned to Paris in late 1963, she received a bunch of red roses and a farewell note from Alain Delon by way of welcome. He had a new love, 22-year-old model Nathalie Barthélémy. He wrote Romy: ‘I give you your freedom and my heart. I left with Nathalie. Forgive me'. Abandoned by Delon, Romy fell into depression. She saw her career grind to a halt despite her outstanding acting skills. The media savoured it.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1207, ca. 1959. Photo: Ufa/Film-foto. This happy picture was shot at the engagement party of Romy Schneider and Alain Delon.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 459. Photo: Ufa/Film-Foto. Spanjersberg was the Dutch licence holder for Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof. 


German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4456. Photo: UFA. Romy Schneider and Alain Delon engaged.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Photo: Ufa/Film-Foto. Spanjerberg was the Dutch licence holder for Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1204/559. Photo: Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Tempelhof. Caption: "Gay picture of Romy Schneider during her engagement party." With her brother Wolfi.

La piscine
In 1964, Alain Delon married Nathalie, already pregnant with their son, Anthony, who was born that same year. A devastated Romy Schneider hastily married the German actor and director Harry Meyen in 1966, with whom she had a son, David. Delon continued to be unfaithful after marrying Barthélémy, and his love affair with Schneider also apparently loomed large over their relationship. "He never spoke to me about her," Nathalie Delon said after their marriage ended in 1969. "But sometimes I saw a shadow of sadness in his eyes and I knew it was for Romy".

The end of the 1960s found Delon and Schneider on set together once again. Knowing Schneider was at a low point, Delon is said to have campaigned hard for her to be his co-star in La Piscine/The Swimming Pool (Jacques Deray, 1969), a role earmarked for Monica Vitti. Delon and Schneider shine as the lovers Marianne and Jean-Paul who spend their vacation in and around the pool of a villa on the French Riviera just outside Saint-Tropez. Marianne invites her former lover, Harry (Maurice Ronet) and his seductive eighteen-year-old daughter, Penelope (Jane Birkin), to stay. Tension rises between them, especially when Jean-Paul seduces Penelope. The sensual drama captured the pair at the height of their beauty. La Piscine became a cult success.

La Piscine prompted countless rumours of an off-screen reunion between Delon and Schneider, but their former flame solidified into a lasting friendship. As Schneider said during filming: "The most important man in my life remains Delon. He is always ready to reach out to me. He would run to my aid at any time. Alain has never abandoned me to myself, neither today nor yesterday." Although their passionate relationship had changed completely, a friendship remained for the rest of their lives. They worked together again on the film The Assassination of Trotsky (Joseph Losey, 1972) about the last days of the Russian Revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky (played by Richard Burton) in Mexico.

Romy Schneider continued to work in France throughout the 1970s and worked with director Claude Sautet on five films, including Les choses de la vie/The Things of Life (Claude Sautet, 1970), which made Schneider an icon in France. Her film L'important c'est d'aimer/That Most Important Thing: Love (Andrzej Żuławski, 1975) was especially lauded, earning her the inaugural César Award for Best Actress. Schneider became a style icon of the 1970s, but her personal life was marred by tragedy. After her marriage to Meyen ended in 1975, she married her private secretary, the young Italian-French journalist Daniel Biasini, with whom she had a daughter, Sarah. But the marriage also floundered, and in 1979 her first husband died by suicide, a shock that precipitated her own battles with depression and alcoholism.

In July 1981, her son, David, died in a tragic accident at his grandparents’ house at just 14. He attempted to climb a spiked fence and accidentally punctured his femoral artery. Alain Delon stood by her, but Romy never recovered. In May of the following year, she was found dead in Paris at the home of producer Laurent Petin, to whom she had been linked for a year. Her cause of death was not suicide, but a heart attack. She was 43. Delon arranged the funeral and arranged for her son to be buried in the same grave. Almost 40 years after her death, in 2018 Delon had a message published in Le Figaro: "Rosemarie Albach-Retty a.k.a. Romy Schneider would be 80 years old today, Sunday, 23 September. Let those who loved her and still love her send her a thought. Thank you. Alain Delon."


French postcard by the Bibliothèque Nationale Paris/Imp. Bussière A.G., Paris, 1990. Photo: Roger Pic. Alain Delon in the play Dommage qu'elle soit une p.../Its a pity she's a whore written by John Ford and directed by Luchino Visconti (1961).


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, Star 137. Photo: Air France / Distribution VU. Caption: Alain Delon - Romy Schneider, October 1958.


French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris / Saint Dié, no. T 5. Photo: Georges Pierre. Alain Delon and Romy Schneider at a repetition of 'La Mouette' (The Seagull) by Anton Chekhov.

Sources: Giacomo Arico (Vogue), Annabel Nugent (The Independent), Lieke van de Krommenacker (VPRO Cinema - Dutch), Marcin Kukuczka (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb. And recommended: the TV documentary Romy et Alain, les éternels fiancés/Romy Schneider & Alain Delon: An Enduring Passion (Olivier Monssens, 2022).

On 18 August 2024, French film star Alain Delon (1935) died at the age of 88. The breathtakingly good-looking James Dean of European cinema in the late 1950s proved in such films as Plein soleil/Purple Noon (1960), Visconti's Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his Brothers (1960) and Antonioni's L'eclisse/The Eclipse (1962) that he was also a magnificent actor. Luchino Visconti also directed him in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (1963) which had extraordinary success and was awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festival of 1963. Recently, the film was shown in a large Visconti retrospective in Paris and again it amazed audiences as a timeless masterpiece.


Czech postcard by UPTF / Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. C 198, 1965. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, and Burt Lancaster in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


Czech postcard by UPTF / Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. C 199, 1965. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Alain Delon in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


Czech postcard by UPTF / Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. C 200, 1965. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


American publicity photo. Photo: G.B. Poletto / Titanus / 20th Century Fox, used in Dutch cinemas (a Dutch censorship stamp is visible in the upper-right corner). Alain Delon in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


American publicity photo. Photo: G.B. Poletto / Titanus / 20th Century Fox, used in Dutch cinemas (a Dutch censorship stamp is visible in the upper-right corner). Alain Delon in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963). The man seen in the back may be Giuliano Gemma.

A ticket of admittance to the high-class soirées of the nobility
Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (1963) is based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's 1958 bestseller 'Il Gattopardo' about an aristocratic Sicilian family's adjustment to a changing way of life during the Risorgimento. After the premiere, the long epic received mixed reviews but it is now seen as one of the greatest classics of Italian cinema.

In Sicily in 1860, Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina (Burt Lancaster) enjoys the customary comforts and privileges of an ancient and noble name. War has broken out between the armies of Francis II of the Two Sicilies and the insurgent volunteer redshirts of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Among the rebels is the Prince's remarkably handsome and dashing nephew, Tancredi (Alain Delon), with whose romantic politics the Prince shares some whimsical sympathy. Moved by the uprising, the Prince departs for nearby Palermo. Garibaldi's army conquers the city and Sicily from the Bourbons. The Prince muses upon the inevitability of change, with the middle class displacing the hereditary ruling class while on the surface everything remains the same.

Refusing to bend to the tide of necessity, the Prince departs for his summer palace at Donnafugata. A new national assembly has called a plebiscite which the nationalists win 512-0, thanks to the corruption of the town's leading citizen, Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa), who sees his daughter, the exquisitely beautiful Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), as a ticket of admittance to the high-class soirées of the nobility. Bringing her with him to the villa of the Salinas, he watches as both the Prince and Tancredi fall abjectly in love with her. Realising his chance, he effectively pimps his daughter to the aristocracy, and Tancredi offers his hand. The Prince sees the wisdom of the match because he knows his nephew's vaulting ambition and his need for ready cash, which Angelica's father, greedy for familial prestige, will happily make available. With the mutual blessing of the Prince of Salina and Don Calogero, Tancredi and Angelica become engaged.

A visitor from the constituent assembly comes to the villa. He begs the great scholar and nobleman to join the senate and help direct the ship of state; he hopes that the Prince's great compassion and wisdom will help alleviate the poverty and ignorance to be seen everywhere on the streets of Sicily. However, the Prince demurs and refuses this invitation, claiming that Sicily prefers its sleep to the agitations of modernity because its people are proud of who they are. He sees a future when the leopards and the lions, along with the sheep and the jackals, will all live according to the same law, but he does not want to be a part of this democratic vision. He notes that Tancredi has shifted allegiances from the insurgent Garibaldi to the king's army, and wistfully recognises that his nephew is the kind of opportunist and time-server who will flourish in the new Italy.

A great ball is held at the villa of a neighbouring Prince, and the Salinas and Tancredi attend. Afflicted by a combination of melancholia, the ridiculousness of the nouveau riche, and age, the Prince wanders forlornly from chamber to chamber, increasingly disaffected by the entire edifice of the society he so gallantly represents – until Angelica approaches and asks him to dance. Stirred and momentarily released from his cares, the Prince accepts, and once more he resembles the elegant and dashing figure of his past. Disenchanted, he leaves the ball alone, asks Tancredi to arrange a carriage for his family, and walks with a heavy heart to a dark alley that symbolises Italy's inordinate and fading past, which he inhabits.



Small Czech collectors card by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), 1965, no. S 101/6. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Claudia Cardinale, Paolo Stoppa, and Alain Delon in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


Vintage card. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


Small Romanian collectors card. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


Small Romanian collectors card. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Claudia Cardinale in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).

One of the most spectacular sequences in film history
For the leading role in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard, the producers chose Hollywood star Burt Lancaster without consulting director Luchino Visconti. This insulted the director and caused tension on the set. However, Visconti and Lancaster ended up working well together, and their resulting friendship lasted the rest of their lives.

The epic cost production company Titanus $5 million. Visconti's first cut was 205 minutes long and was shortened to 195 minutes for its 1963 Cannes Film Festival premiere, where it won the Golden Palm for best picture. Visconti then cut the film further to 185 minutes for its official release and considered this version to be his preferred one. The picture was subsequently distributed by 20th Century Fox in a poorly dubbed, 165-min. English-language version, using an inferior colour process.

The film was a box office hit in Italy and other European countries, but international critics were mixed about the film. The restored Italian-language version, supervised by cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, appeared in 1990. Through the years, more and more people started to love the film. Martin Scorsese considers the film to be one of the greatest ever made, and in 2010, his Film Heritage Foundation restored the film to its original splendour.

Yuri German at AllMovie: "The closing section, an almost hour-long ball, is often cited as one of the most spectacular sequences in film history. Burt Lancaster is magnificent in the first of his patriarchal roles, and the rest of the cast, especially Delon and Cardinale, become almost perfect incarnations of the novel's characters. Filmed in glorious Techniscope and rich in period detail, the film is a remarkable cinematic achievement in all departments."

Ivo Blom in 'Visconti and the Visual Arts': "In Il Gattopardo, painting performs an important part in the sets of the film. A famous example is the painting Don Fabrizio sees when entering a library during the ball to escape the crowd, a painting which reminds him of his own nearing death. A memento mori, so to say. The painting is a copy of Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s moralistic and sentimental work 'Le mauvais fils puni' (1778), today one of the masterpieces of the Louvre; a prodigal son returns too late, his father has died. (...)

Note also in Il Gattopardo the decaying old paintings in the attics of the palace, which Tancredi and Angelica see. They are not only indicators of the location but also comment on the protagonists. Angelica’s old rose dress, though a bit old-fashioned for the period, stands out against the faded enormous battle scene she sees. Lampedusa already indicates it in the novel as Arturo Corbera at the Battle of Antioch, a battle scene between Crusaders and Muslims, but the painting in the film — an imitation made by Mario Brondi — is clearly a variation on Rubens’ 'Battle of the Amazons'. The painting is emblematical of the situation. Old glories of the aristocracy fade away, and the freshness and sensuality of Angelica is what counts."

Roger Ebert on his website: "Finally the prince dances with Angelica. Watch them as they dance, each aware of the other in a way simultaneously sexual and political. Watch how they hold their heads. How they look without seeing. How they are seen and know they are seen. And sense that, for the prince, his dance is an acknowledgement of mortality. He could have had this woman, would have known what to do with her, would have made her his wife and the mother of his children and heard her cries of passion, if not for the accident of 25 years or so that slipped in between them. But he knows that, and she knows that. And yet of course, if they were the same age, he would not have married her, because he is Prince Don Fabrizio and she is the mayor's daughter. That Visconti can convey all of that in a ballroom scene is miraculous and emotionally devastating, and it is what his movie is about."


Romanian minicard. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Alain Delon as Tancredi Falconieri in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard, (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


Vintage film still by G.B. Poletto. Mario Girotti as Count Cavriaghi and Lucilla Morlacchi as Concetta in Il Gattopardo (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


Source: Film Heritage Foundation (YouTube). A clip from Il Gattopardo/The Leopard, restored in association with Cineteca di Bologna, L'Immagine Ritrovata, The Film Foundation, Pathé, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, Twentieth Century Fox and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale - restoration funded by Gucci and the Film Foundation.


Cover of Ivo Blom's study 'Reframing Luchino Visconti'. Photo: Burt Lancaster in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).

Sources: Ivo Blom (Visconti and the Visual Arts), Roger Ebert, Yuri German (AllMovie), Julian Sanction (Vanity Fair), Sorrisi (Italian), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Yesterday, 18 August 2024, French film star Alain Delon (1935) died at the age of 88. He was the breathtakingly good-looking James Dean of European cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He proved in such films as Plein soleil/Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960) Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) and L'eclisse/The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) that he was also a magnificent actor. Delon later starred in a series of popular gangster films by directors like Henri Verneuil, Jacques Deray and Jean-Pierre Melville.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, 1967. retail price: 0,20 MDN.Photo: publicity still for Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960).


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 22. Photo: Sam Lévin.


German postcard by Krüger. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by ISV, no. H 25.


French postcard by St. Anne, Marseille. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Spanish postcard, no. 161. Photo: Philippe R. Doumic.


Spanish postcard by Bergas Ind. Graf., Barcelona, no. 463, 1967.

Stormy childhood
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born in Sceaux, a suburb of Paris in 1935. His parents, Édith Arnold and Fabien Delon, divorced when Delon was four. He had a stormy childhood and was six times expelled from different schools.

At 14, Delon left school and worked for a brief time at his stepfather Paul Boulogne's butcher shop. Three years later, the 17-year-old enlisted in the French Marines, serving in 1953-1954 in Indochina as a parachutist. In 1956, after being dishonourably discharged from the military, he returned to France. He had little money and worked at various odd jobs, including as a waiter, salesman, and porter in the Les Halles market.

During this time he became friends with the actress Brigitte Auber and joined her on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival, where his film career would begin with a screentest for David O’Selznick. He didn't go to Hollywood but decided to stay in France. He made his film debut in Quand la femmes s'en mele/Send a Woman When the Devil Fails (Yves Allégret, 1957).

In 1958, during the making of the love story Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1959), Delon met Romy Schneider. They would be engaged till 1964.

Delon’s first outstanding success came with the role of the parasite Tom Ripley in the sundrenched thriller Plein soleil/Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960), based on the crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Delon presented a psychological portrait of a murderous young cynic who attempts to take on the identity of his victim. The critics liked his performance. According to Wikipedia, Highsmith herself was also a fan of his portrayal.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne Eickel, no. 419. Photo: Sam Lévin, 1957.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1004. Offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1026. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Belgian postcard by D.R.C, licence holder for Belgium and Belgian Congo of Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 4615. Photo: Sam Lévin / Ufa.


Dutch postcard by Muziekparade, Hilversum, no. AX 4701. Photo: Hafbo / Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (EDUG), Paris, no. 838. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3980. Photo: N.V. Meteor Film / Speva / Play Art Prod. Publicity still for Christine/Liebelei (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).

The Eclipse
Luchino Visconti offered Alain Delon a totally different role in Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960). In this film, he plays the devoted Sicilian immigrant Rocco, who accepts the greatest sacrifices to save his characterless brother Simone, played by Renato Salvatori. Delon received international recognition for this role.

The following year Alain Delon made his stage debut in Paris in 'Dommage qu'elle soit une putain' ('Tis Pity She’s a Whore), alongside Romy Schneider. The play, written by John Ford, was directed by Luchino Visconti. The production cost a reported 60 million francs and broke box office records. It ran for more than 8 months.

Delon also gave tremendous performances in L'eclisse/The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) opposite Monica Vitti, and the epic Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963) starring opposite Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale. L’eclisse won the Special Prize of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, and the following year Il Gattopardo won the Golden Palm in Cannes.

After these acclaimed Italian films, Alain Delon returned to France and to the crime film in Mélodie en sous-sol/The Big Snatch (Henri Verneuil, 1963), with Jean Gabin. This classic genre film was distinguished by a soundly worked-out screenplay, by careful production and by excellent performances of both Gabin and Delon.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1383. Photo: Unifrance Film / Ufa.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. FK 44. Photo: Unifrance / Ufa.


Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 6176.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 444. Photo: Privat.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. FK 42. Photo: Unifrance Film / Philippe R. Doumic.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1151A, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1161, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane. Photo: Pierre Manciet.

A bid for American stardom
By now Hollywood studios were very interested in Alain Delon and he decided to make a bid for American stardom. In 1965, MGM signed him to a five-picture contract. The first movie of this deal was Les Félins/Joy House (René Clément, 1964), shot in France with Jane Fonda. He followed it up with two more films for the studio: the all-star The Yellow Rolls Royce (Anthony Asquith, 1965), in which Delon had a relatively small role, and Once a Thief (Ralph Nelson, 1965), where he co-starred with Ann-Margret.

Delon then signed a three-picture deal with Columbia. He appeared for this studio in the big-budget action film Lost Command (Mark Robson, 1966) with Anthony Quinn. Universal Studios used Delon in the Western Texas Across the River (Michael Gordon, 1966), opposite Dean Martin.

For Seven Arts, Delon starred in Paris brûle-t-il?/Is Paris Burning? (René Clément, 1966) about the liberation of Paris in August 1944 by the French Resistance and the Free French Forces. This was a massive hit in France but it performed disappointingly at the US box office - as did all of Delon's Hollywood-financed films. So after six Hollywood movies, Delon returned to France.

In the late sixties, Delon came to epitomise the calm, psychopathic hoodlum, staring into the camera like a cat assessing a mouse. His tough, ruthless side was used to grand effect in Le Samouraï/The Godson (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), maybe Delon’s finest moment. Later Melville directed him again in the crime films Le cercle rouge/The Red Circle (1970) with Bourvil and Yves Montand, and Un Flic/A Cop (1972) with Catherine Deneuve.

In 1968 Delon also in real life got involved in a murder scandal when one of his bodyguards was found shot dead on a garbage dump near Delon's house. Eventually, Delon was cleared of all charges. In the cinema, Alain Delon had a huge success in the bloodstained Borsalino (Jacques Deray, 1970). He and Jean-Paul Belmondo played small-time gangsters who become kings of the Marseille underworld of the 1930s. He also produced Borsalino, and the film became one of France’s highest-grossing films of the time. Between 1968 and 1990 he went on to produce 26 films.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht. Photo: NV Meteor Film. Publicity still for Christine/Liebelei (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958) with Romy Schneider.


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 7247. Photo: Filmax. Alain Delon in Plein Soleil/Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960).


French postcard by the Bibliothèque Nationale Paris / Imp. Bussière A.G., Paris, 1990. Photo: Roger Pic. Alain Delon in the play 'Dommage qu'elle soit une p...' ('Tis Pity She’s a Whore) directed by Luchino Visconti (1961).


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/95. Photo Sam Lévin. Another sexy publicity photo for Amours célèbres (Michel Boisrond, 1961) with Brigitte Bardot.


Small Romanian collectors card by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse/The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) with Monica Vitti.


Czech postcard by UPTF / Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. C 198, 1965. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale and Burt Lancaster in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963).


French postcard. by Editions La Malibran, Paris / Nancy, no. CF 60 Alain Delon in Les Felins/The Love Cage (René Clément, 1964).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 313. Photo: publicity still for The Yellow Rolls-Royce (Anthony Asquith, 1964) with Shirley MacLaine.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2480, 1965. Photo: Alain Delon in La tulipe noire/The Black Tulip (Christian-Jaque, 1964).


West German Kolibri postcard by Friedrich W. Sander Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2818. Photo: Universal. Alain Delon in Texas Across the River (Michael Gordon, 1966).


Small Romanian collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967) with Nathalie Delon.

Roles against type
In later years Alain Delon won critical acclaim for roles against type. In the Kafkaesque thriller Mr Klein (Joseph Losey, 1976) he was brilliant as the icily sinister art trader in German-occupied France.

In 1985 he was awarded the César Award as Best Actor for his role as an alcoholic in Notre histoire/Our Story (Bertrand Blier, 1984). Another acclaimed role was the homosexual Baron de Charlus in the fine Marcel Proust adaptation Un amour de Swann/Swann in Love (Volker Schlöndorf, 1984).

In 1990, Delon worked with New Wave auteur Jean-Luc Godard on Nouvelle Vague/New Wave (1990), in which he played twins. He also directed two films himself, Pour la peau d'un flic/For a Cop's Hide (1981) and Le Battant/The Fighter (1983).

A string of box office disasters in the next years culminated in 1998 in the unexpected failure of Une chance sur deux/Half a Chance (Patrice Leconte, 1998) in which Alain Delon was reunited with Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Alain Delon announced that he would give up acting. For his impressive film career, he received the Legion d'Honneur, the highest French decoration.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 428. Alain Delon in Le clan des Siciliens/The Sicilian Clan (Henri Verneuil, 1969).


French postcard by Les Editions Gil in the Acteurs Français series, no. 4. Alain Delon in Borsalino (Jacques Deray, 1970).


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 469. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Spanish postcard by Bergas Ind. Graf., no. 572.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. Star 28.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 3453. Photo: Michel Ginfray.

Astérix
Alain Delon returned to the cinema as Julius Cesar in Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques/Asterix at the Olympic Games (Frederic Forestier, Thomas Langmann, 2008), and he reunited with former girlfriend Mireille Darc in a stage adaptation of 'The Bridges of Madison County' by Robert James Waller at the Marigny Theatre in Paris.

Alain Delon has a son, Christian Aaron Boulogne 'Ari' Päffgen (1962), from a relationship with German singer/supermodel Nico. The child was raised mostly by Delon's mother and stepfather. He broke the relationship with his mother after she insisted on taking care of Ari. They spoke again when his step-father died in 1988, the same year Nico died.

From his first marriage to Nathalie Delon (Nathalie Barthélemy) he has another son, Anthony Delon (1964), who also acted in several films. Then he was a longtime companion of actress Mireille Darc from 1968 to 1982. He also had a relationship with Anne Parillaud. From his second marriage with former Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen, he has a son Alain-Fabien (1990) and a daughter Anouchka (1994). Rosalie was 21 when she met Alain who was 52. They lived together from 1987 till 2001.

Afterwards, Alain Delon lived in Geneva, Switzerland. He acquired Swiss citizenship in 1999, and the company managing products sold under his name is based in Geneva. Since the formation of a perfume label in his name, Delon had a variety of products sold under his name including wristwatches, clothing, eyewear, stationery and cigarettes.

After he appeared in the Russian comedy S Novym godom, mamy!/Happy New Year, Mommies! (Artyom Aksyonenko, Sarik Andreasyan, Anton Bormatov, Dmitriy Grachev, Klim Poplavskiy, 2012), his final film appearance was in Toute ressemblance (Michel Denisot, 2019) starring Frank Dubosc. In this film about a TV talking head, director Denisot put together multiple real facts and more than 50 French TV celebrities were credited including Delon. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Alain Delon was the recipient of an honorary Palme d'Or for his long-standing career in the cinema.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Le choc/Shock (Robin Davis, 1982) with Catherine Deneuve.


Trailer Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his Brothers (1960). Source: Filmmuseum Amsterdam (YouTube).


Trailer for Mélodie en sous-sol/The Big Snatch (1963). Source: Curtis Hayden (YouTube).


Trailer La Piscine/The Pool (1968). Source: Filmmuseum Amsterdam (YouTube).

Sources: Alain Delon.ch (now defunct), Wikipedia, Sarah (IMDb), Il Cinema Ritrovato (page is now defunct) and IMDb.