French film legend Alain Delon has died at the age of 88, his three children told AFP in a statement on Sunday, following a battle with ill health.
"Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as (his dog) Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father. He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family," the statement said, adding the family has asked for privacy.
Alain Delon's five best films
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Of his 90 or so films, French film star Alain Delon's most memorable roles came in the 1960s when he was regarded as one of the most beautiful men in the world.
Here are five of of his standout performances:
- 'Purple Noon' (1960) -
Delon, then a 24-year-old dreamboat, captivated cinemagoers as the charming anti-hero Tom Ripley in an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's famous suspense novel, "The Talented Mr. Ripley".
He played a charismatic conman who kills a wealthy friend with an oar on his yacht and takes his identity, setting off a spiral of sociopathic deception.
Called "Plein Soliel" (Full Sun) in French, the deep blue of the dazzling Mediterranean was a fitting frame for the bronzed Adonis Delon, announcing the arrival of a new star.
- 'Rocco and his Brothers' (1960) -
Delon confirmed his talent and status as a screen pin-up later that year as the troubled Rocco in Luchino Visconti's neo-realist masterpiece, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice film festival.
Although Italian censors cut some violent scenes, Delon was both stunning and heartbreaking in this story of his doomed love for a young prostitute in grim post-war Milan.
- 'The Leopard' (1963) -
Again with the Italian master Visconti at the helm, Delon starred alongside Burt Lancaster in the screen version of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's classic novel charting the decline of an Italian aristocratic family in the 1860s.
It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes with its epic ballroom scene ensuring its place -- and Delon's -- in film history. Delon's sex appeal and elegance found a fine partner in the sultry Italian-Tunisian actress Claudia Cardinale.
- 'The Samurai' (1967) -
Hollywood's fascination with hitmen owes much to this brilliant French film noir. Maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville was at the peak of his powers with this tale of a lonesome professional killer played by a severe, ghostly Delon, whose stark, impassive figure in black hat and beige mac inspired film-makers from Quentin Tarantino to John Woo and Jim Jarmusch.
- 'The Swimming Pool' (1969) -
Of his many female conquests, Delon said his German co-star in this movie, Romy Schneider -- who committed suicide in 1982 -- was "the love of his life".
After a complicated relationship, they were reunited on the set of this dark study of seduction set on the French Riviera where passion turns to jealousy and worse.
- 'Monsieur Klein' (1976) -
Joseph Losey's now classic psychological chiller of an art dealer who is mistaken for a Jew in Nazi-occupied France was pipped for the top prize at Cannes by Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver", but it went on to win a royal flush of Cesars or "French Oscars" for best film, best director and best actor for Delon.
Alain Delon: Women he loved and left
Beautiful women tended to fall at the feet of the French screen idol Alain Delon.
But scarred by a childhood spent with foster families and in children's homes, Delon's love life was often tormented, ending his days living alone as something of a recluse.
- Romy Schneider -
Despite their clear chemistry, it was not love at first sight for German actress Romy Schneider.
She thought Delon "arrogant" when they first met in 1958, although she was by far the bigger star after the success of the trilogy of "Sissi" films in which she played the Austro-Hungarian empress.
But they were engaged in a matter of months, although never married. Four tumultuous years later, Delon left her by letter. Yet when they reunited to make "The Swimming Pool" in 1968, sparks flew.
He called her the "love of my life" after her tragic death in 1982.
- Nico -
The German-born Velvet Underground singer and actress claimed to have a son with Delon, Christian Aaron Boulogne, who was born in 1962. Delon always denied he was the father and as she struggled with drug addiction, the child was brought up by his mother.
- Nathalie Delon -
The only woman Delon married, the couple met in a Paris nightclub while he was on a night out with Schneider. She was pregnant when they married in secret in 1964.
But the relationship was always stormy and they divorced in 1969 after Delon took up with one of his co-stars, Mireille Darc, after returning chastened to France after a year in Hollywood.
- Mireille Darc -
His longest relationship was with Darc, a model-turned-actress and documentary maker.
The two remained friends till her death in 2017.
- Dalida -
The pop diva, a massive international singing star in the 1960s and 1970s, had a fling with Delon -- her next door neighbour -- when she arrived in Paris in 1956 with "nothing but her Miss Egypt crown".
They secretly rekindled their passion a decade later in Rome while he was married and recorded a single together "Paroles, Paroles" ("Words, Words") in 1972, where he woos her on disc.
Delon said he was "full of regrets" when she killed herself in 1987.
- Rosalie van Breemen -
Delon met the Dutch model 21 years his junior while making a music video in 1987. They had two children but split acrimoniously in 2001.