Alain Delon

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (; born 8 November 1935) is a French actor, filmmaker, and businessman. He was one of Europe's most prominent actors and screen sex symbols in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor for his performance in Notre histoire (1984). In 1991, he received 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 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 Alain Delon was born in Sceaux, Seine (now Hauts-de-Seine), Île-de-France, a wealthy suburb of Paris. His parents, Édith (née Arnold; 1911–1995) and Fabien Delon (1904–1977), divorced when Delon was four. Both remarried and, as a result, Delon has a half-sister and two half-brothers. His paternal grandmother was Corsican, from Prunelli-di-Fiumorbo. When his parents divorced, Delon was sent to live with foster parents. After his foster parents died, Delon's parents took shared custody of him, but the arrangement proved unsatisfactory. He attended a Catholic boarding school, the first of several schools from which he was expelled because of unruly behavior. Delon left school at 14 and worked for a brief time at his stepfather's butcher shop. He enlisted in the French Navy three years later, aged 17, and during 1953–1954 he served as a fusilier marin in the First Indochina War.