The product of a broken home, Alain Delon had a stormy childhood. He was frequently expelled from school.
During
the early 50s - parachutist with French Marines in Indochina; mid-50s -
worked at various odd jobs including, waiter, salesman, and porter in
Les Halles market; 1957 - film debut in Yves Allégret's
Quand la femmes s'en mele; declined contract with Selznick studios;
1960 - received international recognition for his role in Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers
(1960); 1961 - stage role in Tis Pity She's a Whore, directed by
Visconti, Paris; 1964 - formed film company Delbeau Productions;
produced short film directed by Guy Gilles;
1968 - involved in murder, drug, sex scandal that indirectly implicated
major politicians and show business personalities, eventually cleared
of all charges; late 60s - formed film company Adel Film; 1970 - began
producing feature films; 1981 - directed film Pour la peau d'un flic.
Without
previous professional preparation, Alain Delon came to embody the
young, energetic, often morally corrupted man. With his breathtaking
good-looks, he was also predestined to play tender lovers and romantic
heroes, and he was in the beginning a French embodiment of the type
created in America by James Dean. His first outstanding success came with the role of the parasite Tom Ripley in Clement's sun-drenched thriller Purple Noon
(1960). Delon presented a psychological portrait of a murderous young
cynic who attempts to take on the identity of his victim. A totally
different role was offered to him by Visconti in "Rocco e i suoi
fratelli". In this film, Delon plays the devoted Rocco, who accepts the
greatest sacrifices to save his characterless brot her Simon. After
several other films in Italy, he returned to the criminal genre with Jean Gabin in Any Number Can Win
(1963). This work, a classic example of the genre, was distinguished
not only by a soundly worked-out screenplay, but also by the careful
producti on and the excellent performances of both Delon and Gabin. It
was only in the late sixties that the sleek and lethal Delon came to
epitomise the calm, psychopathic hoodlum, staring into the camera like a
cat assessing a mouse. His tough, ruthless side was first used to real
effect by Jean-Pierre Melville in Le samouraï
(1967). In 1969, he had a huge success in the bloodstained Borsalino,
which he also produced, playing a small-time gangster who, with Jean-Paul Belmondo becomes king of the Marseilles thirties underwo rld. Delon later won critical acclaim for his roles, against type, in Joseph Losey's Mr. Klein (1976) in which Delon played (brilliantly) the icily sinister title role, and the art-movie Swann in Love (1984). He has an older son Anthony Delon (who has also acted in a number of movies) from his first marriage to Nathalie Delon, and has a young son and daughter, Alain-Fabien and Anouchka with Rosalie.
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