Alain Delon: Encyclopedia - Alain Delon

Alain Delon

Alain Delon (born November 8, 1935) is a French actor, one of the best known outside his native country.

Delon was born in Sceaux, France, and at 17 he enlisted in the French Marines, serving in Indochina as a parachutist. His breakthrough as a film star came with Plein Soleil, a 1960 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. He also gave tremendous performances in Luchino Visconti's The Leopard and, perhaps his finest moment, Le Samouraï. His later work has not reached these heights, and his decline is characteristic of the nouvelle vague of French actors, such as Jean-Paul Belmondo.

In 1968, Delon and his wife Natalie were at the center of a massive sex, drug and murder scandal when their bodyguard Stefan Markovitch was found shot dead in a garbage dump.

In 1973, he made a duet with the French pop singer Dalida on "Paroles... Paroles...", which was a big hit in France, Japan, Canada, and many other countries.

After a string of box office failures in the 80s and 90s, culminating in the surprising box-office failure of Patrice Leconte's film, Une Chance sur deux, Delon announced his decision to give up acting in 1997 at the age of 62.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Alain Delon", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki