France pays tribute to screen giant Alain Delon
French actor Alain Delon, who melted the hearts of millions of film fans whether playing a murderer, hoodlum or hitman in his postwar heyday died on Sunday at the age of 88. Tributes poured in from around the globe for the actor who became one of his country's biggest stars, but was also shadowed by controversy.
Delon had made it clear he did not want a national memorial event, but rather burial near his dogs on his property in Douchy in central France where he died.
He had already started sounding out the authorities and had their agreement in principle, local official Christophe Hurault told AFP.
The actor had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2019, rarely leaving his estate.
His three children, Anthony, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, having squabbled bitterly for months over his medical treatment, spoke in a unified voice Sunday when they announced their father's death.
Now they have to manage the funeral of the screen icon, deciding whether to limit it to close family or extend it to the cinema world.
Delon, naturally, dominated the front pages of France's newspapers Monday, many of them featuring full-page portraits of the actor in his prime.
French monument
Delon's performances in some of the greatest films of the 1960s and 70s were widely praised, his charisma on screen impossible to ignore.
He was one of the last living legends of a golden era for French cinema in the 1960s.
Fellow 60s star Brigitte Bardot, 89, told French news agency AFP Delon "leaves a huge void that nothing, nobody, can fill".
Nathalie Baye, who starred with him in the film Our Story, said Delon was "not a fun guy" but, she added, "very endearing".
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