Alain Delon’s face is one of Europe’s most instantly recognizable.
The legendary French actor, now 87 years old, is also a producer and director, with a career spanning more than half a century…
However, if you ask him, his three children may be his proudest achievement. It may be difficult to believe, but one of his sons has grown up and inherited his famous father’s beautiful looks…
Alain Delon is unquestionably one of cinema’s most adored and sought-after faces.
Delon made an entire generation dream with his signature piercing blue eyes and natural French charm.
Indeed, he continues to do so today, successfully captivating new generations and reminding the world why he has remained relevant and beloved for so long.
On November 8, 1935, the superstar was born in the French town of Sceaux, in the Hauts-de-Seine, the area covering Paris’s inner suburbs.
Alain was placed with a foster family after his parents divorced. He would later spend his adolescent years attending various boarding schools and institutions.
He returned to France and worked in a variety of jobs, including bellboy, clerk, and waiter, before deciding to move to Rome.
Be Beautiful But Shut Up, starring legendary French actor Jean Paul Belmondo, was one of his first successful films.
That same year, he appeared in Christine, where he met Austrian sensation actress Romy Schneider, with whom he would have a publicized relationship. Critics praised Purple Noon, a 1960 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr Ripley, as Alain’s first major role.
Delon rose to international prominence in the early 1960s, thanks to a chance meeting with Italian neorealistic director Luchino Visconti, who cast Alain as the lead in 1960’s Rocco and his Brothers. The film was an instant worldwide success.
Furthermore, Delon’s celebrated collaboration with Visconti paved the way for a string of collaborations with renowned Italian directors.
In 1962, he co-starred in The Eclipse with Italian actress Monica Vitti, directed by acclaimed Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni. He received the Special Jury Prize and was nominated for the Palme d’Or for his performance.
Further international success arrived thanks to his part in the 1963 epic drama The Leopard, once again directed by Visconti. In The Leopard he plays Prince Tancredi Falconeri, the nephew of an aging Sicilian nobleman (played by Burt Lancaster) caught up in the mid-19th century sociopolitical turmoil of the Italian unification.
In the main, the 1960s were marked by Delon’s attempt to make it big in the US; the desirable market for any European actor of that time.
Often typecast as the stereotypical Latin Lover because of his French accent and European looks, Delon landed some small parts in movies The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1965), which also starred Shirley MacLaine.
After signing with Columbia, Alain appeared in the action film Lost Command (1966), playing a member of the French Foreign Legion alongside Anthony Quinn and Claudia Cardinale. He then starred in a Western, Texas Across the River, opposite Dean Martin. Unfortunately, his work in Hollywood did not bring the French sensation the American stardom he was hoping for.
As a result, he decided to return to France, where he featured in another big hit as hitman Frank Costello in Le Samouraï (1967). Delon’s performance was a game-changer, going on to define the standard for playing fascinating tough characters.
Later in the 1970s, Delon continued to appear in noir/detective films, including The Sicilian Clan, Borsalino, and Le Cercle Rouge. Surprisingly, it was 1975’s Zorro that established European cinema in Communist China (it was one of the first Western films shown in the country after the Cultural Revolution), Japan, and Latin America.
Needless to say, like many celebrities who have been in the spotlight for generations, Alain Delon’s love life has often been at the center of attention.
Anthony has followed in his dad’s steps and is himself an actor these days.
Delon later had affairs with actresses Mireille Darc and Anne Parillaud. He began a two-decade relationship with Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen in the 1980s.
All of his children seem to have inherited their dad’s elegant yet effortless beauty.
This is particularly evident with regards to his youngest son, Alain-Fabien, now 28, who is identical to his legendary father
Alain-Fabien, as well as having the same name as his dad, also shares the same profession.
He’s an actor too, and has been in movies including Savage Days (2021), Fabio Montale (2001) and Ultra Pure.
One look at Alain-Fabien reveals that he inherited his father’s captivating, intense blue eyes.
He even has the same expressions that made his father famous.
We can’t help but notice how much he looks like his father!
We wish Alain and his children the best of luck in their careers! Share this piece with all the Alain Delon’s fans you know.