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Obituary: Alain Delon

In his films, Alain Delon played policemen, foreign legionnaires, contract killers, gold seekers and so much more. But above all, he was one thing: simply cool. An obituary for the man in the trench coat, who embodied nonchalance and covetous aloofness like no other.

  • Text
    Tom M. Muir
  • Photo
    PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Few celebrities have had such an enduring aura of cool surrounding their persona as Alain Delon. And to think that the French actor hadn’t even planned to go into show business. Before he became famous, Delon worked at his stepfather’s butcher shop, waited tables and served as a soldier for France in the First Indochina War. Then, in 1957, Delon was briefly involved with the actress Brigitte Auber. He joined her on a trip to Cannes, where he met the right people – and soon landed his first role in Send a Woman When the Devil Fails.

Credit: mauritius images / Collection Christophel
Credit: mauritius images / Collection Christophel
Alain Delon played one of his most famous roles alongside Romy Schneider in ‘La Piscine’.

One of his most important films is 1967’s Le Samouraï. To this day, people associate Delon with the character of the ice-cold hitman Jef Costello, a loner assassin in a trench coat, accompanied only by cool jazz sounds. 

Credit: Getty Images
Credit: Getty Images
With his minimalist acting, his frozen facial expressions and the terse and detached dialogue, Alain Delon became the epitome of a new kind of cool. In interviews the late Alain Delon still liked to style himself as the melancholic misanthrope who has to hide his feelings behind a façade. Alain Delon lived to be 88 years old.
Limitiert: Coolness – Director’s Cut Edition
Obituary: Alain Delon

Limitiert: Coolness – Director’s Cut Edition

»Coolness« – auf der einen Seite heute ein inhaltsleeres Modewort, auf der anderen eine selbstbewusst gelebte, spätmoderne individuelle Attitüde und Verhaltensstrategie mit rebellischen Wurzeln gegen eine verdrehte und ungerechte Welt. Aber was bedeutet das Wort »cool« tatsächlich und was bedeutet es »cool zu sein«?

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