If you're wondering who this was: in the English-speaking world, he's probably most famous for Le Samourai, which was a great film and an influence on a host of other works, most recently being Drive. I really enjoyed Un flic too.
He was insanely handsome for any era, and in actual manly way (spent some time fighting in Indochina, say equivalent of US Vietnam veteran, when folks don't talk about such stuff you know they have reasons).
Couple that with very good acting skill, good luck on some stellar directors of that time and you end up with timeless pieces which are very watchable even after 50-60 years.
When living in Geneva I've secretly hoped to bump into him by a chance on some lake promenade walk or in restaurant, just to show my respect for him. Oh well, there goes another legend of my youth.
Something missing from the obituaries is a funny trivia story about the guns they found at Delon's home in February 2024. 72 guns, 3000 rounds of ammo and no permit. He even had his own gun range. The lack of a permit didn't seem to be a problem until he was 88 and in need of a nurse.
It's interesting how celebrity culture works that most Americans have probably never heard of this guy.
French people know essentially every American movie star but there is almost no culture flow in the other direction when it comes to film.
Some might suggest that there is a language barrier since French is not as widely spoken as English internationally... Yet I was surprised to find out that, for example, a lot of Russians above a certain age know about French film celebrities. The language barrier does not seem to have been a problem in that case.
I think maybe it's partly because most Americans will refuse to watch films with subtitles whereas people in most other countries who don't speak English are used to it.
Alain Delon was insanely popular in Soviet Union, along with other french celebrities like Jean-Paul Belmondo, Louis de Funes, Gerard Depardieu, Pierre Richard.
alain delon was huge in soviet union and by extension in various zones of soviet influence, because france was soviet friendly state and their cinematography was pretty good. back before the anglo-american establishment gained full cultural dominance, the world was divided not just along the comic lines of "axis", there was more subtlety to it. there was a whole cultural space that existed separately from english speaking world, and it wasn't restricted to specific countries. it was more like european/soviet/communist-regime sphere, where europeans were socialist sympathetic, soviets were open to their influence and various communist regime countries provided exciting, ethnic backdrop and variety. it is to this day a kind of secret language (now mostly dead) that i share with random old men from kenya: they too have watched alain delon movies, can sing along to joe dassin, know who dalida is, etc.
Didn't Vladimir Vysotsky have a french girlfriend?
While watching a retro-Soviet russian program, I was amused to see a videotape on a desk clearly labeled «Эммануэль» — "Emmanuelle".
(I'm pretty sure Americans could watch that even despite subtitles?)
EDIT: come to think of it, both france and russia (as well as bits of africa?) used SECAM, which probably helped cultural exchange a great deal. Back in the day, it was easier for us to get not-broadcast-in-the-US anime than not-broadcast-in-the-US BBC programs, despite the language barrier, because the former were NTSC but the latter PAL.
Sting has a great story about watching Soviet children's programming while at uni (probably explaining his lines "I don't subscribe to this point of view / It'd be such an ignorant thing to do / If the Russians love their children too"), but I kind of wondered if his friend who built the SECAM decoder had, at least originally, been more interested in picking up cross-channel programming than cross-iron-curtain?
vysotsky's last wife was french-born, though she was ethnically at least part russian, her father fled during the soviet revolution. but you could look at it as a long history of a weird kind of friendship between the two countries: during the french terror french nobility fled to russia, establishing and strengthening burgeoning francophone tendencies of russian aristocracy. then during communist terror in russia, russian nobility fled to france, establishing the fifth column there, but also perhaps ensuring and cultivating soviet-french relationship through 20th century.
i'm pretty sure everyone had a copy of emmanuelle on vhs at some point, but very much within the cultural sphere i was talking about in op. like speaking of emmanuelle, there was a handful of porn movies that the entirety of europe, france and late perestroyka su watched, that americans never heard of.
the secam bit might be relevant, but i distinctly remember pal/secam switch on both the tape player and the tv. i think maybe the technical followed social, La tulipe noire was played in soviet cinema in the 60s and it was a huge huge success.
He indeed used to speak about him in the third person and would casually say "Alain Delon did this" (instead of "I did this"). He was widely mocked for it but he claimed it was a sign of "humility" (?!) because it was a way to avoid using "I" or "me"...
He became a huge international star in 1960 with Purple Noon, the first (of many) adaptations of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. He was 25 and from that moment onward was recognized the world over as the sexiest and most handsome man alive. He continued to work with some of the most acclaimed European directors and starred in over 80 movies.
It's probably difficult to handle that level of fame and stardom if you're not prepared for it (or even if you are).
I even had a teacher in the States who referred to herself in the third person, so it had been a thing there too, but she (~1915?) was from a generation before Delon (1935).
In the startup world we are usually selling sizzle not steak, and Alain Delon was a master, not just for the caméra, but also in the courtroom, of the Reality Distortion Field.
Example: in the picture elsewhere in these comments, it may help to know that on our left is M Delon, charming Marianne Faithfull in the middle, while on our right, looking for all thé World as if he hopes Alain is not about to faire un kino, is none other than Mick frickin' Jagger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuhPR3xeJm0