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00:00With his angelic features and magnetic gaze,
00:02Alain Delon lit up cinema screens across the world for over 60 years.
00:08Being an actor involves years of work. It's a career.
00:11And for me, that represents a lifetime.
00:14Born in the Parisian suburb of Seau in 1935,
00:17Delon enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17 and left for French Indochina.
00:22On his return, he lived off odd jobs and met Brigitte Aubert.
00:26An actress, she helped him start out in a film called
00:31Send a Woman When the Devil Fails.
00:34I was quite surprised to become the object of a film star's desire.
00:40I wasn't prepared for that.
00:42And that's also when I realised that not everyone was on a level footing starting out,
00:46and that looks counted for a lot.
00:50His career took off three years later with crime thriller Purple Noon by René Clément,
00:55where he seduced audiences with a hypnotic and mysterious character.
01:10It was then-Italian director Lucchino Visconti that offered him one of his most memorable roles,
01:15a boxer, in Rocco and His Brothers, alongside Annie Girardo.
01:25Time magazine once described him as the most handsome man in the world.
01:30Delon was a star, and he knew it.
01:33It's the public that makes you a celebrity, or it's the public that makes you a star.
01:36The star is something more. It's like a blessing. It's obvious.
01:41He starred in over 90 films with some of the greatest directors of his time,
01:45including Jean-Luc Godard.
01:47He played roles in The Leopard with Claude De Cardinal,
01:50in Any Number Can Win with his idol Jean Gabin,
01:53in The Leopard with Claude De Cardinal,
01:57The Samurai,
01:59Mr. Kline,
02:01or Our History, which earned him his only CĂ©sar award.
02:06And of course, the swimming pool, starring Romy Schneider,
02:10perhaps his most sensual role.
02:15Romy was his first true love. They spent five years together and were engaged.
02:19He gave birth to his first son, Anthony, in 1964.
02:23He also spent 15 years of his life with actress Mireille D'Arc,
02:26and later met model and TV presenter Rosélie van Breemen.
02:30Together, they had two children, Anoushka, born in 1990,
02:33and Alain Fabien, born four years later.
02:37During the final years of his life,
02:38Alain Delon lived as a recluse in his estate in central France.
02:42He suffered three strokes in 2019, which severely weakened him.
02:46And at the age of 88, he witnessed his children tear each other apart
02:49over their inheritance.
02:51He died adored by many, if not worshipped, but alone.