Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (; born 8 November 1935) is a French actor. He became famous quickly, and by the age of 23, he was already being compared to French actors like Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais. He was also compared to American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot. During his career, Delon has worked with many well-known directors. Some of these are Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michelangelo Antonioni and Louis Malle.
Delon was given Swiss citizenship in 1999. He has a company managing product company, and it is based in Geneva.
Early life
Delon was born in Sceaux, Seine (now Hauts-de-Seine), Île-de-France, which is a suburb of Paris. His parents, Édith (née Arnold) and Fabien Delon, divorced when Delon was four. Both remarried, and Delon has a half-sister and two half-brothers. He went to a Roman Catholic boarding school. This was the first school he was removed from because of bad behavior.
When he was 14, Delon left school. He then worked for at his stepfather's butcher shop for some time. He joined the French Navy three years later. In 1953 and 54 he served as a fusilier marin in the First Indochina War. Delon has said that out of his four years of military service he spent eleven months in prison for being "undisciplined", meaning that his bad behaviour ended up getting him jailed. In 1956, he returned to France after being dishonourably discharged from the navy. He did not have any money, and lived on whatever money he could find.
Products
Since his perfume company was started, Delon has had many products sold under his name. Some of these are wristwatches, clothes, eyewear, stationery and cigarettes.
Delon's sunglasses brand became very popular in Hong Kong after actor Chow Yun-fat wore them in the 1986 movie A Better Tomorrow. He wore these in two movies after this. It is said that Delon wrote a letter to thank Chow for helping the sunglasses sell out in the region. The movie's director John Woo has said that Delon is one of his idols. He wrote a short essay on Le Samourai as well as Le Cercle Rou for the Criterion Collection DVDs.
Honours
At the 45th Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Honorary Golden Bear. Delon is on the cover of the 1986 album The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths. He was made Officier (Officer) of the Ordre national du Mérite in 1995. He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur on 21 February 1991. He was promoted to Officier (Officer) in 2005.