Alain Delon who died this week was acknowledged as a cultural and cinematic leading man of the 20th century. Delon emerged as one of the foremost European actors of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and became an international sex symbol. Although totally heterosexual he became a symbolic icon for the the queer community which was on the verges of coming out. It was a combination of his style, looks and roles that earned hm enduring popularity and made him something of a timeless emblem of cinematic homoeroticism.
Of all of his many roles it was Purple Noon (1960), that made people sit up and take notice. It was the first ever adaption of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr Ripley ….. later in 1999 Matt Damon would star the American version directed by Anthony Minghella, (In fact only this year Ripley was filmed as a TV series with Andrew Scott playing the lead)
Delon was “spotted” by Henry Willson, at Cannes Film Festival in 1957 when he was just accompanying his actress girlfriend. David O. Selznick offered him a trial run in Rome, and thus entered the world of cinema without any particular training as an actor. Two years later Delon was given the lead in the comedy Women Are Weak which was a big hit in France, and was the first of Delon’s films to be seen in America. Next year he played the title role in Luchino Visconti‘s Rocco and His Brothers , another smash hit, and never looked back .
His fame wasn’t always positive as while making the 1969 thriller La Piscine (The Swimming Pool) with Romy Schneider, the body of Delon’s Yugoslav secretary and bodyguard Stefan Marković, apparently murdered, was found in a rubbish dump near Paris. The police investigation revealed claims of sex parties involving celebrities such as Delon and members of the French government, including future president Georges Pompidou, whose wife Claude was allegedly the subject of a series of compromising photos at one such party.
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There were always rumors about Delon’s sexuality (wishful thinking ?) and was actually asked by a reporter. “ People, once more, don’t say it straight to your face but they suggest very very strongly that you have homosexual tastes?
To which Delon replied So what’s wrong if I had? Or I did? Would I be guilty of something? If I like it I’ll do it. We have a great actor in France named Michel Simon, and Michel Simon said once, “If you like your goat, make love with your goat.” But the only matter is to love.
At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Delon received an honorary Palme d’Or for his long-standing career in movies. A retrospective of some of his films was shown at the festival. He received the award from his daughter, Anouchka Delon and Delon responded emotionally, saying, “For me, it’s more than the end of a career. It’s the end of a life. It feels as though I’m receiving a posthumous tribute while being alive.”
