Alain Delon’s last moments: his stroke, controversy and peaceful death

The famous actor has spoken publicly about death in the past, stating that he would like to leave peacefully and on his own terms.

Since August 2019, after his stroke, Alain Delon has not minced words. Especially when it comes to death, the French star has spoken openly about euthanasia, which is prohibited in France (only passive euthanasia is tolerated).

This was not the first time that Alain Delon had spoken about death. He had already referred to suicide in 2019, in an interview with Paris Match magazine.

His plea to be allowed to perform euthanasia shocked the French. He said characteristically: “From a certain age onwards, we have the right to choose to unbutton ourselves in peace, without going through hospitals, injections or machines.”

Everyone, he stresses, is free to choose the death they want, especially if they suffer from an illness. “I lived in Switzerland, where euthanasia is allowed, and I think it’s the most logical thing to do. The most natural.”

Back to the headlines after his rift with his sons

The actor, who rarely appeared in films after the late 1990s, returned to the headlines in the summer of 2023, when his three children filed a lawsuit against the woman who was his caregiver and who sometimes appeared as his partner, accusing her of exploiting his vulnerability.

A battle broke out between them over the actor’s health, which deteriorated in 2019 after he suffered a stroke.

A few days earlier, in May 2019, he returned to the red carpet at Cannes to receive an honorary Palme d’Or. “It’s kind of a posthumous honor for me in my lifetime,” the actor said.

“I’m leaving, but I won’t leave before I thank you,” added Alain Delon, who lived his last years in his home in Duchy (Loire), surrounded by high walls and which he had always said he wanted. He was buried, not far from his dogs.

“Alain lives in a deep and chosen isolation, in another world, in the past with creatures he loved so much,” he told AFP in 2015, before the star turned 80, his former friend and partner Mireille Darke.

“The best and the worst, at the same time inaccessible and accessible, cold and hot,” Brigitte Bardot summed up the actor’s 80 years of life.

A natural born actor of genius, Delon was far from a cerebral actor. He prided himself on never working on his technique and relied on his charisma, a unique blend of fiery beauty and razor-sharp coldness.

“He is not an ordinary actor, Alain Delon. He is an object of desire. She is not even sexy, not masculine, not even feminine: she is a devilish beauty,” actor Vincent Landon asserted in the 2012 documentary “Revolvers.”

“I could look at pictures of Alain Delon for hours,” he added. “He’s the most beautiful thing in the world, Alain Delon. Everything is fine. Looking at him is more beautiful than looking at a beautiful woman.”

This material was gold for directors, and a number of his films are considered monuments of the seventh art. Among them are René Clément’s “Naked in the Sun” (1960), which gave him international fame, “Rocco and His Brothers” (1960) and “The Leopard” (1963) by Italian Luchino Visconti, or “The Pond” by Italian director Jacques Deret (1969).

In this latest film, Dillon stars alongside his most famous duo a few years ago, Romy Snyder.

The most important director in his career was Jean-Pierre Melville, who directed him in two masterpieces, The Killer with the Angelic Face (1967) and The Red Circle (1970), before The Policeman in 1972.

But despite everyone’s admiration for the actor, Dillon as a person was often criticized and considered hateful.

Some blamed him for his positions in support of his friend, the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who supports the death penalty or against homosexuality, which he described as “against nature.”

His return to Cannes in May 2019 was also preceded by considerable controversy, with feminist activists questioning the honour he would be given.

He was an outspoken right-winger, nostalgic for the de Gaulle years, and was criticised for his egotism and habit of speaking about himself in the third person.