Alain Delon dead at 88: French film legend, most famous for playing seductive killers, dies surrounded by family and children

French film legend Alain Delon has died today, aged 88, surrounded by his family and friends.

Delon had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2019, rarely leaving his estate in Douchy, in France‘s Val de Loire region.

With striking blue eyes, Delon was sometimes referred to as the ‘French Frank Sinatra’ for his handsome looks, a comparison Delon disliked. Unlike Sinatra, who always denied connections with the Mafia, Delon openly acknowledged his shady pals in the underworld.

In a 1970 interview with the New York Times, Delon was asked about such acquaintances, one of whom was among the last ‘Godfathers’ of the underworld in the Mediterranean port of Marseille.

‘Most of them the gangsters I know … were my friends before I became an actor,’ he said. ‘I don’t worry about what a friend does. Each is responsible for his own act. It doesn’t matter what he does.’

Delon shot to fame in two films by Italian director Luchino Visconti, ‘Rocco and His Brothers’ in 1960 and ‘The Leopard’ in 1963.