Star of the iconic French New Wave film ‘Breathless’
Jean-Paul Belmondo — star of the iconic French New Wave film “Breathless,” whose crooked boxer’s nose and rakish grin went on to make him one of the country’s most recognizable leading men — has died at 88.
His death was confirmed Monday by the office of his lawyer, Michel Godest. No cause of death was given.
Belmondo’s career spanned half a century. In the 1960s, he embodied a new type of male movie star, one characterized by pure virility rather than classic good looks. He went on to appear in more than 80 films and worked with major French directors, including Jean-Luc Godard, whose 1960 movie “Breathless” (“Au Bout de Souffle” was the original French title) brought both men lasting acclaim.
Belmondo’s career choices were varied. He did art-house films as well as action and comedy films later in his career.
His unconventional looks — flattened nose, full lips and muscular frame — allowed him to play diverse roles such as a thug, a police officer, a thief, a priest, Cyrano de Bergerac and an unshakable secret agent. Belmondo was also a gifted athlete who often did his own stunts.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the actor a “national treasure” in an homage on Twitter and Instagram, recalling the actor’s panache, his laugh and his versatility. Belmondo
was at once a “sublime hero” and “a familiar figure,” Macron wrote. “In him, we all recognize ourselves.”
France bounded into Belmondo mode at news of his death, with praise from politicians of all stripes pouring in. The media played old movie clips that caught the athletic Belmondo in the heart-stopping acrobatics he was known to love, from sliding down a rooftop to climbing up a rope ladder from a moving convertible.
“I’m devastated,” an emotional Alain Delon, another top cinema star, said of the death of his longtime friend on CNews.
Even Paris police headquarters offered its condolences for Belmondo, who played a police officer in many films, tweeting that “a great movie cop has left us.”
Belmondo won a Cesar — the French equivalent of an Oscar — for his role the 1988 film “Itinerary of a Spoiled Child,” his final big success.
At his final conservatory competition, the jury failed to give him the recognition he thought he deserved — so he gave the judges an obscene parting gesture.
Belmondo’s marriages to Elodie Constantin, as a young man, and to dancer Nathalie “Natty” Tardivel, in the 2000s, ended in divorce. He had a long relationship with Ursula Andress after starring with her in the box-office success “Up to His Ears” (1965), and for much of the 1970s, he was the companion of Italian actress Laura Antonelli.
He had a son and two daughters from his first marriage and a daughter from his second. A daughter from his first marriage died in a house fire in the 1990s.