Alain Delon, who died today at the age of 89, was the concept of male beauty for decades, and he once said that he had everything in life - precisely thanks to that beauty.
The giant of French cinematography, according to many, had a face like the god Apollo. He used his beauty throughout his acting career in many shades, from warm and benevolent to cold and murderous.
Delon had something more than other actors - a distinct attraction, ice blue eyes, a deep and murderous look, but also a discreet scar on his chin, from a car accident when he was 23 years old. Simple - he had the look of an American legend and alpha male style.
"Hollywood had Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, in different genres of beauty... In France, only Delon carried beauty to that extent," wrote the writer Jean-Marc Parisi in the book "The Problem with beauty", dedicated to the actor.
Delon's appearance bounced back in the 50s in French cinema then with great actors of different beauty, such as Lino Ventura and Jean Gabin, or his contemporary Jean-Paul Belmondo with the characteristic boxer nose.

The male counterpart of Brigitte Bardot, another concept of beauty at the time, Delon knew how to use her beauty as a weapon, and it came to light on the big screen in 1960.
It was René Klément's film "At the Zenith of the Sun", in which he plays Tom Ripley, a disturbing and duplicitous murderer, who is tasked by a wealthy American to help him get his son back.
In that production, there is one of the iconic scenes with Delon shirtless, at the helm of a sailboat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.
It is said that Delon inherited his beauty from his mother Edith, who walked him as a baby in a stroller with the inscription - "Look at me, but don't touch me".

Delon said that he realized at a young age that his looks would give him the power to seduce women, and at the beginning of his career they were often much older than him.
"They were crazy about me, and they said I was handsome. They gave me that chance to become an actor," said Delon.
In 1990, during a television interview, the actor answered the question "is it a problem to be so beautiful", without false modesty: "The problem is if you are beautiful and stupid, which is not my case".
The director who emphasized the actor's physical beauty the most was Žak Dere in the film "Pool" from 1969 with Romi Šnajder, who was his fiancee. The realization was filmed in Saint Tropez.

The scenes of the muscular actor in a bathing suit from that film were used 40 years later by the haute couture house Dior to promote the perfume "Eau Sauvage".
In addition to this warm beauty, there is also an icy beauty with a deep gaze that kills in the movies where she plays a criminal or a hired killer. This is the case with the film "Samurai" from 1967 by the great Jean-Pierre Melville.
The audience will also remember the poster for the movie "Clan of the Sicilians" with Delon pointing a gun at the viewer.
With Delon's death, it seems that the notion of an actor of universal beauty is also gone, as cinema tries to reject such stereotypes and include diversity.

Brigitte Bardot, who will turn 90 in September, once categorically said that there is no new Delon among the new French actors.
"Now the actors are bearded, bald, poorly dressed. I wonder where the genes of that beauty have gone," said Brigitte Bardo in 2018.
The French media, even today, often refer to Delon by the roles from his films, and he is most often mentioned as Rocco, Samurai and Cheetah...
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