Jean-Paul Belmondo

Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (9 April 1933 – 6 September 2021) worked as a French actor, producer, and distributor. His early fame came from the 1960 New Wave hit *Breathless*, and he appeared in other films that pushed cinema forward, among them *Two Women*, *Le Doulos*, *That Man from Rio*, *Greed in the Sun*, and *Weekend at Dunkirk*. During *That Man from Rio*, he also took on stunt work. In 1971, he began producing and distributing films, and from 1975 onward he directed his acting toward more commercial projects. Alongside Louis de Funès and Alain Delon, Belmondo was a major box-office draw, pulling in close to 160 million spectators across five decades. Four of his films—*The Brain* (1969), *The Night Caller* (1975), *Animal* (1977), and *Ace of Aces* (1982)—were the most-watched French movies of their respective years; only de Funès topped that record. After early stage work, Belmondo returned to theatre with *Kean* in 1987 to strong success. In 1993, he produced his first play, which later became famous: *Le Dîner de cons*.

His on-screen characters were often heroic, brave, and virile, which earned him a broad fan base in France and abroad. Hollywood courted him heavily, but he turned down all English-language roles. He also took on deeper parts, notably in *Léon Morin, Priest* (1961) and *Mississippi Mermaid* (1969). Over the years, critics called him the French equivalent of actors like James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Humphrey Bogart. Regarded as a French icon and national treasure, Belmondo was seen as a highly influential figure in French cinema and an important shaper of European film. He received two BAFTA nominations. In 2011, he was given the Honorary Palme d’Or; in 2016, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement; and in 2017, the César Academy honored him with a tribute at the 42nd César Awards.

Belmondo was born on 9 April 1933 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a Paris suburb. His father, Paul Belmondo, was a Pied-Noir sculptor born in Algeria to Italian parents of Sicilian and Piedmontese descent. His mother, Sarah Madeleine Rainaud-Richard, was a painter. As a child, he cared more for sports than school, especially boxing and soccer. He made his amateur boxing debut on 10 May 1949 in Paris, knocking out René Desmarais in one round. His boxing run was undefeated but short—three straight first-round knockout wins from 1949 to 1950. He later explained, "I stopped when the face I saw in the mirror began to change." He served his National Service in French Algeria, where he may have broken his nose "with a rifle butt to end his military service."

Interested in acting, he spent his late teens at a private drama school and performed comedy sketches in the provinces. He studied under Raymond Giraud and, at age twenty, entered the Conservatoire of Dramatic Arts for three years. He likely would have won the prize for best actor, but a sketch mocking the school angered the jury, so he received only an honorable mention in August 1956. That mention "nearly set off a riot among his incensed fellow students," according to one report, and made front-page news.

His professional acting career took off in 1953 with two performances at the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Paris: Jean Anouilh's *Médée* and Georges Neveux's *Zamore*. He then toured the provinces with friends such as Annie Girardot and Guy Bedos. His first screen appearance was in the short *Moliere* (1956). A scene he shot with Jean-Pierre Cassel for *On Foot, on Horse, and on Wheels* (1957) ended up on the cutting-room floor, but he got a larger part in the follow-up *A Dog, a Mouse, and a Sputnik* (1958). He had a small role in the comedy *Be Beautiful But Shut Up* (1958), sharing the screen with Alain Delon, and then played a gangster in Marcel Carné’s *Young Sinners* (1958). He supported Bourvil and Arletty in *Sunday Encounter* (1958). Jean-Luc Godard directed him in the short *Charlotte and Her Boyfriend* (1958); because Belmondo was drafted, Godard dubbed his voice. He served six months as a private in Algeria during compulsory military service. His first lead role came in *Les Copains du dimanche* (1958). He later had a supporting part in *An Angel on Wheels* (1959) with Romy Schneider, appeared in Claude Chabrol’s *Web of Passion* (1959), and played D'Artagnan in a French television version of *The Three Musketeers* (1959).

In the 1960s, he starred in the gangster film *Consider All Risks* (1960) with Lino Ventura, then took the lead in Godard’s *Breathless* (1960), which turned him into a major figure of the French New Wave. The film was a big hit in France and abroad, launching Belmondo internationally and marking him as the face of the movement—though he later said, "I don't know what they mean" by that term. *The New York Times* noted that it gave him "more acting assignments than he can handle." He followed with *Trapped by Fear* (1960), the Italian *Letters By a Novice* (1960), and, with Jeanne Moreau and director Peter Brook, *Seven Days... Seven Nights* (1961), which he later called "very boring." He played a gigolo in the anthology *Love and the Frenchwoman* (1960), then made two Italian films: supporting Sophia Loren in *Two Women* (1961) as a bespectacled country boy ("It may disappoint those who've got me typed," he said, "but so much the better"), and opposite Claudia Cardinale in *The Lovemakers*.