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A look at 10 standout films featuring the actor, who died on Sunday at 88.
Published Aug. 18, 2024Updated Aug. 19, 2024, 4:06 p.m. ET
Most reviews of the films Alain Delon made at his 1960s and ’70s peak mention either his beauty or his inscrutability. Very often they bring up both.
Despite his looks, the French star, who died on Sunday at 88, was not a typical leading man. He did not do romance and mostly avoided the relationship dramas so popular in his home country, even though he won his single César Award for one, “Notre Histoire” (1984). For the most part, Delon steered clear of lighthearted fare — the over-the-top spaghetti swashbuckler “Zorro” (1975) is one of the few such outliers. Instead, Delon will forever remain associated with the bleak thrillers and noirs he focused on after the mid-1960s. Sometimes he played the cop, other times the criminal. Always he looked as if he was withholding something — as an actor, he was never afraid of silence.
Luckily, a large number of Delon classics are available to stream. Here are 10 of the best ones, in chronological order.
Has there ever been a more handsome, conscience-free psychopath than Delon’s Tom Ripley? The actor was 25 when his breakthrough hit came out, in 1960, and his magnetism made the character’s dangerous pull on men and women completely inevitable. Delon is a major reason this film remains one of the best Patricia Highsmith adaptations ever, and his youthful cockiness and lethal charm continue to burn the screen.
