Usually speaking, the phrase used to describe good-looking men commonly is “handsome.” Not that it is a dictum; it’s just the way things are- and- have been.
The phrase beauty, however, is reserved to appreciate women. That is how it has been. But there was once a man who could best be described as beautiful, supremely beautiful.
A man as rare as they come. When using the phrase, you just knew that nothing was being overstated and that there was no overdoing it.
That man was and shall always be Alain Delon.
No beautiful thing ever dies. And this is why talking of Alain Delon now that he’s no more and has probably made his way to that part of paradise that could already be smitten with his pure gorgeousness doesn’t seem outlandish.
Quite frankly, there are multiple ways of understanding the late French actor.
To seven in ten, Delon was a cinematic legend who came alive on the screen, for that is where he belonged.
To many others, Alain Delon was the near-perfect combination of talent and its application that led to epic success at the French box office while making useful inroads in the starry world of Hollywood.
However, what can’t be doubted is that nearly every soul who came across Alain Delon, whether a fellow actor, a casting director, a fashionista, a revered art critic, or a European parliamentarian, was absorbed by the personality of a man blessed with ceaseless beauty.
With his chiseled face, sparkly blue eyes, crisp hairdo, elegant gait, and, above all, soft yet alluring presence, Alain Delon broke hearts, captivated minds, swayed women, turned men into fanboys, and ruled the movie world with an enigmatic ease.
From a pretty young thing to a thing of the past
At the ripe old age of 89, when his mind was perhaps still alert, albeit as best as it could have possibly been, it was heartbreaking to see the prevalence of wrinkles and blackheads on a face that once epitomized unsullied, sublime beauty.
But it makes sense when they say that change is the only constant.
The journey of a man responsible for pulsating hits such as Purple Nights, The Panther, and many more, from being perpetual eye candy to a rather haggard-looking big screen idol well beyond his prime, conveyed a truth of life.
And we all stand powerless in front of the changing vagaries of time.
The Alain Delon impact
Age never strikes alone; it brings along unexciting, dour-looking, unfriendly guests, such as wrinkles, sagging skin, and that worn-out appearance.
But even then, imagine the far-reaching appeal of Alain Delon—1935 to 2024—that his fan bases existed in multiple countries far beyond the geography of France, the country of his birth.
In fact, the Sceaux-born has an incredible fan base in Japan to this day. In America, his classic looks drew comparisons with the golden boys of Golden Age cinema. Perhaps that’s something that won’t fade away any time soon.
Who’s more charming and dead-drop gorgeous—Delon or Eastwood, Delon or Robert Taylor, Delon or Gary Cooper—will remain a hot debate and one that may never quite provide a fulfilling answer.
But having said that, what perhaps added to Alain Delon’s allure was his perfect ease in playing the not-so-nice leading man on the screen.
A raging debate
Several of his characters saw him as the Hitman, the savage charmer, a problematic lover often in and out of love, and it wasn’t that the mesmerizing looker only portrayed the man blessed with chocolate boy charm.
Beneath the eye-pleasing face lay a thinking actor who knew he wasn’t perfect and that to stand out as a movie character, he’d have to play the complex, not necessarily the winner-takes-all hero.
Films like Le Samourai, The Swimming Pool, The Sicilian Clan, and Rocco and his Brothers offered insight into a man of depth and thought.
They underlined his talent and paid homage to the fact that beauty and brains were, in fact, real and used for men as well, not a sarcastic take with which one often undermined women, caging them into a stereotype.
The big break?
But what made Alain Delon the breakthrough star he eventually became was a chance trip to Cannes several moons ago, where he was spotted first and, eventually, guided to undertake the big journey to forge a life in front of the camera.
Before that, akin to many struggling actors, he was amid several odd jobs that may have given him something to pocket but not the sumptuous success he was meant for.
The success earned him fame and fanfare, leading to an enduring romance with the celebrated Romy Schneider.
As reports suggest, it wasn’t always easy for Alain Delon to accept that she was the real one, the one meant for him.
It could be argued that what further added a layer of truth to his entire being was that the man blessed with angelic good looks was in no way an angel.
Far from it, in fact.
Delon openly accepted his links with the world of notoriety, alluding to the fact that any hints of his connections to some kind of a mob were, in fact, not false.
A high-profile incident wherein his bodyguard’s body was found rather abruptly in a dumpster far from the vicinity of the Delon household shed more light on the fact that beyond the realm of cinematic charm, there was this darkness to the French superstar.
And yet, the good looks and dapper persona of a man who appealed to his contemporaries and critics alike magnified his charm.
It was as if Alain Delon was magnetic, and the law of attraction by which he courted steamy romances with countless women was just the order of the day.
Seldom has one seen a man portray as complex a part on the screen as he lived one off it.
In Alain Delon- true lover, liver of life, doer of things, achiever of fame and infamy- France has lost a redoubtable legend and the word “smashingly good looking” its inexhaustible lease of life.