To some, Alain Delon epitomized 20th-century allure, mastering the role of the impeccably dressed ice-cold killer in 1960s New Wave cinema. To others, his third-person self-references and admission to slapping a woman painted him as an egotistical chauvinist, sparking feminist outrage when Cannes honored him in 2019. Yet, millions of fans, from France to Japan, idolized him as a symbol of male beauty, flaws and all. Fellow icon Brigitte Bardot once described him as “an eagle with two heads... the best and the worst.”
The following gallery explores the latter, investigating the actor’s biggest scandal, and revises the facts of an unsolved murder that shook Europe. Click through to learn more.