Heartbreaker French Actor Delon to Retire
Alain Delon, the French star dubbed one of "the best looking actors of all time", declared Tuesday that he was calling time on his career.
The 81-year-old screen legend -- who is credited with inventing the character of the cerebral hitman, which has since become a Hollywood standard -- told AFP that he would do one last film and a play before retiring.
"I am the age that I am, and after having the career that I have had I am finishing it... it is not the end of my life, but the end of my career," he said.
Delon shot to fame in the early 1960s playing pretty boy killers and schemers in such classic films as "Plein Soleil" -- later remade as "The Talented Mr Ripley" -- and Luchino Visconti's "The Leopard".
Hollywood directors from Martin Scorsese to Steven Soderbergh have credited him with creating the template for the thinking trigger man in Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 classic "Le Samurai".
Delon has quit the movies once before, in 2000, only to return eight years later playing Julius Caesar in "Asterix at the Olympic Games", saying "only fools never change their minds."
But this time his retirement is for real, he told AFP.
"When I used to organize boxing matches, I saw lots of men who regretted fighting on for too long. There won't be one fight too many (for me)," he added.
His swansong film -- which will be directed by renowned French filmmaker Patrice Leconte, who has compiled an encyclopedia of the actor's life -- is a story of a man very much in Delon's image.
"The script is almost finished. It is a great love story. It hasn't got a title yet but my character is pretty much me," Delon said.
"A man of my age, a bit capricious, cranky and angry who finds love before the end of his life."
He will play opposite Juliette Binoche, who he described as a "marvelous actress."
- Eventful love life -
Delon's love life has long been the fodder of celebrity magazines, with his boyish good looks irresistible to a long line of glamorous actress.
It was Vanity Fair magazine that described him as one of the best-looking actors ever.
His long and complex relationship with the German actress Romy Schneider -- "The love of my life" -- fascinated France until her tragic death in 1982 after taking a mix of alcohol and painkillers.
"I was programmed for success, not happiness. The two don't go together," said Delon, who now lives with his dogs in the countryside near Paris.
He said that he and Leconte, best known for his Oscar-nominated period drama "Ridicule" set at the royal court of Versailles, hope to premiere the new film at next year's Cannes film festival.
"I would like to go back one last time to say goodbye," he said of the festival, where "The Leopard" won its top prize, the Palme d'Or, in 1963.
Delon said he will also star in a new play written for him, "The Twilight of a Holy Monster", in which he will play a wounded police inspector who is forced to retired.
Source: Agence France Presse
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