Today is an especially sad day for film lovers in general, and European industry in particular, because the legendary French interpreter Jean-Paul Belmondo has passed away at 88 years of age. The information has emerged thanks to the agency France-Presse, who would have received the news through the actor’s lawyer, who has stated that his client died “quietly shutting down.”
From the ring to the big screen
Belmondo, the son of a sculptor and a painter, was born in Paris in 1933, developing a great interest in the sports world from an early age. In 1949, at just 16 years old, debuted in amateur boxing, in which he would have a short but successful career that ended undefeated. But it was in 1952 when his professional career would take a 180º turn to turn into the world of interpretation.
Just turned 20 got access to the Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris after being rejected three times. Although it is rumored that he did not finish his student period very well – with a strong dispute and abandonment due to a rating that he considered unfair – Belmondo made his feature film debut with Maurice Delbez with a small role in ‘On foot, on horseback and by car’.
Although in 1959 he had the privilege of working for the prestigious Claude Chabrol in ‘A double life’, the true turning point in his career was a year earlier, when he would start his professional relationship with Jean-Luc Godard through the short film ‘Charlotte et son Jules’; work that preceded feature films of the stature of ‘At the end of the getaway’ or ‘Pierrot, the madman’, which made him one of the most iconic faces of the Nouvelle Vague.
Belmondo’s popularity and versatility allowed him to participate in the most varied projects; from the hilarious ‘Casino Royale’ starring David Niven, to action films like ‘The professional’ or ‘How to destroy the most famous secret agent in the world’; going through the enchanting adventure of Philippe de Broca ‘The man from Rio’; in a radically different line to that of the French New Wave.
With the death of Jean-Paul Belmondo we lose aun reference of the seventh European art that worked under the orders of icons such as Resnais, Melville or Truffaut, in addition to one of the most charismatic and magnetic screen presences that the cinematographic history of the old continent has left us.