death of the icon of French cinema at 88

His family life

Jean-Paul Belmondo passed away on September 6, 2021. “He had been very tired for some time. He died quietly “, told AFP his lawyer, Me Michel Godest. Born in Neuilly-Sur-Seine on April 9, 1933 to artist parents, Jean-Paul Belmondo has a brother, Alain and a sister, Muriel. In December 1953, he was twenty years old and married Elodie Constantin. The young woman, dancer in St-Germain-des-Près will share the life of the actor and they will have three children together: Patricia (who will die in 1994 in a fire), Florence and Paul. In 1989, he met Nathalie Tardivel, alias Natty, whom he married in Paris in December 2002 and with whom he had little Stella Belmondo. The couple will separate in 2008. A few years later he will admit being in a relationship with Barbara Gandolfi, a former Belgian playmate 40 years younger. The actor’s family will not see this relationship in a good light and will accuse the young woman of having views on the heritage of Jean-Paul Belmondo. In 2012, after a fraud case in which Barbara would be involved, the actor’s lawyer announced that he was separating from her.

A cinema icon

It was at the age of sixteen that Jean-Paul Belmondo decided to become an actor and prepared for the Conservatory with Raymond Girard. A year later, in 1950, he began a tour of Paris hospitals where he played the role of the prince in The Sleeping Beauty. He entered the Conservatory in 1951 where he met his friend Jean Rochefort who will remain so for life. He began in the cinema in small roles until 1959 when he played in Breathless, directed by Jean-Luc Godard which will be a real success. From there, Bébel became an icon of French cinema and popular films. Whether as a cop or thug, the actor explodes the box office to exceed 130 million admissions for the films in which he plays the main role. In 1987, he returned to his first love and finally returned to the stage.

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A talented but fragile man

Despite his success, Jean-Paul Belmondo is overtaken by health concerns. In 2001, while spending holidays in Corsica with his friend Guy Bedos, the actor was paralyzed by a serious cardiovascular accident which deprived him of his speech for 8 months. But Bébel did not let himself be defeated and was promoted to Commander of the Order of the Legion of Honor in 2007 then Knight of the Order of Leopold (highest distinction in Belgium). Finally, France pays him a nice tribute since he will be the guest of honor at the 64th Cannes Film Festival in 2011. In 2016, he received a Golden Lion for his entire career. In July 2019, he was elevated Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor.