Died September 6, 2021 at age 88, John Paul Belmondo had suffered a stroke twenty years earlier while spending holidays with his good friend Guy Bedos in Lumio, Corsica. Taken care of at Bastia hospital, then transferred to a hospital in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, Bébel’s condition was quickly judged “stationary” but “serious“. Victim of facial paralysis and a “slow-down“on the right side of his body, the then 68-year-old actor sees his life turned upside down following this accident, which was experienced as a tragedy for those close to him.”His stroke was a tragedy. For him, his wife, his children, friends“, confided the director Philippe Labro to West France.
A free man who loves adventure and travel, the actor suddenly finds himself dependent on those around him. “He had an incredible courage, to get over it, did rehabilitation sessions that lasted for years to regain the use of speech and body (…) He was tenacious, disciplined, courageous. Fortunately, he had always worked his body“, added the director of the Alpagueurvery admiring of Bébel’s personality.
Even if Jean-Paul Belmondo shot a last film in 2008 under the direction of Francis Huster, A man and his dog, this stroke marks the end of his film career. With crazy optimism, Jean-Paul Belmondo had indicated about this last film that he had accepted it in order to send a message to his audience: “Despite the accidents of life, you can sometimes overcome your handicap“.
“I thought I had to get out of it and that I could do it if, again, I wanted to, as they had always taught me. Being athletic has helped me a lot. I woke up gabbling. It took me two years to be able to speak again when the doctor told me I would never speak again. Nailed it. Proof that the will allows many things. And not only in the cinema! ” he indicated. In 2015, he also reassured RTL journalists about his state of health, saying: “I am very well, a little hesitant in speaking, but very well.“