Sept 7, 2021: Jean-Paul Belmondo, the French actor who shot to international fame in Jean-Luc Godard’s revolutionary new wave classic Breathless, has died aged 88. The actor’s lawyer Michel Godest confirmed the news.

“He had been very tired for some time. He died peacefully,” Godest said.

Jean Paul Belmondo was a key figure of the outstanding generation of European film-making of the period, with the series of films he made with Godard, which included A Woman Is a Woman and Pierrot le Fou, making an indelible mark.

French President Emmanuel Macron mourned the passing of a man he called “a national treasure” on Twitter. “He will forever remain Le Magnifique,” Macron wrote, referring to a 1973 spy satire that was just one on a long list of star performances in a career that spanned six decades.

Known for his craggy features, winning smile and ever-present cigarette, Jean PaulBelmondo was frequently compared by critics to fellow leading men Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando and James Dean.

Born outside Paris in 1933 to artist parents, Jean Paul Belmondo was an athlete growing up, and trained to be a boxer. He found his way into acting as a teenager and eventually landed a spot at France’s national drama academy.

Belmondo began booking roles in short and feature films in the 1950s. In 1960, Jean-Luc Godard cast the young actor as a criminal in Breathless, opposite American actress Jean Seberg.

He appeared regularly on screen into the 21st century, until a stroke in 2001 paralyzed one side of his body and left him unable to speak for half a year. After rehabilitation, he returned to star in one final film, A Man and His Dog, in 2008. In 2017, Jean Paul Belmondo received an over two-minute-long standing ovation when he was given a lifetime achievement honor at the César awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscars.

Jean Paul Belmondo resisted Hollywood directors’ efforts to woo him to America, saying, “Why complicate my life? I am too stupid to learn the language and it would only be a disaster,” according to the New York Times.

In France Jean Paul Belmondo, he remained a huge star, acting opposite the likes of screen legends Sophia Loren and Catherine Deneuve and taking roles in popular comedies and action films in the 1970s and 80s. He famously insisted on doing most of his own stunts.

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