Alain Delon asked his son to prepare his euthanasia: “It's the most logical and natural thing to do”

Anthony Delon, son of film legend Alain Delon, revealed that his father, who turned 86 last November, asked him to organize his euthanasia.

In dialogue with French radio RTL, he said he made a promise to accompany his father to the end, according to his latest instructions. “Yes, that's right, he asked me that (because of euthanasia),” he admitted in an interview given on the occasion of the launch of his book Between the Dog and the Wolf, where he reviews his life.

According to Le Point magazine, Alain became aware of the way his son cared for his ex-wife Nathalie Delon, who died in January of this year from pancreatic cancer. “It's true that I accompanied my mother. It is true that she decided to die as she lived. I had chosen to opt for euthanasia,” he said.

He then clarified that his mother did not finally use that medium to die. “Fortunately, we didn't resort to this process. I say fortunately because everything was ready. We had the person,” he explained.

Alain lives in Switzerland, where the procedure is legal, and he urged his son to organize the entire process and accompany him in his final moments. In recent interviews, the famous actor stated that he would not hesitate to resort to euthanasia if necessary.

“I am in favor (of euthanasia). First because I live in Switzerland, where euthanasia is legal, and also because I think it is the most logical and natural thing,” the artist said in an interview with a local television channel.

“At one point, the person has the right to leave in peace, without going through hospitals, injections and so on...”, declared the French actor, while confessing that he had already made his will so that his inheritance would not be lost.

After suffering a double stroke in 2019, the actor gradually recovered and feels much better, although he has to walk with a cane. “Getting older sucks! ”, he said shortly before his hospitalization three years ago. “You can't do anything about it. You lose your face, you lose your sight. You get up and damn it, your ankle hurts,” he complained.

A movie legend

His legend began in Cannes. He was there for the first time in 1956, invited by one of his many conquests, and although he had not yet shot any film, his physique and impudence did not take long to make it known and to make it easier for him to leave that edition with a good schedule of contacts.

“If I wasn't an actor, I'd be dead. Cinema was my destiny”, acknowledged in the magazine Paris Match in 2017 the performer, born in Sceaux, on the outskirts of the French capital and in the bosom of a broken family that ended him up in the hands of foster parents.

He embraced the profession in a self-taught way at the express request of its first director, Yves Allégret, who in 1957, with “Quand la femme s'en mêle”, gave him advice that became his mantra: “Be you, don't act”.

The list of first-rate filmmakers he later worked with makes Delon not only an icon of French cinema in the 1960s and 70s, but one of the great emblems of international cinematography.

The consecration came to him in 1960 by Luchino Visconti with “Rocco e i suoi fratelli”, but his filmography also included titles such as “La Piscine” (1969), by Jacques Deray, or, in that same year, “Le clan des siciliens” by Henri Verneuil.

“It was the women who loved me who made me get into this profession and those who fought for me,” the actor recalled in Cannes.

Large list of novels

Some of his most popular romances were with co-workers. He met Austrian Romy Schneider in 1958 on the set of Pierre Gaspard-Huit's “Christine”, when she was already famous thanks to the success of “Sissi” and he was just a debutant.

For five years they were the “bride and groom of Europe”, until, unable to tell the truth to her face, Delon broke up with her by letter to leave with model and actress Nathalie Canovas, who in 1964 gave birth to her son Anthony.

The big screen later brought them together in films such as “La Piscine” and Schneider remained an important figure in his life. “A star never goes out,” he said of her last September on the occasion of what would have been the 82nd birthday of the actress, who died in 1982.

His relationship with Brigitte Bardot has always been platonic, as both protagonists argue, and of longer stories, such as the one that united him with the Dutch model and presenter Rosalie van Breemen, from whom his two young children, Anouchka (1990) and Alain-Fabien (1994) were born.

“I do three things very well: my job, nonsense and children”, Delon, who won the 1985 César Prize for French cinema for best leading actor for “Notre Histoire”, by his compatriot Bertrand Blier, said.

Old age gradually withdrew him from the media spotlight and the stroke he suffered in 2019 ended up imprisoning him.

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