Biography

Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (9 April 1933 – 6 September 2021) was a French actor. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward, frequently portraying police officers and criminals in action thriller films. His best known credits include Breathless (1960), That Man from Rio (1964), Pierrot le Fou (1965), Borsalino (1970), and The Professional (1981). An undisputed box-office champion along with Louis de Funès and Alain Delon, Belmondo attracted nearly 160 million viewers over his 50-year career. Between 1969 and 1982, he starred in the four most popular films of the year in France, surpassed only by de Funès: The Brain (1969), Fear Over the City (1975), Animal (1977), Ace of Aces (1982).