Actor Alain Delon, one of the major stars of European cinema from the 1960s on, has died at the age of 88 after a long period of ill health, French media reported on Sunday.

Delon triumphed over a troubled early life to take leading roles in several major films, rising to fame in two movies by Italian director Luchino Visconti, "Rocco and His Brothers" in 1960 and "The Leopard" in 1963.

His last years were clouded by a family feud over his care following a 2019 stroke between his sons Anthony and Alain-Fabien, and his daughter Anouchka, an affair that was covered by French media in great detail.

Delon's last major public appearance was to receive an honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival in May 2019.

French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Delon on Sunday, calling him a "French monument."

"[...] Alain Delon played legendary roles and made the world dream. Lending his unforgettable face to turn our lives upside down," Macron wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "Melancholy, popular, secretive, he was more than a star: He was a French monument."

Troubled youth

Delon was born just outside Paris on November 8, 1935.

He was put into foster care aged just 4 after his parents split up and divorced.

Delon had a troubled youth, running away from home on at least one occasion and being thrown out of boarding schools several times.

At 17, he joined the Marines and served in Indochina, then under French rule.

After his return to France in the mid-1950s, he met French actor Jean-Claude Brialy and attended the Cannes film festival. There, an American talent scout, perhaps drawn by Delon's good looks and striking blue eyes, arranged a screen test for him.

Gangsters and hitmen

Delon went on from there to make his film debut in 1957 in "Quand la femme s'en mele" ("Send a Woman When the Devil Fails").

Others of his films, in which he frequently played gangsters or hitmen, were Henri Verneuil's 1963 film "Melodie en Sous-Sol" ("Any Number Can Win"), Jean-Pierre Melville's 1967 "Le Samourai" ("The Godson"), "Borsalino" (1970) in which he starred with fellow French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, and the 1969 erotic thriller "La Piscine" ("The Swimming Pool").

In the latter film, he was reunited with real-life lover Romy Schneider, to whom he had previously been engaged for four years before breaking up with her by letter. He called her the "love of my life" after the tragic death of the French-German actor in 1982.

Outspoken personality

Delon did not hold back with controversial opinions off-screen, among other things saying he regretted the abolition of the death penalty and criticizing gay marriage, which was legalized in France in 2013.

He also publicly defended the far-right National Front and was friends with its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Delon was also known to have had friends in the underworld, telling The New York Times in a 1970 interview that: "I don't worry about what a friend does. Each is responsible for his own act. It doesn't matter what he does."

However, despite his ill health, he also voiced strong support for Ukraine as it battles the Russian invasion — and received the country's top order of merit for doing so.

"Since the first day of the war, Delon has spoken a lot in support of Ukraine. For us, it is a symbol, it is important," the Ukrainian Embassy in Paris said in April.

tj/rc (Reuters, dpa, AFP)