# Jean-Paul Belmondo dead aged 88
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-paul-belmondo-dead-aged-88/950180
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 6, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-paul-belmondo-dead-aged-88/950180 "2021-09-06T18:25:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-paul-belmondo-dead-aged-88/950180/1 "2021-09-06T18:25:03Z")
Story here:
> **[Iconic French New Wave actor Jean-Paul Belmondo dies aged 88](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210906-iconic-french-new-wave-actor-jean-paul-belmondo-dies-aged-88-lawyer)**
>
> Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, one of postwar French cinema's biggest stars, whose charismatic smile illuminated the screen for half a century, has died aged 88 in his Paris home.
I don’t know how famous he was in America, but he wasn’t only one of the biggest stars of French cinema, but of whole Europe. I’ve known him as long as I can think. He was a very versatile actor, playing in nouvelle vague films for the most famous French directors (Godard, Truffaut, Malle), but also in many action and comedy flicks where he did most of his stunts himself. He also always seemed to be a very likable guy. RIP, Jean-Paul.
---
### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2021, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-paul-belmondo-dead-aged-88/950180/2 "2021-09-06T18:38:25Z")
He was the epitome of the ugly/sexy male French star. RIP.
---
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-paul-belmondo-dead-aged-88/950180/3 "2021-09-06T18:52:20Z")
“UGLY”??? Really?
I actually thought he had died decades ago.
---
### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2021, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-paul-belmondo-dead-aged-88/950180/4 "2021-09-06T18:56:09Z")
He was very big in Russia, too. Back in the '90s, you could switch the TV on almost any night of the week and a movie of his would be on. (The same was true of Louis de Funès. I had never heard of either before I lived in Eastern Europe.)
RIP, Jean-Paul.
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-paul-belmondo-dead-aged-88/950180/5 "2021-09-06T19:07:11Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> He was the epitome of the ugly/sexy male French star. RIP.
> [@panache45](#):
>
> “UGLY”??? Really?
He thought so himself. From this New York Times article:
> **[Jean-Paul Belmondo, Magnetic Star of the French New Wave, Dies at 88...](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/movies/jean-paul-belmondo-dead.html)**
>
> He was compared to Marlon Brando and James Dean for his acclaimed portrayals of tough, alienated characters, most memorably in Godard’s “Breathless.”
> [@New York Times](#):
>
> When an interviewers asked him to explain his enduring popularity, especially with women, Mr. Belmondo responded with his usual casual shrug.
>
> “Hell, everyone knows that an ugly guy with a good line gets the chicks,” he said.
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-paul-belmondo-dead-aged-88/950180/6 "2021-09-06T19:17:35Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> I actually thought he had died decades ago.
He had a stroke that affected his speech in 2001, so after that he only made one more film.
---
### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2021, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-paul-belmondo-dead-aged-88/950180/7 "2021-09-06T20:00:40Z")
My favorite actor (sigh….)
I haven’t seen all of his films - some of them are pretty bad, many more are unmemorable and in a few, his character is an a-hole – but the more entertaining ones showcased his indefatigable charm, athleticism and a disposition equally at home with whimsy or badassery:
_Breathless_ (1960) – His most iconic performance, as an amoral small-time crook smitten with naïve American Jean Seberg. At one point, Belmondo proclaims Maurice Chevalier and the Marquis de Lafayette the lamest of Frenchmen, a judgement that can be taken as implicit acknowledgment that Belmondo was the coolest.
_Classe Tous Risques_ (1960) – Belmondo plays The Transporter 42 years before Jason Statham.
_Le Doulos_ (1962) – Quintessential badass Belmondo performance.
_That Man from Rio_ (1964)
_Up to His Ears_ (1965)
Lighthearted adventures with a touch of the surreal. The latter is based on Jules Verne’s story of a rich man so bored he hires a hitman to kill him, then he meets the woman of his dreams - Ursula Andress, archaeologist by day, stripper by night – and he understandably changes his mind.
_Mississippi Mermaid_ (1969) – Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve have a serious love/hate relationship.
_Le Magnifique_ (1973) – Nearly half a great film starts with Belmondo in a funny James Bond parody, then reveals he is actually the writer of it. Complications with his publisher and Jacqueline Bisset fill out the running time.
_The Vultures_ (1984) – Redo of _Kelly’s Heroes_ has foreign legionnaire Belmondo leading efforts to steal gold bars from a bank in Tunisia. Very entertaining, this movie is also memorable for a scene in which a legionnaire unwisely urinates on an electric fence.