# The man who lived in the paris airport for 18 years has died **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 15, 2022, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926 "2022-11-15T04:04:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926/1 "2022-11-15T04:04:26Z")
> **[Iranian who inspired 'The Terminal' dies at Paris airport](https://www.aol.com/news/iranian-inspired-terminal-dies-paris-153217757.html)** > > An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and whose saga loosely inspired the Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal” died Saturday in the airport that he long called home, officials said. Mehran Karimi Nasseri died... i think even cecil had a column about him ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926/2 "2022-11-15T04:14:45Z")
He did: > **[Has a guy been stuck in the Paris airport since 1988 for lack of the right...](https://www.straightdope.com/21342490/has-a-guy-been-stuck-in-the-paris-airport-since-1988-for-lack-of-the-right-papers)** ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926/3 "2022-11-15T06:59:20Z")
I remember there always being something a bit off with him. He was offered a place in several countries multiple times but he always refused for usually petty reasons. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926/4 "2022-11-15T07:12:00Z")
He was also offered residency in France, and did spend some time in a homeless shelter, but ultimately elected to go back to the airport terminal. I also saw somewhere that he got $300,000 from the movie rights to Spielberg’s _The Terminal_. Definitely not a rational individual. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926/5 "2022-11-15T07:20:09Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Definitely not a rational individual. From Cecil’s report that @Seanette linked to: > “He is mentally ill,” Dr. Philippe Bargain, the airport’s medical director, is quoted as saying. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926/6 "2022-11-15T16:05:29Z")
I can see room for debate on chicken and egg here. Someone who’s a little bit unstable could certainly be driven to overt madness first by the Kafka-esque passport / visa / nationality situation he found himself in, followed by being trapped in a terminal for years before the first realistic offer of asylum (for lack of a better word) came in. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926/7 "2022-11-15T16:55:39Z")
It’s pretty evident that there are places and circumstances in this world that would convince almost anyone that sanity is not a useful strategy. Sometimes the most rational thing you can do is to revert to complete irrationality. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926/8 "2022-11-16T14:42:24Z")
I’m not sure that mental health works like that. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-man-who-lived-in-the-paris-airport-for-18-years-has-died/974926/9 "2022-11-17T17:38:48Z")
If I recall correctly, he had moved back into the terminal for the last several weeks before his death.