Associated Press Associated Press. He was His death was confirmed Monday by the office of his lawyer, Michel Godest. No cause of death was given. Belmondo, who embodied in the s a new type of male star characterized by pure virility rather than their classic good looks, went on to appear in more than 80 films and worked with a variety of major French directors, from Francois Truffaut to Claude Lelouch.
His career choices were equally varied, from acclaimed art house films to critically lukewarm action and comedy films later on in his career.
His unconventional looks β flattened nose, full lips and muscular frame β allowed him to play roles from thug to police officer, thief to priest, Cyrano de Bergerac to an unshakable secret agent.
Belmondo was also a gifted athlete who often did his own stunts. France bounded into Belmondo mode at news of his death with politicians of all stripes praising him as the media put the actor everyone seemed to love at center-stage. Old movie clips caught the athletic Belmondo in heart-stopping acrobatics he was known to love, from sliding down a rooftop to climbing up a rope ladder from a moving convertible.
Belmondo was born on April 9, , in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine into an artistic family. Belmondo played soccer and trained as a boxer before quitting school at age He took up acting in the s at the Paris Conservatory, where one of his teachers, Pierre Dux, famously told him that his career as a leading man was doomed because of his looks.
