Jean-Paul Belmondo, one of French cinema's biggest stars and whose charismatic smile illuminated the screen for half a century, has died aged 88 in his Paris home, his lawyer confirmed on Monday.
Belmondo, with his charm and smile, was the poster boy of the New Wave, France's James Dean and Humphrey Bogart rolled into one irresistible man.
The late French actor's acting career properly began in 1953, with two performances at the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Paris, Jean Anouilh's Médée and Georges Neveux's Zamore.
Director Jean-Luc Godard cast Belmondo in his break-out role as a doomed thug who falls in love with Jean Seberg (played by Jean Seberg) in 1961's "Breathless".
The movie dazzled critics and audiences worldwide alongside Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" changed the history of cinema.
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Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in "Breathless"[/caption]
Born in 1933, Belmondo performed poorly at school during the war but was a talented boxer, winning three straight round-one knockouts in a brief amateur career. He then trained at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art.
The actor grew up in the bourgeois Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine at the household of renowned sculptor, Paul Belmondo.
He made his first foray into cinema in the 1957 comedy movie "On Foot, On Horse and On Wheels".
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Jean-Paul Belmondo in "On Foot, on Horse, and on Wheels"[/caption]
Belmondo went on to collaborate with some of the most talented directors of his generation, including Godard, and then with Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Louis Malle, and Jean-Pierre Melville.
He was often cast opposite glamorous women, such as Catherine Deneuve, Sophia Loren, and Claudia Cardinale.
The actor starred in more bankable action movies in the 1970s and performed his own stunts.
In the 1980s, Belmondo took on more mature dramatic roles, earning a French Oscar, a Cesar, for Claude Lelouch's "Itinerary of a Spoiled Child" in 1988 about a foundling raised in a circus.
But he rejected the prize due to the artist who sculpted the statuette, Cesar Baldaccini, had once disparaged the work of his father.
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Jean-Paul Belmondo with his family[/caption]
The late actor got married twice, which ended in porce. He had four children including the racing driver, Paul Belmondo, with his youngest born in 2003 when he was 70.
His eldest daughter, Patricia, died in a fire in 1994.
He suffered a stroke in 2001 while on holiday in Corsica, which affected his speech and ended his career, though he did make one last touching movie as an old man whose only consolation was his dog.
In 2016, the Venice film festival awarded the actor a Golden Lion for lifetime's achievement.
"I never think about my past. Forward, forward, forward." he told reporters then.
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