Line #85 Creator/JeanPaulBelmondo


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jpbelmondo.jpeg]]
2	->''"I would say I've done everything I wanted to."''
3
4	Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (April 9, 1933 - September 6, 2021) was a French actor and producer of Italian descent.
5
6	The son of {{sculptor\|s}} Paul Belmondo, he started a boxing career before shifting to acting. His [[StarMakingRole rise to national and international stardom]] came with UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave vehicles such as Creator/JeanLucGodard's ''Film/{{Breathless}}'' and ''Film/PierrotLeFou'' as well as dramas such as Creator/JeanPierreMelville's ''Film/LeonMorinPriest'', ''Film/MagnetOfDoom'' and Henri Verneuil's ''Film/AMonkeyInWinter''. He would remain a very successful leading man in French cinema throughout TheSixties, TheSeventies and TheEighties and became one of the highest-grossing actors of all time at the French box office, only equaled by the likes of Creator/AlainDelon (his longtime friend), Creator/LouisDeFunes or Creator/GerardDepardieu.
7
8	His crowd-pleasing shift as soon as the early '60s and even moreso in the '70s was much to the chagrin of critics who held his New Wave/more auteurist roles in very high regard, but [[AwesomeDearBoy pleasing crowds was just what he loved doing]]. He most often played {{Anti Hero}}es in crime films or [[LargeHam hammed it up]] as dashing [[TheAce Aces]], {{Lovable Rogue}}s, [[TheCasanova Casanovas]], {{Cowboy Cop}}s or any role falling in-between, usually with heavy stunt work (which he tended to perform himself). Such characters tended to be showy, [[DeadpanSnarker very sarcastic]] and very quotable and made him the undisputed quintessential {{Action Hero}} of French cinema for over three decades.
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10	His film career slowly declined starting in the second half of the 1980s and he focused more on stage work instead, with his runs in that field such as Creator/JeanPaulSartre's ''Kean'' and Edmond Rostand's ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'' becoming big popular successes. He won the César Award for Best Actor in 1989 for his role in Claude Lelouch's film ''Itinerary of a Spoiled Child'', but didn't show up at the ceremony, treating it like a [[invoked]]ConsolationAward. He suffered a brain-damaging stroke in 2001 and retired from acting, only returning for one last role on the big screen in 2009. He passed away at age 88 on September 6, 2021 and received a national homage at the Invalides in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}.
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12	His older brother Alain Belmondo is a producer who worked with him on many of his films. He was the father of four, including Patricia (1953-1993, died in a house fire), Paul Alexandre (born in 1963, became a race car pilot), Florence (born in 1960) and Stella (born in 2003). One of his grandchildren, Victor (son of Paul Alexandre, born 1993) followed in his footsteps and became an actor.
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14	He is often [[FanNickname nicknamed]] "Bébel" in France.
15	----
16	[[folder:Filmography]]
17
18	* ''Film/The400Blows'' (1959) - voice cameo
19	* ''Film/{{Breathless}}'' (1960) as Michel Poiccard
20	* ''Film/TwoWomen'' (''La Ciociara'', 1960) as Michele
21	* ''Film/UneFemmeEstUneFemme'' (1961) as Alfred
22	* ''Film/LeonMorinPriest'' (1961) as Léon Morin
23	* ''Film/AMonkeyInWinter'' (1962) as Gabriel Fouquet
24	* ''Film/{{Cartouche}}'' (1962) as Louis Dominique Bourguignon a.k.a. "Cartouche"
25	* ''Film/LeDoulos'' (1963) as Silien
26	* ''Film/MagnetOfDoom'' (1963) as Michel Maudet
27	* ''Film/ThatManFromRio'' (1964) as Adrien Dufourquet
28	* ''Film/WeekendAtDunkirk'' (1964) as Julien Maillat
29	* ''Film/PierrotLeFou'' (1965) as Ferdinand Griffon a.k.a. "Pierrot"
30	* ''Chinese Adventures in China'' (1965) as Alexandrine Pinardel
31	* ''Film/IsParisBurning'' (1966) as Yvon Morandat
32	* ''Film/{{Casino Royale\|1967}}'' (1967) as a French legionnaire
33	* ''Film/{{The Brain\|1969}}'' (1969) as Arthur Lespinasse
34	* ''Film/MississippiMermaid'' (1969) as Louis Mahé
35	* ''Film/{{Borsalino}}'' (1970) as François Capella
36	* ''Film/TheMarriedCoupleOfTheYearTwo'' (1971) as Nicolas Philibert
37	* ''Le Casse'' (1971): Azad
38	* ''Film/LaScoumoune'' (1972) as Roberto Borgo aka "La Scoumoune"
39	* ''Film/LeMagnifique'' (1973) as François Merlin / Bob Saint-Clar
40	* ''Stavisky'' (1974) as Alexandre Stavisky
41	* ''Film/PeurSurLaVille'' (1975) as Jean Letellier
42	* ''Body of my Enemy'' (1976) as François Leclercq
43	* ''Un sorriso, uno schiaffo, un bacio in bocca'' (1976)
44	* ''Hunter Will Get You'' (1976) a.k.a. ''L'Alpagueur'', as Roger Pilard
45	* ''Film/CopOrHood'' (1979) as divisional commissioner Stanislas Borowitz
46	* ''Le Guignolo'' (1980) as Alexandre Dupré
47	* ''Film/LeProfessionnel'' (1981) as Josselin "Joss" Beaumont
48	* ''Film/AceOfAces'' (1982) as Georges "Jo" Cavalier
49	* ''Le Marginal'' (1983) as Commissionner Philippe Jordan
50	* ''The Vultures'' (1984) as Pierre Augagneur
51	* ''Film/HoldUp'' (1985) as Grimm
52	* ''Le Solitaire'' (1987) as Stan Jalard
53	* ''Itinerary of a Spoiled Child'' (1988) as Sam Lion
54	* ''[[Film/LesMiserables1995 Les Misérables]]'' (1995) as Henri Fortin / Jean Valjean
55	* ''Half a Chance'' (1998) as Léo Brassac
56	* ''Maybe'' (1999) as Ako
57	* ''A Man and His Dog'' (2009) as Charles
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	!!Tropes & Trivia in his works:
61
62	* BilledAboveTheTitle: In TheSeventies and TheEighties when he was working with publicist and editor René Chateau, Belmondo's name was always above the title (and often bigger than the title) on the posters of his films. Since he was a national superstar, his name alone would easily sell a film.
63	* ComicBookFantasyCasting:
64	** Creator/JeanMichelCharlier and Creator/{{Moebius}} modeled the face of the protagonist in the western FrancoBelgianComics classic ''ComicBook/{{Blueberry}}'' after him.
65	** The hero of the {{Fanservice}}-heavy Italian comic book ''Goldrake'' had Belmondo's face as well.
66	** So did Buichi Terasawa for the main character of ''Manga/SpaceAdventureCobra''.
67	** The general shape of [[Franchise/LupinIII Arsène Lupin III]]'s face and his haircut also owe much to Belmondo's [[invoked]][[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff surprising popularity in Japan]].
68	* CowboyCop: He played cops with unorthodox methods in ''Peur sur la Ville'', ''Cop or Hood'', ''Le Marginal'' and ''Le Solitaire''.
69	* LeslieNielsenSyndrome: He had a noticeable comedic shift in his late 1960s roles which would intensify to {{Farce}} levels in the mid-1970s starting with ''Film/LeMagnifique'', although he never stopped playing dramatic roles alongside them.
70	* LovableRogue: A strong contender for the quintessential example in French cinema as the thieves and bank robbers he played, usually in comedies, were often either TheCharmer (''Film/{{Cartouche}}'', ''Film/HoldUp'') or [[LargeHam hammy]] goofballs (''L'Incorrigible'', ''Le Guignolo'').
71	* NoStuntDouble: A prime example, as he did much of the body stunt work in his films on his own between 1962 and 1985, which caused him plenty of injuries. For car stunts as well, though he would sometimes leave it to his stuntman friend Creator/RemyJulienne when closeups were not needed. A severe head injury on the set of ''Film/HoldUp'' convinced him to go back to stage work. The very last stunt he did was climbing a rope ladder under a helicopter that lifts off in the 1998 action comedy ''Half a Chance'' when he was 65.
72	* ProductionPosse:
73	** Frequently worked with directors Jean-Pierre Melville, Philippe de Broca, Henri Verneuil and Georges Lautner.
74	** He frequently worked with Jean-Paul Rappeneau as either screenwriter, director or both.
75	** His Lautner films (and some others) often had dialogues written by Creator/MichelAudiard.
76	** Four of his films were scored by Music/EnnioMorricone -- ''Le Casse'', ''Film/PeurSurLaVille'', ''Film/LeProfessionnel'' and ''Le Marginal''.
77	** Some of his vehicular stunts were performed and staged by Rémy Julienne.
78	* SmokingIsCool: From ''Film/{{Breathless}}'' all the way to his early 1980s roles, his characters smoked very often, with a few {{Cigar Chomper}}s in the lot.
79	* ThoseTwoActors:
80	** He co-starred with Creator/ClaudiaCardinale in ''Le mauvais chemin'', ''Film/{{Cartouche}}'' and ''La Scoumoune''. They both appeared in the 1976 Italian comedy AnthologyFilm ''Un sorriso, uno schiaffo, un bacio in bocca'', although they're not seen together.
81	** Played alongside his longtime friend and fellow superstar Creator/AlainDelon in ''Sois belle et tais-toi'', ''Les Amours célèbres'', ''Film/IsParisBurning'', ''Ho!'', ''Film/{{Borsalino}}'' and ''1 Chance sur 2''.
82	** Belmondo also played alongside Michel Beaune in ''Le Corps de mon ennemi'', ''Film/CopOrHood'', ''Le Professionnel'' and ''Joyeuses Pâques''.
83	** Played three times with singer and actress Marie Laforêt, in ''Cop or Hood'', ''Les Morfalous'' and ''Joyeuses Pâques''.
84	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
85	** Belmondo was supposed to star in ''Barracuda'', a film about a HostageSituation in Chad. {{Creative differences}} and Belmondo's commitment to ''Le Professionnel'' killed the project, although ''Le Professionnel'' retained the ''françafrique'' thing (French meddling in post-colonial UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}n politics).
86	** It was announced in 2018 that he would return in a sequel to 1988's ''Itinerary of a Spoiled Child''. He passed away in 2021 without the project having had time to materialize.

Context Creator / JeanPaulBelmondo