CNN
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Alain Delon, the French actor, producer and writer whose cool, enigmatic beauty made him an international sex symbol, has died at the age of 88.

“He died peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and family,” the family said in a statement to AFP news agency. Delon had struggled with poor health in recent years.

Born in Sceaux, a suburb south of Paris, Delon had a turbulent childhood marked by his parents’ divorce and frequent expulsions from school. He then served in the French Navy in Indochina and later took odd jobs in Paris.

He made his first film appearance in 1957 in the role of a contract killer in the thriller “Quand la femme s’en mêle”, which in English is called “Send a Woman When the Devil Fails”.

This was the first of many antihero roles for Delon, who became a major figure in European film in the 1960s, working with such celebrated directors as René Clément (Plein Soleil, 1960, known in the US as Purple Noon), Luchino Visconti (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960 and The Leopard, 1963) and Jean-Pierre Melville (The Lion, 1967).

In 1968, Delon became involved in a sex, drug and murder scandal involving French high society, known as the Markovic affair. He was questioned but never charged.

He also appeared in numerous English-language productions, including the anthology film “The Yellow Rolls-Royce” (1964) and the westerns “Texas Across the River” (1966) and “Red Sun” (1971), but he failed to repeat his success in European cinema.

For his role as an alcoholic in Bertrand Blier’s Our Story, Delon won the César, the French equivalent of an Oscar, for best actor in 1985. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the passionate, penniless Tancredi in The Leopard.

His star faded in his later years, but at the turn of the century he reappeared on television, playing a seasoned detective in two miniseries: “Fabio Montale” (2002) and “Frank Riva” (2003–2004).

In 2005, Delon was made an Officer of the French Legion of Honor for his contribution to world cinema.

He was married to actress and model Nathalie Delon from 1964 to 1969 and the couple had one child, Anthony.

Delon had three other children: a son, Christian Boulogne, with singer and actress Nico, and Anouchka Delon and Alain-Fabien Delon with Dutch actress Rosalie van Breemen.