Alain Delon, the French film star best-known to American audiences for his torrid portrayal of a bisexual murderer in the 1960 thriller Purple Noon, the first adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, has stated that he believes same-sex couples shouldn’t be allowed to raise children.
While being interviewed by France 2, a French public national television channel, Delon was asked about controversial comments he made in July that same-sex couples should be prohibited from having children.
“Yes, it is against nature, I’m sorry,” he responded.
It’s little surprise then that 77-year-old Delon is not an avid supporter of his country’s marriage equality law, which was passed in May.
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“We are here to love a woman, to woo a woman, not to flirt with or get picked up by guys,” he said, before attempting to soften the blow a bit. “I’m not against gay marriage, I do not give a damn, but I am against the adoption of children.”
It’s also unsurprising that Delon, like many who espouse antigay rhetoric, has had a messy personal life. Once considered one of the most beautiful men in cinema (Vivien Leigh is reported to have turned him down as a costar, saying she could never work with a man who was prettier than she), Delon has been married three times. Rumors of bisexuality followed him throughout his career and he denied paternity of a son born to actress-singer Nico, despite the child being adopted and raised by Delon’s mother.
h/t: Pink News
barkomatic
Big shocker here. A 77 year old irresponsible closest case is against gay adoption. How hypocritical that a guy who had several bisexual affairs and an illegitimate child that he refuses to acknowledge is now saying that gay couples are unnatural and shouldn’t have kids.
Polaro
Another irrelevant hypocrite who fathered a son out of wedlock that he abandoned. Ideal person to ask about parenting.
Ottoman
He’ll be dead soon.
AnitaMann
The opinion of some has-been French actor or the evidence of social science research? Ummm. Yeah. I’ll go with the social science research evidence.
2eo
Man who fathers child and pretends they don’t exist moralising.
Yawn.
tsukasaokinawa
cant respect that opinion. sorryboutit
PARKAVMAN
I always thought he was gay. Oh well, another man who can’t stay married moralizing. He has no business in this topic anyway.
Stefan
Why not use a pic of what he looks like now?!
dvlaries
Sounds like any one of our own hypocritcal old white man Repubicans. Delon should shut up like they should.
EvonCook
Just goes to show you that a beautiful face and body do not necessarily make for an open, enlightened or generous mind. Naturally, he could have had and probably did anyone who would have been thrilled to get a lick or piece of him and now, old and bitter, thinks he is a voice of reason when in fact he is just a narrow and spoiled former cutie. I just feel down deep that some hot group action, gang rapes, spitroasting and s & m abuse would have helped more to open a weak or religiously brainwashed mind.
ZeeZee
A brilliant actor- I think his role as Tancredi in “Il Gattopardo” was flawless. Ironically, his love interest in that film was played by Claudia Cardinale, who vocally supports gay rights and the film itself was directed by Luchino Visconti, who made no secret of his gayness. Oh, and also Burt Lancaster, who played the main character, was a great supporter of gay rights.
If Alain Delon indeed said those things, then he is a sad sad man …borderline cruel.
Just give him a half mask and a ‘Libérez Nicolas’sign and he is all set.
Brian
Delon is one of these people who is against embracing male homosexuality because it represents a rejection of women. It’s a philosophical view based on pro-female political correctness.
LubbockGayMale
It’s amazing how many folks want to deny LGBTs the right to raise kids, as if they’re worried we’ll raise them ‘gay’! How many LGBT folks were raised by HETEROs? Everyone I’ve ever met, so far, so what’s the worry?
crowebobby
This is the first time I’ve ever heard anything negative about Delon re homosexuality. Back in the 60′ and 70’s the queeniest of gay fans said he was always very nice when they met him. I’m a year younger that he is and saw fotos he took as part of a gay porn shoot before he made it in movies, though he did not pose with another guy during the shoot, he was fully erect; it was said the photographer allowed him to buy back the negatives. He admitted in one interview that he had had sex with someone who wasn’t a woman. Of course that doesn’t preclude his right to believe gays shouldn’t be allowed to adopt children, but his “we are not here to get picked up guys” is the purest hypocrisy. I guess he’s forgotten those nights on the rue du Colisee when he was still just hoping to be an actor and needed some quick easy francs. Apparently it’s not just our bodies that get ugly when we get old.
Mo Jo
What a Dumb-TWAT!
tardis
Isn’t he bisexual?
avesraggiana
Like he did such a bang up job keeping his marriage together and raising a family…what a douche. He may be pretty but he sure is dumb.
LadyL
Exactly what was the nature of his “friendship” with Luchino Visconti…?
bmwblonde
Check out Delon’s 2013 photo on : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Delon
Why he gets any press at all about such a silly, retro-opinion, is the real mystery.
And — HE’S JUST A %$@$%#@* ACTOR. Which has ZERO to do with any meaningful education,
education or intelligently-formed opinion. (Some actors DO have that stuff, but it’s
JUST a coincidence.) If we listen to DELON, we should also have listened to REAGAN (another stupendous empty suit, and that, even before his Altzheimers kicked in — about halfway through his Presidency (turning to Nancy, on Mike — “What are we here for again, Mommy?”) SHEESH. Let’s FOCUS here, boys and girls. On people with a BRAIN.
fredhotman
Another expert in the field of human relationship. Conveniently forgetting his affairs with his minders. It was all in the news of the day. Marriage of convenience 3x mon Dieu.
Another later day moralist.
Nixter
@Brian: You believe male homosexuality is a rejection of woman Brian?
Dxley
Stefan, you took the words right out my mouth. It reminds me of guys on Grindr who use pics from 10 years ago ha ha.
jmmartin
@LadyL: It was called acting in a film. Yes, the Count had affairs with at least two of his leading men, the American Farley Granger, and the German Helmut Berger, but just because he acted in two of Visconti’s movies (“Rocco and His Brothers” and “The Leopard”) doesn’t mean Delon had sex with the man. I saw some recent photos of Delon in a French magazine and rented his Fabio Montale TV movie mini-series from Netflix and as a lifelong fan of the man, I can only say he has aged with remarkable beauty. It saddens me to know his opinions about gays, but he is what he is. I don’t plan on banishing him from my memories (or my website, http://ossessioneas.blogspot.com/ just because of this interview. Delon forever!
Derek Williams
Don’t idiots like this ever get called out on their hypocrisy?
Vidontag
In the documentary “Nico: Icon”, Delon’s mother discussed how she took in Ari, his son with Nico, who was not in any condition to be a mother. Delon gave Mom an ultimatum: “It’s him or me”, and when she chose Ari, he never saw her again. He’s been a joke for a good two decades, known mostly for his frequent appearances on the cover of Paris Match, where he goes on ad nauseum about his romantic life, à la Johnny Hallyday. But I agree that while it’s pretty obvious that Visconti was besotted with him, there’s no evidence of an actual affair. Having said all this, I did enjoy him in “Rocco and His Brothers”.
james_in_cambridge
What the hell is up with the French? We used to think they were the biggest lefties on the planet but they’ve been losing their shit with the marriage equality outrage, some of it, not all, fed by their large Muslim population.
james_in_cambridge
@Vidontag: Jesus! If this is true, he is truly evil!
Lefty
He was a great actor who made some incredible films, Plein Soleil, Rocc and His Brothers, Le Cercle Rouge, etc; and he was one of the most beautiful men in the world at that time, but as everyone else has said the shitty way he treated his own son with Nico gives him no right to moralise to anyone.
It’s horrible when you find out people you like are douchebags.
jmmartin
@Lefty: You left out several other good films, including what is becoming a cult classic, the Jean-Pierre Melville picture, “Le Samourai.” Yes, it is horrible when you find out people you like are douchebags, but I could have been disillusioned (and therefore turned-off) when he was reportedly involved in some way in a French Mafia hit that also reached his wife, Nathalie. (I am not fond of organized crime or criminals.) But, hey, how many Frank Sinatra fans remained faithful to him even after the plethora of reports of his tendency to fist fight with the press, treat rudely those who he thought had betrayed him (e.g. Mario Puzo), and form alliances with Mafiosi (e.g. Sam Giancana)? Sinatra was good and he was bad and his fans, who are legion, never abandoned him. I have not heard anything that would make me abandon Delon.
jmmartin
@james_in_cambridge: Well, you know, they ARE Catholic….
Billysees
@Ottoman: 3
” He’ll be dead soon. ”
That’s a funny thing to say.
There’s always a certain amount of comedy in this comment section.
Dev.C
This is most upsetting news to me, because I adore Delon as a young actor, But I always felt he had a bit of reluctance to men opposite to him on screen. When he played Tom Ripley, that was intended to be an overly homoerotic role, but was very much down played. It’s seems that Delon has some unaddressed homosexual feelings that he has never seem to confront. He’s one of those men that feel being heterosexual is all that makes you a man and can’t comprehend a life with another guy. As progressive as france maybe, many of them, like Delon obviously have poor understanding of what makes a gay man these days, they seem to still be stuck in 1950’s stigmas.
LadyL
@jmmartin: Well, then, I suppose I stand corrected as I’d long assumed in Delon’s case that where there was smoke there was likely fire. He was once a young, hungry and very beautiful young man trying to make his way into an industry with a long and varied casting couch history. And the homophobic remarks don’t exactly help dispel the rumors.
Tookietookie123
Nature, nature, nature, everyone seems to be throwing that around like they’re god themselves. If I you denied everything deemed “unnatural”, you would have probably died young from some infection you got because vaccines are just unnatural. Hell, let’s get rid of insulin, that medication comes from a cows pancreas and shouldn’t be injected into humans and that’s unnatural. Don’t get me started with heart valves, or most surgeries I’m general. Good luck living your life avoiding “unnatural” things.
jmmartin
@Tookietookie123: So, so true! I do that same rant myself whenever I hear bigots talk about this or that being “unnatural.” To say that anything that can be done is “unnatural” is a contradiction in terms.
jmmartin
@tardis: Yep.
yaletownman
Why are we interested in what some has been actor from France thinks about gays parenting children? I guess it might be of interest to a handful film buffs or avante-garde wannabes. He’s probably just bitter because he’s old, chose to live in the darkness and the self hatred has reached a point where he either needs to embrace it or project it. People like him live in hell and try to put their hell upon others.
Sailin
The most beautiful man in cinema history. Had a very difficult childhood. Too bad he feels that way. Strange comments….Thought he was bisexual. Amazing actor.
jmmartin
@Sailin: My sentiments exactly. I am still a fan after 45 years! I bought a copy of a French magazine in the Benito Juarez Airport in Mexico City a couple of years ago showing Delon with his son. As far as looks go, the seed didn’t fall very far from the tree. Unfortunately, I do not read French, but I got the impression it had something to do with a separation and reconciliation.
Sailin
@jmmartin: Delon graced the screen like NO other actor. We all get old, hopefully. He’s not all bad. Nobody is perfect. His son has forgiven him. That is their business. Obviously, bad choices are being made. The male Elizabeth Taylor. A superb, stunning artist. I am a fan forever…Hope he finds a place of peace.
jmmartin
@Sailin What did he and his son fall out over? Do you know?
Sailin
@jmmartin: Delon wanted nothing to do with his son, Ari, from the beginning. He denied paternity, and refused to see his child’s Mother, the singer Nico. He’s having some trouble with his youngest son now. Very sad. Yes, he used a lot of people…..And they used him.
jmmartin
@Sailin: I wish I could find the magazine I bought in Mexico (I think it was the “Match”) dealing with Delon’s embrace of a son, who was shown in color photos with his salt-and-pepper dad, some of the shots of the two embracing. He was in his 20s and phenomenally good looking. But from earlier posts in this string, I gather he never even sees Ari (whose name I did not know until now). I doubt that this was the young man in the magazine. I wonder if you are talking about a son he had with Nathalie?
jmmartin
@Sailin: The son’s name is Alain-Fabien and as of the Paris Match I bought in Mexico, October, 2010, he was 16, and it seems that their spat was over an “addiction” to weed.
Sailin
@jmmartin: Anthony is the son he had with Nathalie. Alain-Fabien’s Mother is Rosalie. Delon also had a daughter with her. In 2011 there was a shooting at Delon’s Geneva apt. Without his Father’s consent AF threw a party there. A girl was shot. Don’t know if she recovered or not. AF bashes AD in interviews. Delon had heart surgery in 2012. I’m sure AF’s problems with drugs and alcohol didn’t help. Wish I could’ve seen him on stage in Paris. AD remains the most gorgeous man in cinema history. Simply breathtaking.
jmmartin
@Sailin: Thanks for the corrections and detail. I agree with your assessment of the actor. Top of my list.
Sailin
@jmmartin: A lot of Americans don’t even know his name. I will never forget the first time I saw him on screen. A good Delon bio needs to be written in English.
jmmartin
@Sailin: I very much agree, but the problems for me would be insurmountable. For starters, any writer doing a biography in English would have to read and write French quite well. That would be necessary in order to read all of the French biographies, magazine articles, and so forth. Second, one would have to go to France and live for a considerable time, researching, interviewing the man if he would allow it, and talking to people like Jean-Pierre Melville and other directors he worked with, if any are still among the living. All of this costs money. If one had a good advance from a publisher….The only biography I have written was a hack job about John Denver, done for a small paperback imprint, and I had no infatuation with him at all, I was only doing it for the money. Whatever….
Sailin
@jmmartin: John Denver was a splendid artist. Researching Alain Delon would be a very pleasant task. TCM has been showing a lot of his films. There is still no one like him. Not even close. Hope someone writes a book. Would love to read it.
jmmartin
@Sailin: TCM has been showing his flops, too, like “Texas Across the River” and “Airport 77: The Concorde.” I doubt they have any rights to such masterpieces as “Le Samourai,” the great Jean-Pierre Melville portrait of a hit man, one that shames many American pictures with the same theme and subject matter. This itself is tremendously ironic, since Melville, an auteur director, borrowed enormously from the American cinema of such auteurs as Robert Aldrich, Samuel Fuller, and Nicholas Ray. If I had the kind of money the Koch Brothers have, I would organize a Delon retrospective and invite as many living filmmakers who have worked with him to present his films and discuss with audiences what it was like to work with him, and, of course, pay all the expenses of putting Delon himself up in the hotel of his choice in NYC.
Sailin
@jmmartin: TCM has shown: Rocco and His Brothers, Purple Noon and L’Eclisse, among other great Delon films. Yes, ” Airport” and ” Texas” were just silly….Only good for looking at young Alain. Not nearly enough has been done to honor his career. He makes all the rest seem ordinary.