She had marked French cinema.
The actress Nathalie Delon, who had notably played in "Le Samouraï" by Jean-Pierre Melville with her husband at the time, Alain Delon, died Thursday in Paris, at the age of 79, told the AFP his son, Anthony Delon.
“My mother died this morning at 11 am in Paris, surrounded by her relatives.
She died of rapid cancer, ”Nathalie and Alain Delon's son Anthony told AFP.
In the eyes of the general public, she remains Jane, the partner of Alain Delon in "The Samurai" (1967), from the novel "The Ronin", by Goan McLeod.
She shot a total of thirty films in secondary roles until the early 1980s, including "The Army of Shadows" (1969), also by Jean-Pierre Melville, "Docteur Justice" (1975), by Christian -Jaque, and "A faithful woman" (1976), by Roger Vadim.
Nathalie Delon will then go behind the camera by directing "They call it an accident" (1982) and "Sweet Lies" (1986), with Treat Williams.
She will publish her memories in 2006.
Of Spanish origin, she was born Francine Canovas on August 1, 1941 in Oujda, Morocco, then under French protectorate.
She landed in Paris in 1962 after having left her first husband, Guy Barthélémy, a former member of the contingent, with whom she had a daughter.
The young woman with green eyes is 21 years old and falls by chance, in a nightclub in the capital, on Alain Delon, in full rise and engaged to Romy Schneider.
Tumultuous relationship with Alain Delon
A clandestine passion ensues before Delon leaves Romy to marry her in August 1964 in the strictest privacy.
The couple immediately boarded the ship France for a honeymoon and settled in Los Angeles, where she gave birth to their son Anthony a month later.
The ghost of Romy Schneider hovers over their love story: "Alain never spoke to me about her but I saw, from time to time, a shadow of sadness pass in her eyes", she lets go much later.
Very quickly, the atmosphere becomes stormy in their superb villa in the heights of Hollywood and Nathalie Delon does not see the ephemeral conquests of her husband.
“I was very naive.
He was unfaithful and I was not ”, she confided in 2001 on the set of Thierry Ardisson.
On the set of the "Samurai", the atmosphere is appalling between them.
In May 1968, when Alain Delon, set up a Professional Union of Actors to try to compete with the CGT, the cup was full for her.
"I started to get tired of it, I didn't agree with his ideas."
The divorce was pronounced in February 1969. “When I left him, I left everything behind me, I left with my son and my housekeeper, that's all,” she said in 2018 at Paris Match .
While Alain Delon is rebuilding his life with Mireille Darc.
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The couple will remain linked, however, and their son Anthony will post a photo of his parents side by side on Instagram at the end of December 2020.
