Clinging to the helicopter that accompanied his daredevil actor legend, Jean-Paul Belmondo climbed to the highest of the sky at the age of 88, his lawyer announced on Monday.
The cinema planet loses a star and the firmament gains one.
Needless to say, it will take time here to get used to the idea.
Bébel, our “Ace of aces, our Magnificent, our Marginal, our Tendre Voyou, our Animal, our Pierrot le fou, did not need a dome to be immortal.
As a consolation, let us say that the history of the seventh art, but also that of the theater could not stand without him.
Belmondo, alias Bébel, a nickname which came to him from Pépel, the character of Gabin in "Les Bas-fonds" by Jean Renoir in 1936, leaves in its sparkling wake 80 films and 30 plays, including the triumphs of "Kean" in 1987 , and Cyrano ”two years later.
Adept at challenges
Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine) into a family of artists, from a sculptor father and a painter mother whom he both revered, grandson of a Piedmontese blacksmith from whom he had inherited stature and biscotos, the Belmondo kid was not made for meditation.
Nor for the concentration required for studies.
But to fight, on the other hand, to hang himself on the balcony of the family apartment on the 5th floor, to climb on the statues of the Luxembourg garden or to attend the rings, he was the first.
And never out of breath for pranks.
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Take life seriously, except in hard knocks, the Guignolo never knew.
When his Conservatory buddy, Jean-Pierre Marielle, challenged him to leap from the hangers on stage, Bébel threw himself into the void by hanging on to the curtain.
It is again him, on the set of "The Man from Rio" in Brazil, who throws talcum powder in the air conditioning ducts of the hotel or garnishes the bathtubs in the rooms of baby crocodiles.
The twists of fate did not spare him: the death of his daughter Patricia in a fire in 1993 at the age of 40, then the stroke in 2001 which almost made the rest of his life a film. without words.
But he got over it ... "To succeed, he will repeat later, is to insist."
”Of which act.
Bébel insisted.
Crazy about sports
That's all Belmondo.
Making existence a story of love and humor.
A sparkling waterfall.
On this level, he will have given of his person.
The helicopters, the ropes, the cars, the roof of the metro, the airplane wings, nothing will ever have prevented this bird from going faster and stronger in the risk.
An accomplished sportsman, he loved boxing, which made him cross the Atlantic to attend legendary matches.
But he also adored cycling and football, which he practiced in the cages to better take off.
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Wrapped in his frank smile, sculpted to the end like a hero - he did not part with his dumbbells - the man who is leaving us had no enemies.
Nor of clan.
With him the cinema showed its two faces.
Smart and popular.
We must not forget that it was Jean-Luc Godard who revealed it with “Breathless” and for 40 million old francs.
On the general public side, we must add, over the boxes at Melville, Oury or Verneuil, at de Broca, Lautner and others, 148 million spectators.
Bébel is dead.
Knock knock badaboum!
It will swing in the clouds.