"Terminal" man dead: refugee lived at Paris airport for 18 years - now he has died there
Created: 11/13/2022 10:14 am
By: Jennifer Lanzinger
Mehran Karimi Nasseri in August 2004 in Terminal 1 of Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris.
© Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/dpa
The Hollywood film "Terminal" made Mehran Karimi Nasseri world famous.
The Iranian refugee lived in Paris airport for 18 years.
Now the 76-year-old has died.
Paris – Mehran Karimi Nasseri lived at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years, now the Iranian refugee is dead. As an airport spokesman for the German Press Agency in Paris confirmed, the 76-year-old died of natural causes in Terminal 2 F of the airport .
Mehran Karimi Nasseri inspired Steven Spielberg to make his film "Terminal" and thus became known to an audience of millions.
The 76-year-old, who called himself Sir Alfred, moved back to the airport in mid-September.
Having previously lived in the home and most recently in the hotel.
Hollywood film "Terminal" made him world famous: Iranian refugee dies in Paris airport
During a stopover in 1988, the Iranian lost his papers in the transit area.
He could no longer prove his refugee status and was now not allowed to travel further or leave the airport.
He then set himself up in Terminal 1.
For years he tried in vain to get admission in several European countries.
In 1999 he got a visa for France but stayed in his alcove under an airport escalator where he had made himself at home.
It was not until 2006 that he left the airport for a hospital stay and then lived in a home.
Nasseri's story inspired Steven Spielberg's 2004 film Terminal, starring Tom Hanks.
With the money he got for the film, Nasseri moved to a hotel.
For several weeks, however, he had been living at the airport again, sitting in the same spot with his belongings in a trolley, airport officials told
Le Parisien
newspaper .
Recently he has hardly spoken and stared into emptiness.
After the death of the "terminal man," as he called himself in an autobiographical novel, the airport covered his seat with a white sheet.
Only in the summer had there been an incident at Paris airport.
Police shot dead a man after he threatened police with a knife.
A photographer witnessed the event.
