French film icon is dead Alain Delon - Swiss by choice with legal escapades

His three children have announced that Alain Delon has died at the age of 88. The French actor also had a Swiss passport - and had more than one brush with the law in this country.

French film star Alain Delon is dead. The actor died at the age of 88, as the French news agency AFP reported on X, referring to his three children Alain-Fabien (30), Anouchka (33) and Anthony (59). The statement said that the film legend "passed away peacefully at his home in Douchy surrounded by his three children and his family".

The actor, who died in France, was Swiss by choice and had also held Swiss citizenship since 2000. In 1990, he was granted a permanent residence permit, the so-called C permit. On 23 September 1999, the municipal council voted in favour of Swiss naturalization for the actor and his two children Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, who were eight and five years old at the time. Delon also lived in Geneva with his partner Rosalie.

In this country, Delon and his sons came into conflict with the law - for example because of a gunshot and a forged license plate.

Shot in Geneva apartment

In March 2000, Delon took his oath for naturalization in the Geneva Grand Council chamber, together with 70 new citizens. However, the star of films such as "The Leopard" (1963) and "Ice Cold as Silence" (1975) did not attend a subsequent drink organized by the canton for all the new Swiss citizens. He had to catch a plane to Paris. Delon was able to keep his French citizenship.

The screen idol and heartthrob later came into conflict with the Swiss justice system. In 2011, he was sentenced to a fine of 1,500 francs by the Federal Court for a forged license plate. Delon admitted that there was a fake license plate on his car. However, he argued in court that there was no proof that he had put it there.

In the same year, a shot was fired in Delon's apartment in Geneva. His then 17-year-old son had organized a party in the apartment without his father's knowledge and injured a teenager with a gunshot. The son and another teenager had been handling a gun when the shot was fired. It is said to have been an accident. Alain-Fabien Delon was charged with negligent bodily harm.

Dispute over lower inheritance tax in Switzerland?

Delon and his family recently made headlines because of a family dispute. His three children fought it out in public via the media and the judiciary.

Among other things, the dispute revolved around the question of whether the actor should spend the rest of his life in his residence in France or move to Switzerland, where his daughter Anouchka lives - and where inheritance tax is likely to be lower.

According to his eldest son Anthony, Alain Delon stipulated in his will that his daughter Anouchka should inherit half of his estate and his two sons a quarter each. In public, the actor often preferred his daughter Anouchka to his sons.

SDA