Anthony Delon
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Anthony Delon (born September 30, 1964) is a French and American film and TV actor.
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[edit] Biography
Delon, an American citizen, was born in Los Angeles, at famous Cedar Sinai hospital in Hollywood. He lived in Beverly Hills then West Hollywood until he was one year old; His family then returned to France and he was baptized Anthony (and not Antoine).
In Paris he made his schoolboy debut at the bilingual school. When at the early age of four, his parents divorced. He then went to live with his mother. Delon has been partly educated by his Godmother and his Godfather George Baume. Nathalie, Anthony’s mother, an actress at the time, worked a lot and was often away from home. He was socially disturbed at the age of ten when he was sent to a pleasant albeit somewhat military, boarding school in the country. He stayed there for two years, until, following a sanction on a picnic day, he escaped, covering 30 kilometers by foot to his home in Paris. Back in the capital, he started public school in Rue St. Benoit, in fashionable St. Germain-des-Prés.
When he was fourteen years old, Anthony decided to go and live with his father: His mother Nathalie was leaving France for the United States, while under the influence of Lulu his Godmother, his father expressed his intention of not abandoning his child. Anthony was then a wild and rebellious youth. He was therefore enrolled at the Charlemagne Institute, which has a reputation for its strictness and he accumulated hours of detention.
After a year he was expelled for causing havoc and provocation. Again, his father sends him for two years to a boarding school in Joinville-le-Pont, in Val de Marne. It is a high security establishment paved with cement and equipped with cameras on every floor, the last step before reform school. At seventeen he is out and will never again set foot in a school. Some weeks later Anthony leaves for London where he works for Island Records. After a six months stay, he leaves for a trip to Nigeria, where he attempts to shoot a documentary on Fela, archetypal singer and insurgent to the military dictatorship in place. In February 1983, at the young age of eighteen, Anthony is arrested at the wheel of a stolen BMW, carrying an automatic pistol. He is jailed for one month in Bois d’Arcy. On release from prison he decides to start a sales venture in leather jackets. A year later, having obtained considerable success in the business, he is acclaimed in the French press as the youngest manager in France. He is then nineteen years old.
But Anthony has retained certain empathy for the rabble. He made his way as a partner in the clubbing scene (which would one day lead to a heated encounter with Frank Sinatra). He goes out a lot, gets caught up in fights and drives around in sports cars surrounded by beautiful young girls. One day, following a brawl, one of his associates is shot at in his car (many years later, a fashionable English newspaper covering Anthony’s life and speaking about this period, would qualify him as a precursor of the rap culture).
In order to escape intense media pressure, Anthony flies to New York City. He lives there for several months in a small building on 64th Street (an interesting coincidence, just above the apartment where James Dean used to stay). He discovers the city which fascinates him. There, he meets Andy Warhol, Diane von Fürstenberg, and Brooke Shields with whom he works on a Bruce Weber photo shoot, for Life Magazine. He feels fine there, wants to settle in, but an Italian film director, Alberto Lattuada offers to let him do a couple of trials in movies. Anthony accepts. Curious, he flies to Rome. He shoots a film with Lattuada, and then follows up immediately with "Chronique d’une mort annoncée" by Francesco Rossi which leads him to Cannes. In it, he climbs the famed steps of the Festival Palace, hand in hand with Ornella Muti. The film was a success in Latin America and all of Europe but not really in France. Reviews on Anthony are excellent, but the comparisons with his father are all too frequent. At the time, Alain Delon was the biggest French star of the moment.
Some years later at age twenty four, Anthony heads back to the United States. He settles down in Los Angeles for two years. Aggrieved by his separation from the French actress Valérie Kaprisky and overcome with existential problems, he decides to break loose. He goes back to his mother, who had been living for some years in Sundance (Utah). He would love to spend a lot of time there as "the American west is one of the nicest places that I know". In Los Angeles, he takes acting classes, but continues working in France. It is also a homecoming, back to his roots, to the town where he was born. "It’s a strange feeling; I have a European cultural upbringing, but when I set foot in Los Angeles, I have the distinct impression of coming home".
Despite this awareness, he fails to find his mark and after a motorcycle accident he returns to Paris. Since his youth, he has always been attracted to motor sports, and he passes his racing driver’s license. In 1993 he enters competition. First in “barquettes” 905, then Formula three (he raced in the Alfa Romeo French championship twice), the Spa-Francorchamps twenty-four hours, the twenty-four hours of Zolder in a GT2 Lamborghini. In all, he has five years of competition behind him.
During these years, he acts in the film "La vérité si je mens", which was a great critical and public success. In 1995 he met Sophie, his wife, who has two girls, Lou and Liv.
Today, Anthony is a fully recognized actor. Success has finally been bestowed upon him, especially in TV where he has much exposure. He has started a production company, A. L. D. and is very involved in environmental activities. He has been studying and pursuing the Buddhist philosophy which seems to have instilled in him peace, tolerance and respect for others.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Cinema
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- 2006 DANSE AVEC LUI … Valérie GUIGNABODET
- 1999 JEU DE CONS … Jean-Michel VERNER
- 1996 LA VÉRITÉ SI JE MENS … Thomas GILOU
- 1992 STRANGER IN THE NIGHT … Serge ANKRI
- 1991 SUP DE FRIC … Christian GION
- 1990 LA FEMME FARDÉE … José PINHEIRO
- 1986 CHRONIQUE D’UNE MORT ANNONCÉE … Francesco ROSI
- 1985 UNE ÉPINE DANS LE COEUR … Alberto LATTUADA
[edit] Television shows
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- 2005 TROIS FEMMES UN SOIR D’ETE … Sébastien GRALL
- 2004 VENUS ET APPOLON … Pascal LAHMANI, Olivier GUIGNARD,Jean-Marc VERVOORT
- ____ L’HOMME PRESSÉ … Sébastien GRALL
- ____ LA VERITE A TOUR PRIX … Alain SCHWARZTEIN
- 2003 ELODIE BRADFORD … Lionel BAILLIU
- ____ COMMISSAIRE MOULIN – « Bandit d’Honneur » … Yves RENIER
- ____ UN ÉTÉ DE CANICULE … Sébastien GRALL
- 2001 L’AMI FRITZ … Jean-Louis LORENZI
- 2000 UN AMOUR DE FEMME … Sylvie VERHEYDE
- ____ LE VIOLON BRISÉ … Alain SCHWARZSTEIN
- 1998 LE PRINCE D’ARABIE … Peter DEUTSCH
- ____ FRENCHMAN’S CREEK … Ferdinand FAIRFAX
- 1997 LA GRANDE BEKE … Alain MALINE
- 1996 LE DÉSERT DE FEU … … Enzo Girolami CASTELLARI
- ____ PARIS DISTRICT – « Chantage » … Klaus BIEDERMAN
- 1995 PÊCHEUR D’ISLANDE … Daniel VIGNE
- ____ PARIS DISTRICT – « Sanglantes confidences » … Gérard MARX
- 1994 LE GRAND CIRQUE … Alain-Michel BLANC
- ____ AFGHANSTY … Boramy TIOULONG
- 1993 LE TREMPLIN … Josée DAYAN
- ____ AUX MARCHES DU PALAIS … Serge LEROY
- 1992 RHESUS ROMEO … Philippe LE GUAY
[edit] Short Movies
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- 1997 SANS ISSUE … Jean-Michel VERNER, Beaumarchais Award
[edit] Theater
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- 1994 SUD … Director: Pascal LUNEAU, by Julien GREEN
