Background

Ethnicity: Belmondo's father, Paul Belmondo, was a sculptor who was born in Algeria of Italian descent.

Jean-Paul Belmondo was born on April 9, 1933, in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Son of the sculptor Paul Belmondo, and of Madeleine Raynaud-Richard, artist-painter, he has an older brother, Alain (1931), and a little sister, Muriel (1945). He spent his adolescence in the 14th arrondissement of Paris.

Education

After a turbulent education in which Jean-Paul Belmondo often played the class clown, he had a brief stint as an amateur boxer, but he abandoned the ring to study acting at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris. Despite his obvious talent, the irreverent attitude he adopted toward his instructors prevented him from winning the highest honors when he graduated in 1956.

Career

Belmondo made his amateur boxing debut on 10 May 1949 in Paris, France, when he knocked out Rene DesMarais in one round. Belmondo's boxing career was undefeated but brief. He won three straight first-round knockout victories from 1949 to 1950.

He appeared in films such as À pied, à cheval et en voiture (1957; By Foot, by Horse and by Car), Sois belle et tais-toi! (1958; Be Beautiful but Shut Up) and Les Tricheurs (1958; The Cheaters). While early roles for the unconventionally handsome Belmondo were minor ones, his charisma was undeniable, and he caught the eye of director Jean-Luc Godard.

Belmondo was cast in the lead role in Godard's debut feature film, À bout de souffle (1960; Breathless). In the movie, Belmondo's character, an admirer of Humphrey Bogart, kills a policeman and then hides out with his American girlfriend while plotting his ultimate escape. Breathless was a landmark film that heralded the French New Wave. It also shot Belmondo (and Godard) to stardom, with Belmondo being lauded as France's answer to James Dean.

Belmondo, however, wasted little time in taking on roles that fell outside of the viewing public's perception of him. In Vittorio De Sica's La ciociara (1960; Two Women), which starred Sophia Loren, Belmondo embodied a gentler character. Films like Cartouche (1962; Swords of Blood) and L'Homme de Rio (1964; That Man from Rio) gave Belmondo the opportunity to work in more physical roles. (Harkening back to his athletic past, he soon gained a reputation for doing his own stunts.) Belmondo also appeared in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967).

With Une femme est une femme (1961; A Woman Is a Woman) and Pierrot le Fou (1965; Pierrot Goes Wild), a gangster road movie with musical touches, Belmondo reunited with Godard. Belmondo also worked with another leader of the French New Wave, François Truffaut, when he appeared opposite Catherine Deneuve in La Sirène du Mississipi (1969; Mississippi Mermaid). However, Belmondo began to focus more on action films and comedies as his career progressed.

At the end of the 1980s, Belmondo was a dramatic actor whose maturity was his strong suit.He started performing on the stage once more in 1987, while continuing to appear in films. For his work in Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté (1988; Itinerary of a Spoiled Child), Belmondo received a César (France's equivalent to an Academy Award).

Belmondo was slowed by a stroke he suffered in 2001, but he returned to the movies in 2008's Un homme et son chien (A Man and His Dog). Instead of trying to work around his physical limitations, he played a character with the same disabilities. Today, Belmondo remains a respected actor who is a cultural icon in his homeland and around the film-loving world.

Achievements

• 

  Once a key face of the French New Wave and one of the most famous actors in French film, Jean-Paul Belmondo strayed from his art cinema roots and morphed into a prolific, bankable action-comedy star from the mid-'60s on.
  
  Jean-Paul Belmondo is an outstanding French actor, who appeared in more than 90 movies. He won an Honorary Golden Palm at Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival.
  
  The president of France distinguished him with the order of Legion of Honour.
  
  

Works

More photos

• movie

  • That Man From Rio

    (A blow dart-wielding thug snatches a rare statuette from ...)

    1964
  • Breathless

    (With its lack of polish, a surplus of attitude, crackling...)

    1961
  • Mississippi Mermaid

    (Jean-Paul Belmondo stars in this tale of obsessive love a...)

    1970
  • A Double Tour

    (Chabrol forges onto his signature terrain of the psycholo...)

    1961
  • Borsalino

    (Two Marseilles hoodlums, Capella (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and...)

    1970
  • Stavisky…

    (Irresistible charm and talent helps Serge Alexandre alias...)

    1974
  • Love is a Funny Thing

    (A married, lonely French actress (Annie Girardot) meets a...)

    1970
  • Les Miserables

    (An epic drama about two French families who struggle, hop...)

    1995
  • Up to His Ears

    (Turbulent, fast-paced comedy adventure (one of the best o...)

    1965
  • A Woman is a Woman

    (An exotic dancer is desperate to have a child with her lo...)

    1961
  • The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe

    (A frothy French farce, The Tall Blond Man with One Black ...)

    1972
  • Pierrot Le Fou

    (When a bored husband (Jean-Paul Belmondo) runs off with a...)

    1969
  • Half a chance

    (20 years ago, Alice's mother was in love with two men at ...)

    2018
  • À double tour

    (Henri brazenly carries on an affair with a beautiful youn...)

    1959
  • The French Touch

    (French comedy about a sheep-shearer who decides to become...)

    1954
  • Cartouche

    (Jean-Paul Belmondo romps his way through the role of 18th...)

    1964
  • Is Paris Burning?

    (The explosive, courage-filled story of the Allied Resista...)

    1966
  • Léon Morin, Priest

    (The widow Barny lives in Nazi-occupied France, looking af...)

    1961
  • The Professional

    (French action icon Jean-Paul Belmondo stars in this celeb...)

    1981
  • The Thief of Paris

    (Victimized as a child, a young man turns to crime in turn...)

  • Stuntwoman

    (The funny misadventures of a dating duo of film stunt pro...)

    1977
  • Trapped By Fear

    (Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alexandra Stewart, Claude Br...)

    1960
  • The Scoundrel

    (Nicolas Philibert goes to America after killing a French ...)

    1971
  • L'inconnu Dans La Maison

    (Since the suicide of his wife, Jacques Loursat has gone d...)

    1992
  • Joyeuses Paques

    (Stephane Margelle is an industrial magnate living on the ...)

    1984
  • Cop or Hood

    (Two gang leaders rule over Nice. When a police detective ...)

    1979

Religion

Jean-Paul Belmondo is a Christian.

Views

Out of the 80 movies in Belmondo's filmography, half were shot in the 1960s. His roles have also shown that he is a versatile performer who is not afraid of taking up very different roles. Even though people may know him mainly from crime and thriller features where he portrayed gangsters or cops, he also starred in melodramas with Romy Schneider and Alain Delon.

Quotations: "Being afraid is the worst sin there is."

"Charm is the ability to make others forget that you look as you do."

"Women over thirty are at their best, but men over thirty are too old to recognize it."

"I may not be a pin-up, but I'm one hell of a boxer."

Personality

Belmondo always performed his own stunts but ceased to do so after an accident during the filming of Hold-Up (1985).

He is a co-owner of Stressa, an Italian restaurant on rue Chambiges located behind the Plaza Athena Hotel in Paris' 8th arrondissement. His partners are two brothers who manage the day to day operations of the restaurant.

He is the favorite action star of Jackie Chan and Yun-Fat Chow.

He enjoyed boxing and playing soccer in his youth, and performed as goal-keeper during school years. These days he supports the French soccer team "Paris Saint-Germain."

Physical Characteristics: In 1995 Jean-Paul Belmondo was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history.

He is famous for his an inimitable smile.

His height is 5' 9¼" (1,76 m).

His health took a turn in 2001 when he was admitted to a Paris hospital after suffering a stroke. The actor had to laboriously learn to speak and walk again. However, as soon as he was healthy, he was back on stage.

Interests

• restaurant

• Writers

  Jean-Paul Sartre

• Sport & Clubs

  Boxing, soccer, Paris Saint-Germain

Connections

Belmondo has been married three times: first to Elodie Constantin with whom he had three children, Patricia (1958), Florence (1960), and Paul (1963). Paul became a Formula One driver; his eldest daughter Patricia was killed in a fire in 1994. In 1966, due to a well-publicized affair between Belmondo and actress Ursula Andress, Belmondo and his wife divorced. In 1989, he met Nathalie Tardivel who was 24 years old at the time and married her in 2002. In 2003 his fourth child Stella was born.

Father:

Paul Belmondo

Spouse:

Ursula Andress

ex-spouse:

Élodie Constantin

Daughter:

Patricia Belmondo

1958-1994

Daughter:

Florence Belmondo

born 1960

Son:

Paul Belmondo

ex-spouse:

Nathalie Tardivel

Daughter:

Stella Eva Angelina Belmondo

colleague:

Catherine Deneuve

Friend:

Alain Delon

Acquaintance:

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci

References

• Belmondo Style
  2012
• Jean-Paul Belmondo
  1985