Jean-Paul Belmondo

Jean-Paul Belmondo (genus. Most often plays poignant roles in comedies and action films.

There are many interesting facts in the biography of Belmondo, which we will talk about in this article.

So, before you is a short biography of Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Biography of Belmondo

Jean-Paul Belmondo was born on April 9, 1933 in one of the Parisian communes. He grew up and was brought up in a family that has nothing to do with cinema. His father worked as a sculptor, and his mother was engaged in painting.

Childhood and youth

Jean-Paul's childhood fell on the years of World War II (1939-1945), during which the Belmondo family faced serious material and emotional difficulties.

While still a schoolboy, the boy often thought about who he would become in the future. In particular, he wanted to connect his life either with sports or with creative activity. Initially, he went to the football section, where he was the team's goalkeeper.

Later, Belmondo signed up for boxing, achieving good success in this sport. At the age of 16, he competed for the first time in amateur boxing competitions, knocking out his opponent early in the fight.

An interesting fact is that over the years of his sports biography, Jean-Paul Belmondo spent 9 fights without suffering a single defeat. However, the guy soon decided to leave boxing, explaining this as follows: "I stopped when the face that I saw in the mirror began to change."

As part of his compulsory military service, Belmondo served as a private in Algeria for six months. It was then that he wanted to get an acting education. This led him to become a student at the Higher National Conservatory of Dramatic Art.

Films

After becoming a certified artist, Jean-Paul began acting in the theater and acting in films. On the big screen, he could appear in 1956 in the film "Moliere", but during the editing of the tape, his footage was cut out.

Three years later, Belmondo gained world fame for the role of Michel Poaccard in the drama "In the Last Breath" (1959). After that, he basically only played key characters.

In the 60s, viewers saw the actor in 40 films, among which the most popular were “7 days, 7 nights”, “Chochara”, “The Man from Rio”, “Mad Pierrot”, “Casino Royale” and many others. Jean-Paul tried not to dwell on any one image, trying to play a variety of characters.

Belmondo skillfully managed to act in comedies, portraying simpletons and losers, as well as transforming into secret agents, spies and various heroes. In subsequent years of his biography, he participated in the filming of the films "Magnificent", "Staviski", "The Monster" and other television projects.

In 1981 Jean-Paul Belmondo played Major "Josse" in the crime drama "The Professional", which brought him a new wave of worldwide fame. This picture was a huge success, as, indeed, the music of the famous composer Ennio Marricone used in the film.

An interesting fact is that the soundtrack from "The Professional" entitled "Chi Mai", by Marricone, was written by the composer 10 years before filming began.

Then Belmondo got the leading roles in the action movie "Out of the Law", the military comedy "Adventurers" and the melodrama "Minion of Fate". It is curious that for his work in the last film, he was awarded the Cesar Prize in the Best Actor category, but refused to award it.

This was due to the fact that Cesar, the sculptor who created the statuette, once spoke badly about the work of his father Jean-Paul, who also worked as a sculptor. In the 90s, the actor continued to act, but he no longer had such fame as before.

The drama Les Miserables (1995), based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo, deserves special attention. She has received several prestigious film awards including Golden Globe and BAFTA.

In the new millennium, Belmondo's filmography was replenished with six new works. Infrequent filming was caused by health problems. When he suffered a stroke in 2001, the man officially announced his retirement from the cinema. But already 7 years later, he changed his mind, starring in the melodrama "Man and Dog".

In early 2015, Jean-Paul again announced the end of his film career. Thus, his last film was the documentary "Belmondo through the eyes of Belmondo", which presented many interesting facts from the artist's biography.

Personal life

Belmondo's first wife was the dancer Elodie Constantin. In this marriage, which lasted 13 years, the couple had a boy, Paul, and 2 girls, Patricia and Florence.

After that Jean-Paul married a fashion model and ballerina Natti Tardivel, whom he was 32 years older. An interesting fact is that before the wedding, the lovers met for more than 10 years. In this union, daughter Stella was born.

After 6 years, the couple decided to divorce. The reason for the separation was the actor's romance with model Barbara Gandolfi, who was 40 years his junior. After 4 years of cohabitation with Barbara, it turned out that she secretly from Belmondo transferred substantial sums to her accounts.

It was later revealed that in addition to this, Barbara was engaged in laundering money obtained from profits in brothels and nightclubs. Over the years of his personal biography, the man had many romances with various celebrities, including Silva Koshina, Brigitte Bardot, Ursula Andress and Laura Antonelli.

Jean-Paul Belmondo today

Now the artist periodically appears at various events and television projects. In 2019, he was awarded a state award - "Grand Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor". He has an Instagram account, where he sometimes uploads fresh photos.