Alain Delon, the internationally acclaimed French actor who embodied both the villain and the hero, captivating audiences around the world, has died aged 88, local media have reported.

With his striking looks and subtle manner, the prolific actor managed to combine toughness with an appealing, vulnerable quality that made him one of France’s most memorable leading men.

His children announced his death on Sunday in a statement to French national news agency Agence France-Presse.

Tributes immediately began to pour in on social media, and all leading French media switched to extensive coverage of his illustrious career.

At the height of his career, during the 1960s and 1970s, Delon was sought after by some of the world’s top directors, from Luchino Visconti to Joseph Losey.

In his later years, Delon grew disillusioned with the film industry, stating that money had tarnished the dream. “Money, commerce and television have ruined the dream machine,” he wrote in a 2003 edition of newsweekly Le Nouvel Observateur. “My cinema is dead. And so am I.”

Despite this, he continued to work regularly, appearing in several television films in his 70s.

Delon’s presence was unforgettable, whether portraying morally ambiguous heroes or romantic leads.

He first gained acclaim in 1960 with Plein Soleil, directed by René Clément, in which he played a murderer trying to assume the identity of his victims.

He starred in several Italian films, working most notably with Visconti in the 1961 film Rocco and His Brothers, in which Delon portrayed a self-sacrificing brother determined to help his sibling. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

The 1963 Visconti film Le Guépard (The Leopard), starring Delon, won the Palme d’Or, the highest honour at the Cannes Film Festival. His other films included Clément’s Is Paris Burning?, with a screenplay by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola among others; La Piscine (The Swimming Pool), directed by Jacques Deray; and, in a departure, Losey’s The Assassination of Trotsky in 1972.

In 1968, Delon began producing films – 26 of them by 1990 – part of a vigorous and self-assured momentum that he maintained throughout his life.

Delon’s confidence was evident in his statement to Femme in 1996: “I like to be loved the way I love myself.” This mirrored his charismatic screen persona.

He continued to captivate audiences for years, though he courted criticism for comments deemed outdated. In 2010, he appeared in Un Mari de Trop (One Husband Too Many) and returned to the stage in 2011 with An Ordinary Day, alongside his daughter Anouchka.

He briefly presided over the Miss France jury but stepped down in 2013 following a disagreement over some controversial statements, which included critiques on women, LGBT rights and migrants. Despite these controversies, he received a Palme d’Honneur at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a decision that sparked further debate.

Born on 8 November 1935 in Sceaux, just south of Paris, Delon was placed with a foster family after his parents separated when he was four. He then attended a Roman Catholic boarding school.

At 17, Delon joined the navy and was sent to Indochina. Returning to France in 1956, he held various odd jobs from waiter to carrier in the Paris meat market before turning to acting.

Delon had a son, Anthony, in 1964, with his then-wife Nathalie Canovas, who appeared alongside him in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï in 1967.

He had two more children, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, with a later partner, Rosalie van Breemen, with whom he produced a song and video clip in 1987.

He was also widely believed to have been the father of Ari Boulogne, the son of German model and singer Nico, although he never publicly acknowledged paternity.

“I am very good at three things: my job, foolishness and children,” he said in a 1995 interview with L’Express.

Delon juggled diverse activities throughout his life, from setting up a stable of trotting horses to developing cologne for men and women, followed by watches, glasses and other accessories. He also collected paintings and sculptures.

Delon announced an end to his acting career in 1999, only to continue, appearing in Bertrand Blier’s Les Acteurs (The Actors) the same year. Later, he appeared in several television police shows.

In 2022, in his final film before retirement, he starred with Juliette Binoche in The Empty House, directed by Patrice Leconte.

His striking looks sustained him. In August 2002, Delon told L’Humanité Hebdo that he would not still be in the business if that were not the case.

“You’ll never see me old and ugly,” he said when nearing 70, “because I’ll leave before, or I’ll die.”

However, it was in 2019 that Delon encapsulated his feelings about his life’s meaning during a gala event honouring him at the Cannes Film Festival. “One thing I’m sure about is that if there’s something I’m proud of, really, the only thing, it’s my career.”