Jean-Paul Belmondo, the rugged actor whose disdainful eyes, boxer’s nose, sensual lips and cynical outlook made him the idolized personification of youthful alienation in the French New Wave, most notably in his classic performance as an existential killer in Jean-Luc Godard’s "Breathless,” died Monday at his home in Paris. He was 88.
His lawyer, Michel Godest, confirmed the death in an interview on the French television news channel BFM. No cause was given.
Like Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando and James Dean — three American actors to whom he was frequently compared — Belmondo established his reputation playing tough, unsentimental, even anti-social characters who were cut adrift from bourgeois society. Later, as one of France’s leading stars, he took more crowd-pleasing roles, but without entirely surrendering his magnetic brashness.