Alain Delon in china - Alain Delon was born in Sceaux, France on November 8 1935. His parents divorced when he was four years of age and he was sent to live with foster parents but later moved back in with his mother when his foster parents were killed in an accident. At the age of 15 he dropped out of school after having been expelled from numerous institutions and after a brief spell as an apprentice butcher in his father's shop he joined the French marines and fought in Indochina. He was demobbed in 1956 and went to Paris to work as a waiter in Les Halles. It was at this time that he met actor Jean-Claude Brialy and their visit to the Cannes film festival in 1957 provided Delon with an opportunity to make himself known to directors, agents and publicists. He first appeared in Yves Allégret's Quand la femme s'en mèle and several films later had his first major film success with Clément's Plein Soleil which won him international fame. Typecast as 'bad boy' and gangster in many of his films Delon's real life connections with the criminal underworld were revealed to the public in 1968 after the murder of his friend and bodyguard Stefan Markovic. The subsequent investigation led to Delon having to confess to financial participation in arms dealing. He was finally cleared of involvement in the murder and the scandal appeared to give his career a new impetus. From then on, he starred almost exclusively in 'policiers' and action films. Over a forty year career he has made 80 films and, although no longer the box office draw he once was, made films throughout the 1990s and, despite announcing his retirement after Leconte's 1998 Une chance sur deux, made an appearance in Blier's Les acteurs in 2000.