Autographed photo of actor Jean-Paul Belmondo

Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French theater and film actor, whose fame was brought by the role of an immoral admirer of Humphrey Bogart in the film "On the Last Breath". Throughout his career, Belmondo has performed about 100 film roles and about 40 in the theater.

From a young age, Jean-Paul was distinguished by irrepressible energy and constantly got into trouble. He was expelled from schools three times for hooliganism and fighting. To find a use for this overflowing energy, he took up sports. At the age of 18, he became the welterweight boxing champion of Paris and joined the French national team. At one of the matches, his nose was broken, but later he managed to turn a broken nose into a highlight of his appearance and a business card of the hero-lover, rebel and bully. Belmondo became so interested in boxing that he seriously thought about a sports career. But the love of cinema still turned out to be stronger. Although the actor's sporting past came in handy – he performed all the tricks in his films up to the age of 52 on his own, until an accident occurred on the set – Belmondo fell from a height and suffered a serious back injury. The actor often starred in action films, but on the eve of his 60th birthday he decided to stop. "I don't want to be the flying grandfather of French cinema… I'm tired of criminals and cops," Belmondo explained.