Police have seized 72 firearms from the home of French screen legend Alain Delon, who doesn’t have a permit for any of them, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Officers also found more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition and a shooting range in the actor’s rural home in Douchy-Montcorbon, some 84 miles south of Paris.
Delon, 88, ‘has no authorisation that would allow him to own a firearm’, said local prosecutor Jean-Cedrix Gaux.
The star played gun-toting gangsters in several of his most famous films, including ‘Borsalino’ and is credited with creating the Hollywood trope of the mysterious cerebral hitman in the 1967 film ‘The Samurai’.
Delon has been in poor health since he suffered a stroke in 2019 and has recently been the centre of an escalating family feud.
Police have seized 72 firearms from the home of French screen legend Alain Delon (pictured in 2019), who doesn’t have a permit for any of them, prosecutors said Tuesday
Officers also found more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition and a shooting range in the actor’s rural home in Douchy-Montcorbon, some 84 miles south of Paris
The search was ordered after a court-appointed official sent to his home noticed a weapon and alerted a judge.
READ MORE: The son of Alain Delon reports his sister to police for ‘abuse and violence’ against the French screen legend, 88, amid battle for his £250million fortune
Delon has rarely appeared on screen since the 1990s.
His last major public appearance was to receive an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.
He did, however, attend the Paris funeral of his friend and fellow star Jean-Paul Belmondo in September 2021.
Last month, Delon’s youngest son Anthony Delon, 59, reported his sister Anouchka Delon, 33, to French police for not telling him or his brother Alain-Fabien, 29, that their father had failed five cognitive tests at a private clinic in Switzerland.
Those tests were particularly significant because Delon is currently in the middle of a family dispute over his £250million fortune.
The veteran performer had even told his family that the Christmas just gone could be his last, making disputes over his Will even more poisonous.
Delon’s family have complained about him being exploited for his ‘psychological weakness’, saying that those close to him are after his financial assets and property.
The feud went public after Delon’s oldest son Anthony Delon told the Paris Match magazine that his father was in a ‘weakened’ state.
In the January interview, Anthony said his sister ‘left me no choice’.
Anthony said: ‘My sister never informed my brother and I that between 2019 and 2022 my father had been subjected to five cognitive tests during his visits to the clinic in Switzerland and that he passed none of them.
‘According to doctors, these tests demonstrate cognitive degradation which places my father in a position of psychological weakness and therefore vulnerability.’
In July, the three children evicted Delon’s 60-year-old live-in partner, Hiromi Rollin, from the countryside estate they shared at Douchy-Montcorbon, south of Paris.
Delon had a stroke in 2019 and – according to his daughter and sons’ depositions – Ms Rollin was cruel to him, and his Belgian Shepherd dog, Loubo, while also stealing money.
They feared the ultimate aim of Ms Rollin, who denies any wrongdoing, was to get her hands on Delon’s entire fortune.
Veteran French actor Alain Delon is pictured here in a 1960 portrait
Delon senior, through his lawyer, said he was ‘shocked’ and would file a complaint for defamation.
Concerns were first raised about him last year when his three children filed a complaint against his former live-in assistant Hiromi Rollin, accusing her of harassment and threatening behaviour.
Delon is estimated to be worth millions.
He sold some 80 works of art at auction in June for more than eight million euros.