[1] An undisputed box-office champion like Louis de Funès and Alain Delon of the same period, Belmondo attracted nearly 160 million spectators in his 50-year career.

[2] Belmondo frequently played heroic, brave, and virile characters, which made him popular with a wide audience both in France and abroad.

[3][4] During his career, he was called the French counterpart of actors such as James Dean, Marlon Brando and Humphrey Bogart.

[19] His late teenage years were spent at a private drama school, and he began performing comedy sketches in the provinces.

[19] He probably would have won the prize for best actor, but he participated in a sketch mocking the school, which offended the jury; this resulted in his getting only an honourable mention, "which nearly set off a riot among his incensed fellow students" in August 1956, according to one report.

[19] Belmondo's acting career properly began in 1953, with two performances at the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Paris in Jean Anouilh's Médée and Georges Neveux's Zamore.

[20] Belmondo began touring the provinces with friends including Annie Girardot and Guy Bedos.

[27] He later had a supporting part in An Angel on Wheels (1959) with Romy Schneider then appeared in Web of Passion (1959) for Claude Chabrol.

[30] He then played the lead role in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (À Bout de Souffle, 1960), which made him a major figure in the French New Wave.

[26] Breathless was a major success in France and overseas and launched Belmondo internationally and as the face of the New Wave – even though, as he said "I don't know what they mean" when people used that term.

[33] Then he made two Italian films, supporting Sophia Loren in Two Women (1961) as a bespectacled country boy ("It may disappoint those who've got me typed" said Belmondo.

[30] In 1961, The New York Times called him "the most impressive young French actor since the advent of the late Gérard Philipe".

[37] He was a retired gangster in A Man Named Rocca (1962),[38] then had a massive hit with the swashbuckler Cartouche (1962), directed by Philippe de Broca.

[46] Even more successful was the action-adventure tale That Man from Rio (1964), directed by Philippe de Broca - a massive hit in France, and popular overseas as well.

He represents something tough yet vulnerable, laconic but intense, notably lacking in neuroses or the stumbling insecurities of homus Americanus.

Belmondo said he was open to making Hollywood films but he wanted to play an American rather than a Frenchman and was interested in Cary Grant type roles instead of James Dean/Bogart ones.

[citation needed] Belmondo dominated the French box office for 1964 – That Man from Rio was the fourth most popular movie in the country, Greed in the Sun was seventh, Weekend at Dunkirk ninth, and Backfire 19th.

[3] "He won't make films outside of France", said director Mark Robson, who wanted him for Lost Command (1966).

[4][3] He did not want to learn English and appear in English-language films: Every Frenchman dreams of making a Western, of course but America has plenty of good actors.

[57] He later appeared in Mississippi Mermaid (1969) for François Truffaut with Catherine Deneuve and the romantic drama Love Is a Funny Thing (1969).

[63] The first Cerito film was the black comedy Dr. Popaul (1972), with Mia Farrow, the biggest hit to date for director Claude Chabrol.

[67] Then he made a series of purely commercial films: Incorrigible (1974),[68] Fear Over the City (1975; one of Belmondo's biggest hits of the decade and the first time he played a policeman on screen),[69] Hunter Will Get You (1976),[70] and Body of My Enemy (1977).

"[77] Belmondo kept to commercial films: Le Marginal (1983) as a policeman,[78] Les Morfalous (1984) as a sergeant in the French Foreign Legion,[79] Hold-Up (1985) as a bank robber,[36] and Le Solitaire (1987), again playing another policeman in the last one, the latter one was a big box office disappointment and Belmondo returned to theatre shortly afterwards.

[80] In 1987, he returned to the theatre after a 26-year absence in a production of Kean, adapted by Jean-Paul Sartre from the novel by Alexandre Dumas.

"[77] In 1990, he played the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac on the stage in Paris, another highly successful production.

[97] He had relationships with Ursula Andress from 1965 to 1972,[98] Laura Antonelli from 1972 to 1980,[99] Brazilian actress and singer Maria Carlos Sotto Mayor from 1980 to 1987,[100] and Barbara Gandolfi from 2008 to 2012.

[104] Unlike his father, the sculptor Paul Belmondo, who was buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery, Jean-Paul's ashes were scattered in the garden of his childhood home in Piriac-sur-Mer, in Loire-Atlantique.

[105] Throughout his career, he was called the French counterpart of actors such as James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Humphrey Bogart.

[5] On the day of his death, television channels in France altered their schedules to add screenings of his films, which drew over 6.5 million viewers cumulatively.

[107] Despite his reluctance to learn English, many often believed had he accepted offers from Hollywood, his success there would have been comparable to that of French actors Charles Boyer or Maurice Chevalier.