He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for playing the title role in the Italian miniseries The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (1971).

[2][3] He was awarded two decorations of the Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, a Croix de guerre des théâtres d'opérations extérieures, and the Cross for Military Valour for his service.

[4][6] Leroy made his acting debut in 1960, starring as Manu Borelli in Jacques Becker’s last movie, the crime film The Hole,[7] an adaptation of José Giovanni's 1957 book The Break.

[2] After settling permanently in Italy, he went on to starr in various films, such as Gianfranco De Bosio's The Terrorist (1963),[10] Marco Vicario's Seven Golden Men (1965),[3][6] Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974) and Luigi Comencini's The Cat.

[10] However, he also kept working in French productions, including Jean-Luc Godard's A Married Woman (1964) and Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita (1990).

[3][10] He also rose to prominence for his involvement in several TV fictions, most notably including Renato Castellani's The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (1971), where he starred as the Italian polymath, and Sergio Sollima's Sandokan (1976), where he played the role of Yanez de Gomera.