French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo has died at the age of 88.
Belmondo died in Paris on Monday, his lawyer Michel Godest told the AFP news agency.
Belmondo was one of the faces of the French Nouvelle Vague, but played in numerous comedy and action films during his long career.
He had been physically weakened since a stroke in 2001.
"He's been very tired for a while," said his lawyer.
"He died calmly."
The acting legend appeared in around eighty films and played more than forty theater roles.
Belmondo, called "Bébel" by his French fans, was best known as an antihero.
In numerous works he played daredevils and gangsters.
In the sixties he was considered the figurehead of the “Nouvelle Vague” cinema and a symbol of rebellion and anarchism.
He was part of a new generation of movie stars who were no longer beautiful heroes.
He celebrated his breakthrough to a cinema star at the age of 26 in Jean-Luc Godard's “Out of Breath”.
Later they shot the love triangle "A woman is a woman" together.
One of the biggest box office hits with Belmondo is “Adventure in Rio” by Philippe de Broca about a young soldier looking for his kidnapped girlfriend.
Belmondo was born on April 9, 1933 in the chic Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. His father Paul, whose family came from Sicily, was a well-known Parisian sculptor, his mother a dancer. As a child, Jean-Paul was considered particularly undisciplined. He changed schools several times and discovered boxing as a high school student. He fought several fights before deciding to become an actor.