Call me Alain says estranged Delon son

The estranged son of French actor Alain Delon wants to forge his own film career using the name that made his father a cinema legend.

Alain-Fabien Delon, 18, told VSD magazine he wants to be known as simply Alain Delon as he attempts to establish his own reputation for acting, directing and film production.

Relations between father and son reached breaking point following an incident in July 2011 in which a young woman suffered a bullet wound when a gun went off at a party hosted by Delon junior in his father’s flat in Geneva.

In his interview with VSD, the teenager begged Delon to “forgive me for all the stupid mistakes of the past” and vowed to make his father proud of him.

“When I was little my father often told me I’d be an actor,” he said. “In my heart I know the cinema is going to play an important role in my life. It is inevitable, there is nothing I can do about it.”

Delon, 76, underwent surgery for an irregular heartbeat in Paris earlier this year and afterwards blamed the condition on stress brought on by his son’s misdemeanours.

Alain-Fabien is one of two children Delon had with former model Rosalie van Breemen, from whom he separated in 2002. He also has three children with his former wife, Nathalie Delon, one of whom, Anthony, has had a minor career in film.