Posted
Update
Article written by
Mehran Nasseri, who lived 18 years in the aisles of Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport (Val-d’Oise), died there on Saturday November 12. He had been Steven Spielberg’s inspiration for his film “The Terminal”, released in 2004.
He was the most famous homeless person in the world. Mehran Nasseri passed away on Saturday, November 12, in the airport of Roissy where he lived for 18 years, until 2006. A man always known in the corridors of the airport. He disembarks at Roissy (Val-d’Oise) in 1988 at the age of 43. This wandering Iranian no longer has any papers. “My fate is to have always been completely isolated, yesterday as today”he confided in 1999.
He called himself Sir Alfred, was followed by a doctor, acted as an interpreter and won the confidence of the merchants. “The first citizen of Roissy” walks, reads and sleeps for years among the passengers. Tom Hanks immortalized him in 2004 in “The Terminal” by Steven Spielberg, a Hollywood-style love story, far from Alfred’s daily life. “I didn’t want to make a clown out of him and ridicule this immigrant from the shores of the Black Sea. He is a character full of dignity who trusts others, he has a deeply positive side”explained the director. He refused until 2006 to leave the airport despite papers, refugee status and a large check from Spielberg.