Iranian who impressed ‘The Terminal’ dies at Paris airport

An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and whose saga loosely impressed the Steven Spielberg movie “The Terminal” died on Saturday.

Paris,UPDATED: Nov 13, 2022 04:48 IST

Mehran Karimi Nasseri sits amongst his belongings at Terminal 1 of Roissy Charles De Gaulle Airport, north of Paris on Aug. 11, 2004 . (File Photo: AP)

By Associated Press: An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and whose saga loosely impressed the Steven Spielberg movie “The Terminal” died Saturday within the airport that he lengthy referred to as residence, officers mentioned.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a coronary heart assault within the airport’s Terminal 2F round noon, in accordance an official with the Paris airport authority. Police and a medical group handled him however weren’t capable of save him, the official mentioned. The official was not approved to be publicly named.

Nasseri lived within the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 till 2006, first in authorized limbo as a result of he lacked residency papers and later by obvious alternative.

Year in and yr out, he slept on a crimson plastic bench, making associates with airport employees, showering in employees amenities, writing in his diary, studying magazines and surveying passing vacationers.

Staff nicknamed him Lord Alfred, and he grew to become a mini-celebrity amongst passengers.

“Eventually, I will leave the airport,” he instructed The Associated Press in 1999, smoking a pipe on his bench, trying frail with lengthy skinny hair, sunken eyes and hole cheeks. “But I am still waiting for a passport or transit visa.”

Nasseri was born in 1945 in Soleiman, part of Iran then underneath British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British mom. He left Iran to review in England in 1974. When he returned, he mentioned, he was imprisoned for protesting in opposition to the shah and expelled and not using a passport.

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Published On:

Nov 13, 2022