His real name is Mehran Karimi Nasseri, he had settled in Paris airport for 18 years. He passed away on Saturday 12 November at the age of 77.
It was Tom Hanks who played his route. Made famous thanks to the film “The Terminal” by Steven Spielberg, released in 2004, Mehran Karimi Nasseri died this Saturday November 12, as reported The Parisianconfirming the information from the AFP.
u26ab “Sir Alfred”, the homeless man who inspired Spielberg for his film “The Terminal”, died at Roissy airport
This Iranian political refugee lived in Terminal 2F for 18 years after a long journey in search of his mother
u27a1ufe0f https://t.co/L4p05gcZ5x pic.twitter.com/yH7dvxoI77– The Parisian (@le_Parisian) November 12, 2022
He died a natural death just before noon at Roissy airport terminal 2F. A place where this Iranian refugee lived between 1988 and 2006, only to visibly return to settle there in recent weeks, after spending money on the film that inspired him.
Born in 1945 in Masjed Soleiman, in the Iranian province of Khuzestan, Mehran Karimi Nasseri, known as “Sir Alfred”, had therefore settled in the airport north of Paris, after a long journey in search of his mother who had taken him to England, Germany or even Belgium.
Spielberg made him a celebrity
Each time he had been expelled by the authorities for lack of identity papers. But in 1999 he had obtained refugee status in France and a residence permit. At Roissy he had met airport staff and even an emblematic figure, the subject of numerous television and radio reports, French and foreign, before his story came to strike the imagination of Steven Spielberg.
In the story of the famous director, who had transposed the story to the John-Fitzgerald-Kennedy airport in New York, it was therefore Tom Hanks who played the role of Sir Alfred. And his character even managed to find love with Catherine Zeta-Jones. After the film which had been a great success, Mehran Karimi Nasseri would live in a house in Paris.
