By Robert Becker
The Iranian refugee who lived in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for 18 years and who inspired Steven Spielberg’s film Terminal has died.
He became famous as the “terminal man”, his story was filmed by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks slipped into his role. Now Mehran Karimi Nasseri died in the airport that had made him world famous.
An airport spokesman for the German Press Agency in Paris confirmed that Nasseri died of natural causes in Terminal 2F of the airport on Saturday afternoon. In mid-September, Nasseri (76), who called himself Sir Alfred, moved back to the airport after previously living in a home and most recently in a hotel.
Nasseri in August 2004 in Terminal 1 at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. A month later, the film was screened as the opening film at the Venice Film Festival Photo: Stephane De Sakutin/dpa
The incredible story of the Iranian: During a stopover in 1988, Nasseri lost his papers in the transit area. He could no longer prove his refugee status and was now not allowed to travel further or leave the airport. He then set himself up in Terminal 1.
For years he tried in vain to get admission in several European countries. In 1999 he got a visa for France but stayed in his alcove under an airport escalator where he had made himself at home.
It was not until 2006 that he left the airport for a hospital stay and then lived in a home. Nasseri’s story inspired Steven Spielberg’s 2004 film Terminal, starring Tom Hanks.
With the money he got for the film, Nasseri moved to a hotel. For a few weeks, however, he had been living in the airport again and always sat in the same place with his belongings in a trolley, airport employees reported to the newspaper Le Parisien. Recently he has hardly spoken and stared into emptiness.
After the death of the “terminal man,” as he called himself in an autobiographical novel, the airport covered his seat with a white sheet. According to the AFP news agency, airport employees reported that several thousand euros were found on him.