Posted on 11/13/2022 12:04:27 AM PST by Morgana
he man who inspired Tom Hanks' blockbuster film 'The Terminal' died after suffering a heart attack in the Parisian airport he called home for 18 years, officials revealed.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri lived in Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport from 1988 until 2006 - first in legal limbo and later by choice.
He had recently returned to the airport and taken up residence in Terminal 2F after several years in a shelter in Paris.
Police and a medical team were called to the terminal on Saturday amid reports Mr Nasseri had suffered a heart attack. He could not be saved, an airport authority said.
Karimi Nasseri, believed to have been born in 1945 lacked residency papers when he first arrived in France, meaning he was stranded in the airport.
ear in and year out, he slept on a red plastic bench, making friends with airport workers, showering in staff facilities, writing in his diary, reading magazines and watching passing travellers.
Staff nicknamed him Lord Alfred and he became a mini-celebrity among passengers.
His saga inspired The Terminal starring Tom Hanks, and a French film.
'Eventually, I will leave the airport,' he told The Associated Press in 1999, smoking a pipe on his bench, looking frail with long thin hair, sunken eyes and hollow cheeks.
'But I am still waiting for a passport or transit visa.'
Mr Nasseri was born in Soleiman, a part of Iran then under British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British mother. He left Iran to study in England in 1974. When he returned, he claimed he was imprisoned for protesting against the shah and expelled without a passport.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
From Iran ???
That’s a lot of airport food
Sooooo, his flight was cancelled?
Did he pay the airport the rent due??
If my understanding of him is correct I have little,if any,sympathy for him. Unless I’m mistaken he was given an opportunity to settle in Belgium but refused,insisting that he be allowed to settle in Britain. Belgium certainly ain’t paradise but it’s a *whole* lot better than Iran.
He owes a lot of money for ten dollar hot dogs and five dollar Cinnabuns.
Apparently, the terminal was terminal.
Tom Hanks looks so much like him.
/s
I guess Tom Hanks couldn’t possibly get that role today.
Was he believable even back then?
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