Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the inspiration for the film The Terminal with Tom Hanks, suffered a heart attack.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in 1986, gained worldwide fame following the release of Steven Spielberg's film, The Terminal, loosely based on his life. The Iranian was said to have received around $275,000 for the rights to his life story, however, in the film, his background is presented differently, including the invention of a fictional homeland.
Nasseri was born in Iran in 1945 and later studied in England, but in 1977 he was expelled from his home country after protesting against the government. As he later recounted, his documents were stolen in Paris in 1988, which is why he could neither prove his status as a refugee, nor his identity. He took a flight to London but was sent back to France because he had no paperwork to prove who he was; on his return to Paris, he was not allowed to leave the terminal so set up a place to stay in Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle. He did not reside in the transit area but could usually be found on a bench surrounded by trolleys, with a fast-food restaurant, among other establishments, happy to feed him
In 1999, he was given the right to leave the airport but decided to continue living there. Nasseri wrote an autobiography and called himself ´Sir Alfred´, and after the Spielberg film, released in 2004, he gained fame and gave several Interviews a day. In 2006, Nasseri had to leave the airport for health reasons and moved to a hostel in Paris, and since 2007 he has lived at a residence for the homeless.
A few weeks ago, Nasseri returned to the airport and lived in Terminal 2, before it was announced that he died on Saturday, November 12, at the age of 76.
