Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian political refugee who lived for more than eighteen years at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport and inspired director Steven Spielberg for his film The Terminal, died there on Saturday, learned the AFP airport source. He died of natural causes shortly before noon on Saturday at terminal 2F, an airport source told AFP. After spending the money received for the film, he had returned to the airport for a few weeks, added the same source. Several thousand euros were found on him. Born in 1945 in Masjed Soleiman, in the Iranian province of Khuzestan, Mehran Karimi Nasseri, known as “Sir Alfred”, had taken up residence in Roissy, north of Paris, in November 1988, after a long journey – in search of his mother – which had taken him to London, Berlin or even Amsterdam. Each time, he had been expelled by the authorities, for lack of being able to present papers. In 1999, he obtained refugee status in France and a residence permit. At Roissy, he had become familiar to the airport staff and an emblematic figure, being the subject of numerous television and radio reports, French and foreign, before his cinematic consecration. See also on Konbini In 2004, Tom Hanks interprets his role in The Terminal directed by Steven Spielberg. After the film, he would have lived in a hostel in Paris.
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