Belmondo was born in
Algiers,
French Algeria, into a poor family of Italian origin (
Piedmont and
Sicily), the son of Paul Belmondo and Rose Cerrito. His early schooling was at
Dordor in Algiers. Passionate about art and design, he began carving at the age of 13 years. He studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Algiers, but his studies were interrupted by the
First World War. He was gassed at the
Battle of Saint-Mihiel, and was then demobilized. Thanks to a grant from the government of Algeria, he continued his studies in Paris where he became the student, then the friend, of
Charles Despiau and
Jean Boucher. He won the
Grand Prix de Rome and
Prix Blumenthal in 1926. He married Sarah Madeleine Rainaud-Richard in Paris in 1930. Three children were born to the marriage, (1931–2025),
Jean-Paul (1933–2021), and Muriel (1945). He received the
Grand Prix artistique of Algeria in 1932 and then the Grand Prix of the city of Paris in 1936. During
World War II he was a member of
Groupe Collaboration, which advocated collaboration with the
Nazi authorities. He was vice-president of the arts section (1941–1945). In 1941 he participated in a "study tour" organized by
Goebbels in Germany, in which French painters and sculptors visited German cultural sites and art workshops. However, Paul Belmondo was not "worried" after the Liberation since many other well-known artists had also participated. Before the war, he received many orders from the state, including the
Palais de Chaillot with
Leo-Ernest Drivier and
Marcel Gimond. He became a professor at the
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1956 and a member of the Institute in 1960. ==Death==