Man Who Inspired ‘The Terminal’ With Tom Hanks Dies in Paris Airport at 80

 Mehran Karimi Nasseri, whose life story inspired the Tom Hanks film The Terminal, died at the airport where he once lived, the Associated Press reported. In the weeks before his death, Nasseri, also known as Sir Alfred Mehran, reportedly returned to Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, where he had lived for 18 years before he left in 2006. By all reports, Nasseri began his airport residency in 1988, when he was stranded in limbo due to lacking residency papers for both the country he was trying to leave and the country he was trying to enter. Nasseri chose to live at the airport even after the paperwork issues were resolved. He was reported to have died of a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F on Nov. 12, though there is currently no clear explanation for his return. He was 80 years old.

Throughout Nasseri’s life, journalists attempted to capture his reality to varying degrees of success. Steven Spielberg’s 2004 film The Terminal appeared to adapt and whitewash Nasseri’s story by casting Hanks as a man who lives at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport but comes from a fictional country called Krakozhia. Something of a lighthearted rom-com, The Terminal did not grapple head-on with Nasseri’s personal struggles and was not among Spielberg’s most popular or acclaimed movies. Still, it was a box office success, grossing $77.8 million domestically and over $219 million worldwide. Many, including filmmaker Paul Berczeller, tried to unravel Nasseri’s own story, though it was sometimes tricky. Berczeller described his experience shooting a film called “Here To Now” with Nasseri in a Guardian profile published in 2004. According to Nasseri, the Iranian ministry of security had tortured him, but his brother Cyrus claimed Nasseri’s displacement had been caused by a 1970 student strike at Tehran University. 

Nasseri was born in Soleiman, Iran, under British control at the time. After returning from studying in England in 1974, he was reportedly jailed and expelled from the country for protesting the Shah. Since he lacked a passport, he sought asylum in various European countries and was approved to settle in Belgium when his briefcase containing the paperwork was stolen. He eventually ended up in the airport, where he made himself known to travelers and airport staff. Nasseri read, journaled, and spoke with workers and travelers. The staff nicknamed Nasiri “Lord Alfred” or “Sir Alfred” and the mockumentary “Here to Where” (2002), the 2000 documentaries “Sir Alfred of Charles de Galle Airport” and “Waiting for Godot at De Gaulle,” the opera “Flight” (1998), and the 1993 French film “Lost in Transit” were all about Nasiri.

A 54-year-old Nasseri was finally granted asylum in Belgium again in 1999. However, he turned down the opportunity to move and would remain in the airport for another seven years. “Eventually, I will leave the airport,” he told the AP at the time. “But I am still waiting for a passport or transit visa.” Berczeller reported that Nasseri received several hundred thousand dollars for his life story but refused to leave the airport after obtaining the means. During his initial two-decade stay, Nasseri lived a life of respect, purpose, and daily routine in his airport home. “He lived in the basement shopping mall of Terminal 1,” Berczeller wrote. “Alfred’s red bench was the only anchor in his life. It was his bed, living room and corporate headquarters.”