The man who inspired the 2004 Tom Hanks movie “The Terminal” has passed away at Terminal 2F of Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG).
Mehran Karimi Nasseri, 77, had been living in Terminal 2F of Charles de Gaulle Airport when he suffered a heart attack on November 12, 2022, Paris airport authority said.
Airport medics tried to resuscitate Nasseri but were unable to save him.
Nasseri’s life story is both interesting and harrowing. Nasseri claimed that in 1977, he had been expelled from Iran due to his involvement in protests against the Shah.
Nasseri decided to settle in the UK because although his father was Iranian, he had a Scottish mother.
However, Nasseri was refused entry into the UK when he claimed that important papers supporting his UK lineage were lost after his briefcase was allegedly stolen.
Nasseri was sent back to France in August 1988, but while his entry into Terminal 1 of CDG airport was legal, he had no country of origin to return to.
So he began living at the departure lounge of CDG airport, which inspired the plot of “The Terminal” movie.
Throughout the years, court cases found that while he couldn’t legally be expelled from the terminal, he equally couldn’t be granted entry into France.
France and Belgium offered Nasseri residency at various times, but he refused because he was listed as being Iranian instead of British.
In 2003, “The Terminal” director Steven Spielberg paid Nasseri $US250,000 for the rights to his life story.
Nasseri’s stay at CDG airport ended when he was hospitalized and his ‘residence’ at Terminal 1 was dismantled. He left the hospital in 2007 and lived in a Paris shelter.
CDG airport authority told media that in recent years, Nasseri returned to live at the airport for unknown reasons.