Merhan Karimi Nasseri, the Iranian man who inspired Steven Spielberg's movie The Terminal died of a heart attack at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport. Nasseri, who lived in the airport for 18 years, was believed to have been born in 1945.
Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him. Nasseri, an Iranian refugee was living at the airport from 1988 to 2006, stuck in limbo. He was en route to England via Belgium and France when he lost his papers. He could not board a flight nor leave the airport.
He had “returned to live as a homeless person in the public area of the airport since mid-September, after a stay in a nursing home,” A spokesperson for the airport told CNN. Nasseri was reportedly an 'iconic character' in the airport and the airport staff cared for him as much as possible even if they would have preferred him to find a real shelter.
Nasseri's story was immortalised in the movie 'The Terminal' by Tom Hanks. The French authorities at one point offered him residence in France, but he stay put as he was determined to get to his original destination-- England
