Due to the passing of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Tom Hanks was in a dark mood on Wednesday. Hanks paid him a loving homage.
After misplacing his refugee passport and having his application to enter France denied, Iranian immigrant Mehran established his home in Terminal 1’s departure area.
He would later serve as the inspiration for the 2004 film “The Terminal,” starring Tom Hanks as an Eastern European man forced to live in the terminal of John F. Kennedy International Airport after being denied entry into the United States.
Tom shared a photo of Mehran in an airport alongside a poster for the film The Terminal, which also starred Catherine Zeta-Jones, on his Facebook page.
“We are heartbroken to learn of the untimely loss of Charles de Gaulle’s Mehran Karimi Nasseri, popularly known as Alfred,” the actor who played Forrest Gump stated in a moving homage to his comrade. ‘It’s not that horrible at the airport.’ Mehran knew it better than anyone.”
Tom removed the comment feature for his post, but it still received a lot of reader attention, with over 21,000 likes in less than 30 minutes.
Mehran was forced to reside in the airport since he had nowhere else to go after accidentally mailing his paperwork to Belgium after misplacing and losing his documents.
He had planned to seek refuge in the UK after being ejected from Iran for participating in protests.
He lived there as his primary residence from 1988 till 2006. He was forcefully removed from the airport in 2006 because he need medical treatment.
He was subsequently placed in a hotel before being transferred to a homeless shelter in Paris.
Mehran eventually returned to his airport home. Unfortunately, he had a heart attack while there and died abruptly at the age of 76.
Throughout his life, he could be seen reading economics books in the airport’s departure lounge, where he also accepted meals from passengers on a daily basis.
