Man who inspired Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Terminal’ dies inside airport he called home for 18 years

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By Jeff MacDonald, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

PARIS — The Iranian refugee who inspired “The Terminal” starring Tom Hanks, died of a heart attack in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on Saturday.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri died in the airport’s Terminal 2F, a Paris airport authority told The Associated Press. Police and a medical team treated him but were unable to save him, the official said.

According to USA Today, Nasseri could not enter France in the late 80s, and an immigration issue prevented him from leaving the airport. He lived in Charles de Gaulle’s Terminal 1 from 1988 to 2006.

He had been living in the airport again recently, an airport official told AP.