Former Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai has died in a military hospital in Paris after four decades living in exile in France, officials said on Friday.
He was 83.Born in 1913, he was monarch in 1925-1945 and again in 1949-1955 but under French colonial control.
Bao Dai was the title he took as sovereign. His real name was Nguyen Vinh Thuy.
He abdicated in 1945 when communist leader Ho Chi Minh, in an attempt to head off the restoration of French colonial rule after Japan's World War II occupation, proclaimed a republic.
But the French returned and backed Bao Dai as head of state in 1949.
Following Ho Chi Minh's victory at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the withdrawal of the French from Vietnam, he left for exile in southern France and played no further political role.