Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthdate
1919-07-13
Day of Death
1987-10-22
Place of Birth
Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Lino Ventura
Biography
Angiolino Giuseppe Pasquale Ventura (14 July 1919 – 22 October 1987), known as Lino Ventura, was an Italian-born actor and philanthropist, who lived and worked for most of his life in France. He was considered one of the greatest leading men of French cinema during the 1960s and 1970s, known for his portrayal of tough characters on both sides of the law in crime dramas. Born in Parma and raised in Paris, Ventura worked as a professional wrestler before an injury ended his career. He made his film debut as a gangster in the 1954 Jacques Becker film Touchez pas au grisbi and rapidly became one of France's favourite film actors, playing opposite many other great stars and working with such leading directors as Louis Malle, Claude Sautet, and Claude Miller. Usually portraying a tough man, either a criminal or a cop, he also featured as a leader of the Resistance in the Jean-Pierre Melville-directed Army of Shadows (1969). He was nominated for a Cesar Award for his portrayal of Jean Valjean in the 1982 film adaptation of Les Misérables. After one of his four children, a daughter, was born handicapped, he and his wife founded a charity Perce-Neige (Snowdrop) which aids disabled children and their parents. Though a lifelong resident and pop cultural icon in France, Ventura always considered himself an Italian first and foremost, and never took French citizenship. He was nonetheless voted 23rd in a 2005 poll of the 100 greatest Frenchmen. ... Description above from the Wikipedia article Lino Ventura, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography (93)
At the End of the Day
2024
Patrick Dewaere, My Hero
2022
Bacri, comme un air de famille
2022
La TV des 70's : Quand Giscard était président
2022
Aznavour by Charles
2019
Breakpoint: A Counter History of Progress
2019
Lino Ventura, la part intime
2018
Lino Ventura, une histoire d'homme
2017
De Gaulle, the Last King of France
2017Lino, il n'était que lui-même
2012
Il était une fois... Vincent, François, Paul et les autres
2011
Il était une fois... Les Tontons flingueurs
2010
Code Name: Melville
2010
Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudes
2002
