Lino Ventura
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Prophets & Divine Messengers • Historical Archive • 🇮🇹 Italy • 0 views

Lino Ventura 🇮🇹

Angiolino Giuseppe Pasquale Ventura (Known as "Lino")
Legendary Actor, Star of Les Tontons Flingueurs, Army of Shadows, Founder of Perce-Neige
Born Jul 14, 1919 🇮🇹 Parma (Emilia-Romagna), Italy
Passed Away Oct 22, 1987 Saint-Cloud (near Paris), France
Lifespan 68 years old
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Notice / Correction
"In this profession, you don't play a character with grimaces; you look the camera in the eye with your own truth."

Archival Overview

Beloved Italian-born titan of French cinema, former European wrestling champion, whose granite jaw and moral gravity anchored French masterpieces including Touchez pas au grisbi, Les Tontons Flingueurs, and L'Armée des ombres.

Biographical Record

Emigrating from Italy to Paris as an infant, Ventura was a professional Greco-Roman wrestler (1950 European middleweight champion) when director Jacques Becker spotted him in 1953, casting him opposite Jean Gabin in Touchez pas au grisbi. Without acting classes, his screen presence was instantly magnetic.

Ventura became France's favorite screen star in Georges Lautner's cult comedy Les Tontons Flingueurs (1963) and Jean-Pierre Melville's resistance masterpiece L'Armée des ombres (Army of Shadows, 1969). In 1966, inspired by his daughter with Down syndrome, he founded the Perce-Neige charity to build homes for disabled children.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Le Val-Saint-Germain Cemetery
Le Val-Saint-Germain (Essonne), France
GPS: 48.5667, 2.0667
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