Lino Ventura

One of France's most beloved character stars from the 1950s through and including the 1980s was the Italian-born 'Lino Ventura' (qv). Born Angiolino Joseph Pascal Ventura to Giovanni Ventura and Luisa Borrini, on July 14, 1919, in Parma (northern) Italy, young Lino moved with his family at a young age to Paris, where he grew up. A school dropout at age eight, Lino drifted from job to job (mechanic's apprentice, etc.), unable to decide on what to do for a living. Marrying in 1942 at age 23, he and wife Odette had four children.Lino finally found a career calling as a Greek/Roman-styled wrestler and went on to become a professional European champion in 1950. He was forced to abandon this sporting life, however, after incurring a serious injury in the ring. Looking for gangster types for his next film, director 'Jacques Becker' (qv) gave the inexperienced 34-year-old his first acting job as bad guy support to star 'Jean Gabin' (qv) in the crime thriller _Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954)_ (qv) [Grisbi]. Gabin was impressed and did more than just encourage Lino to pursue acting as a living. Lino went on to appear with Gabin in several of the star's subsequent movies, often playing a gangster, including _Razzia (1955)_ (qv) [Razzia], _Crime and Punishment (1956)_ (qv), _Die Nacht bricht an (1957)_ (qv) [Crime and Punishment] and _Inspector Maigret (1958)_ (qv) [Inspector Maigret].A tough, brutish, burly-framed presence, Lino came into his own as a tough-nut character star in the 1960s playing both sides of the moral fence. Adept in both light comedy and dark-edged drama, he appeared in scores of films now considered classic French cinema. His homely, craggy-looking mug took the form of various criminals types as in _Le Deuxième Souffle (1966)_ (qv) [Second Breath] and _Happy New Year (1973)_ (qv) [Happy New Year], as well as dogged, good-guy inspectors in _The French Detective (1975)_ (qv) [The French Detective], _Illustrious Corpses (1976)_ (qv) [Illustrious Corpses'], and _The Grilling (1981)_ (qv). Lino bore a patented weight-of-the-world-on-his-shoulders countenance that audiences sympathized with, even when playing the arch-villain. Over the course of three decades he built up an impressive gallery of blue-collar protagonists. Not to be missed are his embittered, vengeful husband in _Der Mörder kam um Mitternacht (1959)_ (qv) [Witness in the City]; corrupt police chief Tiger Brown in _Three Penny Opera (1963)_ (qv) [The Threepenny Opera]; a WWII French Resistance fighter in _Army of Shadows (1969)_ (qv) [Army in the Shadows]; and Mafia boss Vito Genovese in 'Charles Bronson' (qv)'s _The Valachi Papers (1972)_ (qv), among many, many others. Toward the end of his career he played Jean Valjean in a French production of _Die Legion der Verdammten (1982)_ (qv) for which he received a Cesar award nomination (i.e, the French "Oscar"). He performed practically until the time of his fatal heart attack in 1987 at age 68 in his beloved France. Survivors included his wife of 45 years and children. Daughter Mylene died in a plane crash in 1998 and wife Odette died in 2013.::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net