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Lino Ventura (14 July 1919 – 22 October 1987), was an Italian actor who starred in French movies. Born as Angiolino Giuseppe Pasquale Ventura in Parma, Italy to Giovanni Ventura and Luisa Borrini, "Lino" dropped out of school at the age of eight and later took on a variety of jobs. At one point Ventura was pursuing a prizefighting and professional wrestling career but had to end it because of an injury. Despite living most of his life in France, he never acquired French citizenship. In 1953, totally by happenstance, one of his friends mentioned him to Jacques Becker who was looking for... MORE

Lino Ventura (14 July 1919 – 22 October 1987), was an Italian actor who starred in French movies. Born as Angiolino Giuseppe Pasquale Ventura in Parma, Italy to Giovanni Ventura and Luisa Borrini, "Lino" dropped out of school at the age of eight and later took on a variety of jobs. At one point Ventura was pursuing a prizefighting and professional wrestling career but had to end it because of an injury. Despite living most of his life in France, he never acquired French citizenship. In 1953, totally by happenstance, one of his friends mentioned him to Jacques Becker who was looking for an Italian actor to play opposite Jean Gabin in a gangster movie called Touchez pas au grisbi. Becker offered him on the spot the role of Angelo, that Ventura refused at first but then accepted. He has such a presence in the movie that the whole profession took notice. Ventura started to build up an acting career in similar hard boiled gangster movies, often playing beside his friend Jean Gabin. A couple of his most famous roles include the portrait of corrupt police chief Tiger Brown in 1963's The Threepenny Opera and mob boss Vito Genovese in The Valachi Papers. Although he was Italian, he only LESS