Lino Ventura

Birth Name:

Angiolino Giuseppe Pasquale Ventura

Birth Date:

July 14, 1919

Birth Place:

Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Death Date:

October 22, 1987

Place of Death:

Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Age:

Cause of Death:

Heart attack

Cemetery Name:

Cimetière du Val-Saint-Germain

Claim to Fame:

Show Business

Lino Ventura was France's favorite Italian French actor. Lino was born in Italy but he spent much of his youth raised by his mother in Paris, France. After a first career as a professional wrestler was ended by injury, he was offered a part as a gang boss in the Jacques Becker film Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) and rapidly became one of France's favorite film actors, playing opposite many other great stars such as Bourvil, Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Claude Rich, Bernard Blier, Jacques Brel, Michel Serrault, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and working with other leading directors such as Louis Malle, Claude Sautet, and Claude Miller. Usually portraying a tough man, either a criminal or a cop, he also was featured as a leader of the Resistance in the Jean-Pierre Melville directed Army of Shadows (L'armée des ombres, 1969). In American cinema, some of his most famous roles include the portrait of corrupt police chief Tiger Brown in The Threepenny Opera (1963) and mob boss Vito Genovese in The Valachi Papers (1972). He also played opposite Richard Burton and Lee Remick in The Medusa Touch (1978), Angie Dickinson and Donald Pleasence in Jigsaw (1978) and Rod Steiger and Michael York in Sword of Gideon (1986). Though he never renounced his Italian citizenship, he was voted 23rd in a poll for the 100 greatest Frenchmen.

However Lino Ventura was more than just an actor …

After one of his four children, a daughter, was born with special needs, he and his wife founded the charity Perce-Neige (Snowdrop) which aids disabled children and their parents. The foundation continues to do it’s good work, supporting people with intellectual disabilities and their families day after day.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Cimetière du Val-Saint-Germain

Le Val-Saint-Germain, Departement de l'Essonne, Île-de-France, 91530

France

Europe

Grave Location:

Philibert-Le Comte-Ventura Family Plot

Grave Location Description

Located 20 miles south-west of Paris, France near the intersection of Rte. des Sueurs and Chem. de la Vieuville, as you enter the cemetery gates walk straight ahead to the memorial and then turn right and then an immediate left. Walk straight ahead until the path ends (about 15 graves) and in the third row you will find the final resting place of actor Lino Ventura.