Michel Piccoli is a French actor, producer and film director. He has one of the longest careers in French cinema, and is regarded worldwide as a symbol of France’s film history, more specifically of the 1960s and 70s.
He was born in Paris to a musical family; his mother was a pianist and his father was a violinist. He has appeared in many different roles, from seducer to cop to gangster to Pope, in more than 170 movies.
He has been married three times, first to Éléonore Hirt, then for eleven years to the singer Juliette Gréco and finally to Ludivine Clerc. He has one daughter from his first marriage, Anne-Cordélia.
Piccoli is politically active on the left, and is vocally opposed to the Front National.
Lino Ventura was an Italian actor who starred mainly in French films. Raised by his Italian mother in Paris, 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 and rapidly became one of France’s favourite film actors, playing opposite many other stars 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 featured as a leader of the Resistance in the Jean-Pierre Melville directed Army of Shadows. Having a daughter born handicapped, he and his wife founded a charity Perce-Neige which aids disabled children and their parents. Though he never renounced his Italian citizenship, he was voted 23rd in a poll for the 100 greatest Frenchmen.
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