About

Known credits:
30
Birthday:
1908-04-16
Place of birth:
Paris, France
Website:
N/A

Ray Ventura

Overview

Raymond Ventura (16 April 1908, Paris, France – 29 March 1979, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. He helped popularize jazz in France in the 1930s. His nephew was singer Sacha Distel.

Ventura was born to a Jewish family. In 1925 he was the pianist for the Collegiate Five, which recorded as the Collegians for Columbia beginning in 1928 and for Decca in the 1930s. A year later he led the band, and it became a dance orchestra resembling a big band. His sidemen included Alix Combelle, Philippe Brun, and Guy Paquinet. In the early 1940s he led a big band in South America and in France during the rest of the decade.

One of his band's popular songs from 1936 was "Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise" in which the Marquise is told by her servants that everything is fine at home except for a series of escalating calamities. It was seen as a metaphor for France's obliviousness to the approaching war.

Source: Article "Ray Ventura" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known for

Acting
1963 L'assassin connaît la musique Actor Lui-même (non crédité) 59
Average
1953 Femmes de Paris Actor 59
Average
1953 One Hundred Francs Per Second Actor Self 58
Average
1951 Monte Carlo Baby Actor Self 59
Average
1950 We Will All Go to Paris Actor Self 59
Average
1948 Mademoiselle Has Fun Actor Self 59
Average
1939 Whirlwind of Paris Actor Self 59
Average
1939 Feux de joie Actor Self 58
Average
1938 Quadrille Actor Himself (as Ray Ventura et ses Collégiens) 59
Average
1936 Everything is Going Very Well Madame la Marquise Actor 59
Average
1936 Adventure in Paris Actor 59
Average

Production
1991 Night Fun Production Producer 59
Average
1966 Our Men in Bagdad Production Producer N/A
N/A
1963 L'assassin connaît la musique Production Producer 59
Average
1962 And Satan Calls the Turns Production Producer 58
Average
1958 Love is My Profession Production Producer 59
Average
1956 Forgive Our Trespasses Production Producer 58
Average
1956 Plucking the Daisy Production Producer 58
Average
1955 Le Crâneur Production Producer 58
Average
1955 Lovers' Net Production Producer 58
Average
1953 Les Compagnes de la nuit Production Producer 59
Average
1952 Desperate Decision Production Producer 58
Average
1952 French Touch Production Producer 59
Average
1951 Monte Carlo Baby Production Producer 59
Average
1951 Without Leaving an Address Production Producer 59
Average
1950 Le roi Pandore Production Producer 59
Average
1949 Une femme par jour Production Producer 59
Average

Sound
1962 We Will Go to Deauville Sound Music 58
Average
1938 Beautiful Star Sound Orchestrator 59
Average
1938 Quadrille Sound Orchestrator 59
Average