Dario Moreno

Dario Moreno — Biography

Born David Arugete to an Italian-Jewish family on 3 April 1921, Dario Moreno's birthplace is given in some sources as the Germencik district of Aydın and in others as İzmir. Orphaned young after his father, a railway employee, was shot dead, he spent part of his childhood in an orphanage before rejoining his mother in İzmir, where he later taught himself French and picked up the guitar while working as a law clerk.

After singing at bar mitzvah celebrations and performing in army garrisons during his military service, he worked nightclub circuits in Istanbul, Ankara and Athens before moving on to Paris, where he struggled at first. His breakthrough came with the song “Jezabel,” followed by the calypso numbers “Adieu Lisbonne” and “Cou Courou Cou Cou”; his 1961 recording “Brigitte Bardot” brought him wide fame and a record prize. He took operetta roles and appeared in more than thirty films, among them Poison Ivy, Candide, La Femme et le Pantin and Tintin and the Golden Fleece.

He died on 1 December 1968 at Istanbul's Yeşilköy Airport, collapsing after an argument over missing his flight. Although he had asked to be buried in İzmir, his mother instead had him interred in Holon, Israel; today he is still commemorated in İzmir, where a street bears his name.