Raoul J. Lévy on AllMovie

Belgian producer/director Raoul J. Lévy is best remembered as the man who gave Roger Vadim and Brigitte Bardot their start in French film. He got his own start as a production assistant for RKO in Mexico after serving with the RAF during WW II. He then became a rep for producer Edward Small and in this capacity returned to Europe, later traveling to Paris to found his own production company. Unfortunately, Lévy proved to have poor business sense, and his company went under. In the mid '60s, Lévy directed two films, Hail Mafia (1965) and The Defector (1966); he soon afterward committed suicide at the age of 44.