 For his work, he was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.Born Paul Misrachi in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey) into a French Jewish family of Italian descent, Misraki showed an early aptitude for music.He went to Paris to study classical composition, and by the 1930s had become an established jazz pianist, arranger, and writer of popular songs; around this time he began composing film scores, with his first known work being for Jean Renoir's first sound film, "On purge bébé" ("Baby's Laxative", 1931), for which he was not credited.