Debonair European screen idol who was born in Italy but brought to France at an early age by his parents, left-wing peasants wishing to escape Mussolini's regime. Montand worked his way from the docks of Marseilles to the pinnacle of international stardom. After beginning a career as a music-hall singer, he was "discovered" in Paris in 1944 by Edith Piaf, who featured him in her act and became his mentor and lover.
Montand made his screen debut opposite Piaf in 1946, in "Star Without Light", but gained more attention for his fine performance the same year in Marcel Carne's "Les Portes de la nuit". Henri-Georges Clouzot's suspense masterpiece "The Wages of Fear" (1953) launched Montand as an international star, though his Hollywood outings, including "Let's Make Love" (1960) and "Sanctuary" (1961), were forgettable. (The former was more notable for his highly publicized off-screen affair with costar Marilyn Monroe than as a film.)
From the late 60s, Montand was able to integrate his leftist political views into his work by portraying characters of quietly rebellious moral authority: a disillusioned former Spanish revolutionary in Alain Resnais' "La Guerre est finie" (1966); and various figures involved in the conflict between repressive governments and the forces of reform in political thrillers by Costa-Gavras, notably "Z" (1968), "The Confession" (1970) and "State of Siege" (1973).
In the 1980s, Montand gracefully matured into a character actor, giving a canny, rich performance as the scheming old uncle, Cesar Soubeyran, in Claude Berri's two-part film based on Marcel Pagnol's memoirs, "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources" (both 1986). Montand costarred several times with Simone Signoret, his wife from 1951 until her death in 1985. Married a third time, he maintained a home in Provence and had just completed work on Jean-Jacques Beinex's "IP5" at the time of his death.
Family
FATHER: Giovanni Livi. Broommaker. Jewish-Italian peasant; socialist.
MOTHER: Josephine Livi.
SISTER: Lydia Livi. Hairdresser. Montand worked in her beauty shop before beginning his music-hall career at age 17.
SON: Valentin Gioanni Jacques Montand. Born December 31, 1988 when Montand was 67.
STEP-DAUGHTER: Catherine Allegret. Born c. 1946; daughter of Simone Signoret and director Yves Allegret.
NEPHEW: Jean-Louis Livi. Producer.
Companion
COMPANION: Edith Piaf. Singer. Discovered Montand in 1944; together c. 1944-46.
WIFE: Simone Signoret. Actor. Married 1951 until her death in 1985; met while touring in 1949; previously married to director Yves Allegret.
COMPANION: Marilyn Monroe. Actor. Had brief affair while filming "Let's Make Love" (1960).
COMPANION: Anne Florange Drossart. Filed a paternity suit against Montand in 1990 claiming that he fathered her daughter Aurora (born c. 1975) during an affair they had beginning in 1972 when they were both in the film "Le Hasard et la Violence"; Montand ordered by Paris court to take a blood test to determine child's paternity; appeals court ruled that Montand's body should be exhumed for DNA testing in 1997.
COMPANION: Carole Amiel. Secretary. Born c. 1960; mother of Montand's son Valentin; became Montand's secretary in 1982.
Milestone
1923: Left Italy with family two years before the rise of Fascism as Mussolini was rising to power; settled in Marseilles
From age 11 worked as delivery boy, apprentice hairdresser in sister's, business, truck loader at a metal factory, and waiter at a dockside bar
1937: Won a hair dressing competition in Marseilles
1938: Performed for the first time on an amateur night in a local theater at age 17
1938: Changed name to Yves Montand; made professional debut at the Alcazar Music Hall in Marseilles singing songs of Chevalier, Trenet and imitating Donald Duck music-hall singer in Marseilles, Bordeaux and Toulouse
1939: Abandoned singing career and worked as a laborer in shipyard Chantiers de la Mediterranee
1940: Resumed career after French capitulation; appeared in revue "Soir de folie" on tour in Lyons, Bordeaux
1943: Went to Paris to perform; act included routine as a singing cowboy
1944: Appeared in Paris at the ABC Music Hall; also performed at the Moulin Rouge where he was discovered by Edith Piaf, became her lover and protege; abandoned cowboy act and performed new material devised or bought by composers by Piaf to showcase him
1946: Professional stage acting debut in operette, "Le Chevalier Bayard"
1945: Made film debut in Rene Lucot's short, "Silence...antenne/Silence, on tourne"
1946: Feature film debut, "Etoie Sans Lumierie/Star Without Light"; Piaf got him the role of the boyfriend she leaves behind when she becomes a star
1946: Starred in Marcel Carne's "Les Portes de la Nuit/Gates f the Night" in which he introduced signature song, "Les Feuilles Mortes/Autumn Leaves"
1947: Signed contract with Warner Bros.; When he translated the contract from English and realized that he would become the property of the studio, he sued for breach of contract and one franc damages; Warners countersued and the matter was settled out of court
1951: Presented his first one-man show in Paris at the Theatre de l'Etoile
1954: Starred on Paris stage for one year with Simone Signoret in Arthur Miller's "Sorcieres de Salem/The Crucible" (they reprised their performances in the 1956 film version)
1956: With Simone Signoret made a highly-publicized and high-criticized tour of the Soviet Union and east bloc countries after the Soviet invasion of Hungary
1959: Made first US concert tour in one-man show; performed show on Broadway
1959: Signed two-picture deal with 20th Century-Fox (for whom he made "Let's Make Love" 1960 and "Sanctuary" 1961)
1960: His concert tour of the USSR was filmed by the Russians and released as "Yves Montand Chante"
1962: Starred on the Pairs stage in "Des clowns par milliers/A Thousand Clowns"
1967: Announced retirement as a singer
1974: Subject of Chris Marker's documentary, "La solitude du chanteur de fond"
1974: Subject of Jean-Christophe Averty's TV documentary "Montand de mon temps"
1979: Attacked by Soviet newspaper, "Izveztia" as a "turncoat" after his political views had shifted from left-wing to center
1980: Resumed singing career; had hit album, "Montand d'hier et d'aujourd 'hui'"; performed in three-month engagement at the Olympia Theatre in Paris and later toured with show
1982: Toured US with cabaret performance; was first popular entertainer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in NY
1986: Wrote, produced and starred in "Yves Montand a la une" on French TV
1988: Was mentioned as a possible French Presidential candidate
1991: Died of a heart attack in a hospital in Senlis (a suburb of Paris) after suffering chest pains on the set of the Jean-Jacques Beineix film he was shooting
Bibliography
"Du soleil plein la tete" Yves Montand 1955
"You See, I Have Not Forgotten" Herve Harmon and Patrick Rotham 1990
"His popularity survived his travels through passion and politics because his ability to charm the French--and a good many foreigners--never faltered. In recent years, his hair thinning and his face wrinkled, he exuded the air of a favorite uncle who would always be around."--Alan Riding ("New York Times" obituary, November 10, 1991)
"He is probably the most successful French actor of his generation. No continental actor since Boyer has played opposite so many big Hollywood stars--Ingrid Bergman, Marilyn Monroe, Shirley MacLaine and Barbra Streisand."--David Shipman ("The Great Stars: The International Years" 1972)
"His face seemed made for the glib revelation of Lelouch's hurried emotional journalism [in "Vivre pour Vivre" 1967], and the unprincipled mixture of cheap romantic melodrama and supposed commitment to the world's travails seemed to fit Montand's professional shurg to the inch. Although an actor who relies on mature appeal, he seems to me always a ltitle shifty. His face in repose is sulky and calculating, and the smile that flits on to it when he knows he is being observed might be pulled open by strings."--David Thomson ("The Biographical Dictionary of Film" 1975).
Montand was buried November 13, 1991 next to Simone Signoret at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. Edith Piaf is also buried there.
He served as president of Cannes Film Festival (1987)
He was honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center (1988)
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