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.
- Also Credited As:
Ivo Livi
- Born:
October 13, 1921 in Monsummano Alto, outside Florence, Italy
- Died:
November 9, 1991.
-
Job Titles:
Actor, Singer, Apprentice hairdresser, Bartender, Busboy, Delivery person, Factory worker
Family
-
Father: Giovanni Livi. Jewish-Italian peasant; socialist
-
Mother: Josephine Livi.
-
Nephew: Jean-Louis Livi.
-
Sister: Lydia Livi. 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
Significant Others
-
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. born c. 1960; mother of Montand s son Valentin; became Montand s secretary in 1982
-
Companion: Edith Piaf. discovered Montand in 1944; together c. 1944-46
-
Companion: Marilyn Monroe. had brief affair while filming Let s Make Love (1960)
Milestones
-
1923 Left Italy with family two years before the rise of Fascism as Mussolini was rising to power; settled in Marseilles
-
1937 Won a hair dressing competition in Marseilles
-
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
-
1938 Performed for the first time on an amateur night in a local theater at age 17
-
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
-
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 Professional stage acting debut in operette, Le Chevalier Bayard
-
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
-
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