Yves Montand

vo Livi (Italian pronunciation: ), better known as Yves Montand  13 October 1921 – 9 November 1991  was an Italian-French actor and singer.

Early life

Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, to Giovanni Livi, a broom manufacturer, and Giuseppina Simoni, a devout Catholic, while her husband held strong Communist beliefs. Montand’s family left for France in 1923 because of Italy’s Fascist regime. He grew up in Marseille, where, as a young man, he worked in his sister’s beauty salon (Salon de Coiffure), and later on the docks. He began a career in show business as a music-hall singer. In 1944, he was discovered by Édith Piaf in Paris and she made him part of her act.

Career

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Montand achieved international recognition as a singer and actor, starring in many films. His recognizably crooner songs, especially those about Paris, became instant classics. He was one of the best known performers at Bruno Coquatrix’s Paris Olympia music hall, and toured with musicians including Didi Duprat. In October 1947, he sang “Mais qu’est-ce que j’ai ?” (music by Henri Betti and lyrics by Édith Piaf) at the Théâtre de l’Étoile. Betti also asked him to sing “C’est si bon” but Montand refused. Following the success of the recording of this song by the Sœurs Étienne in 1948, he decided to record it.

During his career, Montand acted in American motion pictures as well as on Broadway. He was nominated for a César Award for Best Actor in 1980 for I comme Icare and again in 1984 for Garçon! In 1986, after his international box-office draw power had fallen off considerably, the 65-year-old Montand gave one of his best remembered performances, as the scheming uncle in Jean de Florette, co-starring Gérard Depardieu, and Manon des Sources (both 1986), co-starring Emmanuelle Béart. The film was a worldwide critical hit and revived Montand’s profile in the US, where he made an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman.

Personal life

In 1951, he married Simone Signoret, and they co-starred in several films throughout their careers. The marriage was, by all accounts, fairly harmonious, lasting until her death in 1985, although Montand had a number of well-publicized affairs, notably with Marilyn Monroe, with whom he starred in one of her last films, Let’s Make Love. He was the stepfather to Signoret’s daughter from her prior marriage, Catherine Allégret.

Montand’s only child, Valentin, his son by his second wife, Carole Amiel, was born in 1988. In a paternity suit that rocked France, another woman accused Montand of being the father of her daughter and went to court to obtain a DNA sample from him. Montand refused, but the woman persisted even after his death. In a court ruling that made international headlines, the woman won the right to have Montand exhumed and a sample taken. The results indicated that he was probably not the girl’s biological father.

Signoret and Montand had a home in Autheuil-Authouillet, Normandy, where the main village street is named after him.

In his later years he maintained a home in St Paul de Vence, Provence, until his death from a heart attack in November 1991. In an interview, Jean-Jacques Beineix said, “e died on the set … On the very last day, after his very last shot. It was the very last night and we were doing retakes. He finished what he was doing and then he just died. And the film tells the story of an old man who dies from a heart attack, which is the same thing that happened!” Montand is interred next to his first wife, Simone Signoret, in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

In 2004, Catherine Allégret, Signoret’s daughter from her first marriage to director Yves Allégret, alleged in her autobiography Un Monde a L’envers (A World Upside Down) that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather from the age of five; his behaviour apparently continuing for many years. and that he had a “more than equivocal attitude to her” as she got older. However she also claimed to have been reconciled to him in the latter years of his life.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1941	La Prière aux étoiles	Un gars dans le café	Marcel Pagnol	Uncredited
1946	Star Without Light	Pierre	Marcel Blistène
	Gates of the Night	Jean Diego	Marcel Carné
1948	L’idole	Fontana	Alexander Esway
1950	Lost Souvenirs	Raoul	Christian-Jaque	(segment “Le violon”)
1951	The Red Inn	Singing Commentator	Claude Autant-Lara	Voice
	Paris Is Always Paris	Himself	Luciano Emmer	cameo appearance
	Paris Still Sings	Himself	Pierre Montazel
1953	Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear)	Mario	Henri-Georges Clouzot
	Saluti e baci	Himself	Maurice Labro and Giorgio Simonelli	Uncredited
1954	Tempi Nostri	Vasco	Alessandro Blasetti and Paul Paviot
1955	Napoléon	François Joseph Lefebvre	Sacha Guitry
	Heroes and Sinners	Michel Rivière	Yves Ciampi
	Marguerite de la nuit	Monsieur Léon	Claude Autant-Lara
1957	The Wolves	Ricuccio	Giuseppe De Santis
	Les Sorcières de Salem	John Proctor	Raymond Rouleau
	La grande strada azzurra	Giovanni Squarciò	Gillo Pontecorvo
1958	Premier mai	Jean Meunier	Luis Saslavsky
1959	Legge, La	Matteo Brigante	Jules Dassin
1960	Let’s Make Love	Clement / Dumas	George Cukor
1961	Sanctuary	Candy Man	Tony Richardson
	Goodbye Again	Roger Demarest	Anatole Litvak
1962	My Geisha	Paul Robaix	Jack Cardiff
1963	Le Joli Mai	Narrator	Chris Marker
1965	Compartiment tueurs	Inspector Grazziani	Costa-Gavras
1966	La guerre est finie	Diego Mora	Alain Resnais
	Is Paris Burning?	Sgt. Marcel Bizien	René Clément
	Grand Prix	Jean- Pierre Sarti	John Frankenheimer
1967	Vivre pour vivre	Robert Colomb	Claude Lelouch
1968	Mr. Freedom	Captain Formidable	William Klein	cameo appearance, Uncredited
	Un soir, un train	Mathias	André Delvaux
1969	The Devil by the Tail	Baron César Maricorne	Philippe de Broca
	Z	Grigoris Lambrakis	Costa-Gavras
1970	L’Aveu	Gérard	Costa-Gavras
	On a Clear Day You Can See Forever	Marc Chabot	Vincente Minnelli
	Le Cercle Rouge	Jansen	Jean-Pierre Melville
1971	La folie des grandeurs	Blaze	Gérard Oury
1972	Tout va bien	“The Director”	Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin
	César et Rosalie	César	Claude Sautet
	État de Siège	Philip Michael Santore	Costa-Gavras
1973	Le Fils	Ange Orahona	Pierre Granier-Deferre
1974	Chance and Violence	Laurent Bermann	Philippe Labro
	Vincent, François, Paul…et les autres	Vincent	Claude Sautet
1975	Section spéciale	Un milicien	Costa-Gavras	Uncredited
	Le Sauvage	Martin	Jean-Paul Rappeneau
1976	Police Python 357	Inspecteur Marc Ferrot	Alain Corneau
	Le Grand Escogriffe	Morland	Claude Pinoteau
	A Butterfly in the Night	Himself	Armando Bó	Voice
1977	La Menace	Henri Savin	Alain Corneau
	Le fond de l’air est rouge	Narrator	Chris Marker
	Jacques Prévert	Himself	Jean Desvilles
1978	Roads to the South	Jean Larrea	Joseph Losey
1979	Clair de femme	Michel Follin	Costa-Gavras
	I as in Icarus	Henri Volney	Henri Verneuil
1981	Le Choix des armes	Noël Durieux	Alain Corneau
1982	Tout feu, tout flamme	Victor Valance	Jean-Paul Rappeneau
1983	Garçon!	Alex	Claude Sautet
1986	Jean de Florette	César Soubeyran	Claude Berri
	Manon des Sources
1988	Trois places pour le 26	Himself	Jacques Demy
1991	Netchaïev est de retour	Pierre Marroux	Jacques Deray
1992	IP5: L’île aux pachydermes	Léon Marcel	Jean-Jacques Beineix	(final film role)

Discography