Yves Montand

Yves Montand, born Ivo Livi in Stignano, a village in the hills of Monsummano Terme, Tuscany, Italy, was an Italian-born French singer and actor. His father, Giovanni Livi, worked as a broom manufacturer, and his mother, Giuseppina Simoni, was a devout Catholic. In 1923, the family relocated from Italy to France following Benito Mussolini's rise to power, and Montand grew up in Marseille. As a young man he held jobs in his sister's beauty salon and later on the docks before beginning a career as a music-hall singer.

Montand's professional trajectory shifted significantly in 1944, when Édith Piaf discovered him in Paris and incorporated him into her act. He became one of the most prominent performers at Bruno Coquatrix's Paris Olympia music hall and toured with musicians including Didi Duprat. In October 1947, he performed "Mais qu'est-ce que j'ai?" at the Théâtre de l'Étoile, a song with music by Henri Betti and lyrics by Piaf. Betti had also approached him about recording "C'est si bon," which Montand initially declined; after the Sœurs Étienne recorded it successfully in 1948, he chose to record the song himself. His popularity extended beyond France, and he undertook a concert tour of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in 1956 and 1957.

Montand brought his talents to Broadway between 1959 and 1961, appearing in An Evening With Yves Montand. His stage work was part of a broader international career that also encompassed American motion pictures. In 1980, he received a César Award nomination for Best Actor for I comme Icare, and a second nomination followed in 1984 for Garçon!. By 1986, though his international box-office standing had diminished, Montand delivered one of his most celebrated screen performances as the scheming uncle in Jean de Florette, opposite Gérard Depardieu. He reprised the role in the companion film Manon des Sources, which co-starred Emmanuelle Béart. The critical success of both films renewed his profile in the United States, where he subsequently appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.

In 1951, Montand married French actress Simone Signoret, and the two appeared together in several films over the course of their marriage. He became stepfather to Signoret's daughter from her previous marriage, Catherine Allégret. The marriage lasted until Signoret's death in 1985, though Montand had a number of widely reported affairs during that time, including one with American actress Marilyn Monroe, with whom he co-starred in Let's Make Love. Montand and Signoret maintained a home in Autheuil-Authouillet, Normandy, where the main village street bears his name. In his later years he lived in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Provence.

Montand's only biological child, a son named Valentine, was born in 1988 to his second partner, Carole Amiel. A separate paternity suit, in which another woman claimed he had fathered her daughter, generated considerable public attention in France. Montand refused to provide a DNA sample, and the dispute continued after his death. A court ultimately granted the woman the right to have his body exhumed for testing; the results indicated he was not the child's biological father. In 2004, Catherine Allégret alleged in her autobiography Un monde a l'envers that Montand had sexually abused her from the age of five, though she also stated she had reconciled with him in his final years.

Montand died of a heart attack in November 1991. Director Jean-Jacques Beineix noted that Montand died on the set of IP5: The Island of Pachyderms on the final night of shooting, after completing his last scene. He is buried beside Simone Signoret at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.