Montana, Yves(real name, Ivo Livi)

Montana, Yves(real name, Ivo Livi), popular Italian-born French singer and actor; b. Monsummano Alto, Oct. 13, 1921; d. Senlis, Nov. 9, 1991. At age 2, he was taken by his family to Marseilles. He dropped out of school when he was 11 and held down a series of jobs before winning an amateur contest in 1938 proved the decisive turn toward a career on the stage. Taking the professional name of Yves Montand, he sang in music halls until meeting Edith Piaf, who secured for him a role in her film Étoile sans lumière (1945). He scored a major success with his performance of the song Autumn Leaves, which was written for the film Les Portes de la nuit (1946). As a cabaret artist, Montand became one of the leading exponents of the French chansonnier tradition. He also established himself as a dramatic actor of distinction with the starring role in the film Le Salire de la peur (1953). In 1951 he married the actress Simone Signoret, who remained his wife until her death in 1985 despite his torrid affair with the actress Marilyn Monroe, his co-star in the film Let’s Make Love (1960). Among his later outstanding films were La Guerre est finie (1966), Z (1969), L’Aveu (1970), Jean de Florette (1986), and Manon des sources (1986). Montand was a lifelong supporter of the political Left, although the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 led him to break with Communism. Thereafter he was an ardent spokesman for the cause of universal human rights. With H. Hamon and P. Rotman, he wrote the autobiography You See, I Haven’t Forgotten (N.Y., 1992).

—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire