Throughout his prolific career as a film actor and variety singer, Yves Montand represented an ideal, that of the working class hero with a strong social conscience.  This partly explains his enduring popularity in French culture, a decade after his death.  His success can be equally attributed to his undoubted talent, which is evident in his films and also in the widely available recordings of his songs.

A man who enjoyed the attention of women and who was something of a political activist, Yves Montand’s life was filled with controversy.  Even in death, he proved an enigma.  His body was exhumed in 1998 so that a DNA sample could be taken for a paternity test.  Yves Montand, the myth and the man – the two are inextricably linked and one can never be sure where the one ends and the other begins.

He was born Ivo Livi on 13 October 1921, in the Italian village of Monsummano Alto, near to Florence, the youngest of three children.  His father was a miltant communist and, to escape persecution from the fascist regime in Ialy, the family was forced to flee to Marseilles in the south of France.  Although they planned to emigrate to America, the family settled in Marseilles, and was granted French nationality in 1929.

Ivo’s family lived modestly.  His father ran a broom-making factory and his sister worked as a hairdresser, whilst his brother became a waiter.  Ivo himself left school at 11 and, with the aid of a forged identity card, found a job in a food processing factory.  At 14, he started working with his sister as a hairdresser and obtained his qualification in hairdressing.  When he was 17, he worked for a metal production company.

Ivo was a great fan of the cinema, Fred Astaire being one of his idols.  By chance, the timid 17 year old agreed to do a stint as warm-up act in a music hall in 1938, for which he adopted the name “Yves Montand”.  This name came from a recollection of how is mother used to call to him when he was a boy when it was time to go indoors: “Ivo! Monta!”.  This first performance was an astonishing success: the public loved him.  A legend had be born.

Encouraged by this start, Montand gave recitals in a number of other fringe theatres in Marseilles before appearing at the prestigious Alcazar, where he sang his first original song, “Dans les plaines du Far West”, written by his friend Charles Humel. 

The outbreak of war disrupted Montand’s career and the aspiring singer ended up as a labourer in Provence, although he started singing again in provincial night clubs in 1941.  In 1944, he managed to get out of war time service in Germany (despite being pursued by military police) and wangled a contract at the ABC in Paris, where his performances were always well received.

Having appeared at the Bobino and the Folies-Belleville, Montand won a coveted spot at the Moulin Rouge, where he appeared with another legendary singer, Edith Piaf.  This was the start of an intimate love affair which would last two years, during which Piaf would become devotedly attached to Montand, teaching him everything she new about her profession.  It was Piaf who landed Montand his first film role, appearing long side her in Marcel Blistène’s 1945 film Étoile sans lumière.  Montand’s remarkable success from 1945 onwards is almost certainly directly attributable to Piaf’s influence.  Hits such as as “Battling Joe” and “Les Grands Boulevards” made Montand a national sensation almost overnight.

In 1946, Montand appeared in his second film, Marcel Carné’s Les Portes de la nuit which, despite being recognised today as a great film, was a commercial failure at the time.  Further film appearances similiarly failed to advance his acting career, so Montand concentrated on his singing, which appeared to be bringing him far more success. 

In 1949, Montand met a rising young actress, Simone Signoret, in the village of  Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and the two fell in love.  Having divorced her then husband, director Yves Allegrét, she set up home with Montand in Paris in 1950 and the two married the following year.  The marriage would last up until Signoret’s death in 1985, despite endless rumours of Montand having liaisons with other women (most notably Marilyn Monroe).

From around this time, Montand began to show an active public interest in left-wing politics.  In 1950, he signed a partition against the atom bomb and he became a prominent member of the French communist party.

In 1951, Montand staged his first one man show, which included 22 songs and two  poems.  It was a phenomenal success and established Montand’s credentials as a popular showman and singer.

Despite his growing success as a singer, Montand was still frusrated that he had not yet achieved a similar success in his films.  This was to change in 1953, when he took the starring role in Clouzot’s epic suspense thriller Le Salaire de la peur.  The film was hugely successful, winning the Grand Prize at the Cannes film festival that year.  The same year, Montand cemented his popularity in a series of triumphant recitals at the Théâtre de l'Etoile.

In 1954, Montand and Signoret starred in a stage production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, whose success led to the two actors subsequently starring in a film version of the play a few years later, Les sorcières de Salem (1957).

In 1956, Montand crossed the Iron Curtain to make a tour of Russia, despite public opposition at home (Sovet troops had just invaded Hungary).  The following year he made a tour of Eastern Europe, where he received a rapturous welcome.  These flirtations with the Soviet regime were to win him enemies at home and would also make it difficult for him to gain access to the United States for tours in that country.

By 1960, Yves Montand was an international celebrity, and a prime target for Hollywood.  He was cast alongside Marilyn Monroe in the romantic comedy Let’s Make Love (a.k.a. Le Milliardaire), a terrible film that was an almighty flop.  The following year, Montand appeared at the Golden Theatre on Broadway, New York, for an eight-week run.  This was followed by a jour of Japan and England.

Despite having appeared in over a dozen films since Le Salaire de la peur, Montand was still unsatisfied with his film career.  This changed abruptly in the mid-1960s, when Montand’s success as a film actor would begin to rival his success as a singer.  This began with the 1964 film, Compartiment tueurs, which was the first of four collaborations with the politically motivated Greek-born director Costa-Gavras.  This was followed by Alain Resanis’ La guerre est finie (1966), René Clément’s Paris brûle t'il? and Costa-Gavras’ Z.  All were high-profile films by some of France’s most acclaimed directors.  Yves Montand the film star had arrived.

In September 1968, Montand gave a series of concerts at the Paris Olympia, which ran for six weeks.  By this time, he was becoming disillusioned by political activism and, after his father’s death in Octiber 1968, he severed all ties with the Communist Party.

In the early 1970s, Montand’s film career continued with the actor appearing in range of roles, alternating between tragic and comic.  These include Costa-Gavras’ thriller L’Aveu (1970), Gérard Oury’s 1971 comedy La Folie des grandeurs (replacing Bourvil after his death, co-starring with Louis de Funès), and Claude Sautet’s acclaimed romance César et Rosalie (1972). 

In the later part of the 1970s, Montand’s film career was beginning to dip into obscurity, with the actor appearing in fewer and fewer high-profile films.  He made a spectacular come-back, however, in Claude Berri’s 1986 popular two-part film, Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources.  In 1987, Montand agreed to preside over the 40th Cannes film Festival. 

On the last day of filming his final film, IP5, Montand suffered a heart attack.  He died a few hours later in hospital, at Senlis, France, on 9 November 1991.  He left behind his adopted daughter Catherine Allegrét, his young partner Carole Amiel and their three-year old son.  The enchanting actor-singer may have left this world but the legend lives on, in his films and his songs, which are enjoyed the whole world over.

© James Travers 2001