Yves Montand, Sage Charmer of French Film and Politics, Dies at 70
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By Alan Riding
Nov. 10, 1991
Yves Montand, Sage Charmer of French Film and Politics, Dies at 70
The New York Times Archives
Yves Montand, the French actor and singer whose political views and passionate affairs stirred as much controversy as his film roles and songs won him popularity, died near Paris today. He was 70 years old.
He apparently suffered a heart attack while working on his latest film on location in Senlis and died at the local hospital.
His death came as a shock to the French public, which, over four decades, had grown accustomed to following his life, his loves, and his opinions on everything from regional cooking to third-world immigration.
As an artist, he will be remembered for songs like "Autumn Leaves" and "The Urchins of Paris" and for his roles in Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Wages of Fear," Costa-Gavras's "Z" and "The Confession," and Claude Berri's "Jean de Florette" and "Manon of the Spring."
His Best-Known Liaisons
But his name also will always be widely associated with three women -- the singer Edith Piaf, who turned him into a music hall star, the actress Simone Signoret, to whom he was married for 36 years until her death in 1985, and Marilyn Monroe, with whom he had a much-publicized affair in 1960.
Such was his following in France that in 1988 he was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate. By then, the man who for 25 years had been a darling of the French left had swung dramatically to the right, as ready to denounce Communism as to praise Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
His popularity survived his travels through passion and politics because his ability to charm the French -- and a good many foreigners -- never faltered. In recent years, his hair thinning and his face wrinkled, he exuded the air of a favorite uncle who would always be around.
While he came to personify the quintessential French romantic, half-adventurer, half-intellectual, he was, in fact, born an Italian -- Ivo Livi by name -- at Monsummano Alto, Tuscany, on Oct. 13, 1921, just two years before the rise of Fascism prompted his father to migrate to France. Working-Class Roots
Brought up in a working-class family in Marseilles, he left school at the age of 11 and worked in factories, bars, and a hair salon while dreaming of an entertainment career. He performed for the first time on an amateur night in a local theater when he was just 17. By the time he was in his early twenties, he had taken the name Yves Montand and was singing in Paris.
But the turning point came when Edith Piaf spotted him. They fell in love and lived together for two years. In the meantime, she not only put his name up in lights but launched his movie career in 1946. They made several films together, but when Clouzot cast him in "Wages of Fear" in 1953, he became a star in his own right.
Soon afterward, he met and married Miss Signoret. He continued to flourish as a singer, thanks to his skill in combining his smooth baritone voice with appealingly poetic lyrics and light-footed dance routines. As an actor, he made one or more films every year, many of which were not memorable, although "Goodbye Again" stood out.
Miss Signoret drew Mr. Montand into the intense Parisian world of leftist politics and, though he never formally joined the French Communist Party, he cheerfully described himself as a fellow traveler. Indeed, shortly after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, the couple made a much-publicized -- and highly-criticized -- tour of the Soviet Union. Cukor's 'Let's Make Love'
Remarkably, though, this did not prevent him from making his first singing tour of the United States in 1959. His success on stage and television was such that he was invited the following year to star in George Cukor's "Let's Make Love" alongside Marilyn Monroe. The film would be remembered more for what happened off-screen.
With Miss Monroe's husband, Arthur Miller, and Miss Signoret away, the two stars found themselves alone on location, and a torrid affair followed. "I was crazy about my wife, but what can you do?" Mr. Montand recalled with a very French shrug in an interview with The New York Times in 1988. Still more embarrassing, this was no secret affair.
In the interview, Mr. Montand said Miss Signoret gave the best answer when she was asked by an English newspaper what her husband was up to. "She said, 'Tell me, do you know who could resist if they took Marilyn Monroe into their arms?' It was a wonderful answer for Simone but, for me, for years, oh brother!"
By the mid-1960s, when he starred in Alain Resnais's "La Guerre Est Finie" ("The War Is Over") about a disillusioned veteran of the Spanish Civil War, his own political disillusionment was growing. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, he turned away from what he saw as the ever-Stalinist French left.
In 1969, with "Z," he began a long association with Costa-Gavras that would also produce "State of Siege" in 1973. For Mr. Montand though, the most important movie was "The Confession" in 1970, in which he played a loyal Czechoslovak Communist who becomes the victim of a Stalinist purge. More Than 50 Films
Throughout the 1970's and 1980's, while making occasional singing tours, he continued to appear in films most years, starring alongside Catherine Deneuve, Shirley MacLaine and Barbara Streisand. In his entire career, he made more than 50 movies. He was particularly acclaimed in 1986, though, for his role as a manipulative Provencal farmer in the film versions of Marcel Pagnol's twin novels, "Jean de Florette" and "Manon of the Spring."
At the time, he spoke uncomfortably about playing the part of an old man, but there were other signs that he was old enough to be considered an institution. In 1982, he became the first popular singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. In 1987, he was named president of the Cannes Film Festival. In 1988, the Film Society of Lincoln Center gave him a special tribute, an honor reserved for the movie world's biggest names.
Yet he clearly had no plans for retirement. Three years ago his new companion, Carole Amiel, now 31 years old, gave birth to his first child, Valentin. Upon completing the film he was shooting with Jean-Jacques Beineix, Mr. Montand had planned to prepare for a new singing tour starting in Paris next spring. A LOVER, A LABORER, A VENGEFUL VILLAGER
Yves Montand's charm translated well, and his films crossed the Atlantic to a degree uncommon for a French star. Here are the best-known films released in English or retitled for theaters in English-speaking countries.
Star Without Light 1946
The Wages of Fear 1953
Heroes and Sinners 1955
The Crucible 1956
Let's Make Love 1960
Sanctuary 1960
Goodbye Again 1961
My Geisha 1962
The Sleeping Car Murder 1965
Grand Prix 1966
Is Paris Burning? 1966
Live for Life 1967
Mister Freedom 1968
The Devil by the Tail 1969
Z 1969
The Confession 1970
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever 1970
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Delusions of Grandeur 1971
Vincent, Francois, Paul . . . and the Others 1974
Police Python .357 1975
The Roads to the South 1978
Womanlight 1979
All Fired Up 1981
Waiter! 1983
Jean de Florette 1986
Manon of the Spring 1986
Nobody Listened 1988
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