The Italian-French singer and actor Yves Montand was born Ivo Livi in Italy but
moved to France at the age of two with his parents to escape the unwanted
attention of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime (the singer's father, Giovanni
Livi, was a communist). Montand spent his formative years in Marseille where he
started his show business career as a music hall singer before being discovered
by the French singing legend Édith Piaf when he was 23. He joined Piaf's stage
show and progressed to being an international singing star.
His smooth style led to him being one of the leading...