Debonair European screen idol who was born in Italy but brought to France at an early age by his parents, left-wing peasants wishing to escape Mussolini's regime. Montand worked his way from the docks of Marseilles to the pinnacle of international stardom. After beginning a career as a music-hall singer, he was "discovered" in Paris in 1944 by Edith Piaf, who featured him in her act and became his mentor and lover.

Montand made his screen debut opposite Piaf in 1946, in "Star Without Light", but gained more attention for his fine performance the same year in Marcel Carne's "Les Portes de la nuit". Henri-Georges Clouzot's suspense masterpiece "The Wages of Fear" (1953) launched Montand as an international star, though his Hollywood outings, including "Let's Make Love" (1960) and "Sanctuary" (1961), were forgettable. (The former was more notable for his highly publicized off-screen affair with costar Marilyn Monroe than as a film.)

From the late 60s, Montand was able to integrate his leftist political views into his work by portraying characters of quietly rebellious moral authority: a disillusioned former Spanish revolutionary in Alain Resnais' "La Guerre est finie" (1966); and various figures involved in the conflict between repressive governments and the forces of reform in political thrillers by Costa-Gavras, notably "Z" (1968), "The Confession" (1970) and "State of Siege" (1973).

In the 1980s, Montand gracefully matured into a character actor, giving a canny, rich performance as the scheming old uncle, Cesar Soubeyran, in Claude Berri's two-part film based on Marcel Pagnol's memoirs, "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources" (both 1986). Montand costarred several times with Simone Signoret, his wife from 1951 until her death in 1985. Married a third time, he maintained a home in Provence and had just completed work on Jean-Jacques Beinex's "IP5" at the time of his death.