Singer and actor Yves Montand, whose smooth sensuality and droopy-eyed charm made him beloved at home and famous around the world, died Saturday of a heart attack at a hospital near Paris. He was 70.
Montand died at a hospital in Senlis, about 28 miles northeast of Paris, where he was taken after suffering chest pains early Saturday, hospital officials said.Off the screen and stage, Montand was an impassioned advocate of disarmament and human rights and an outspoken champion of liberal, pacifist political ideas. In 1984, polls showed that nearly half of all French people wanted him to seek public office - a call he never answered.
Montand was also known for his nearly 60 films, made both in France and in Hollywood.
He was best known abroad for his films with Edith Piaf, Marilyn Monroe - with whom he had a brief but very public love affair - and Simone Signoret, who later became his wife.
Other leading ladies were Catherine Deneuve, Ingrid Bergman, Shirley Maclaine and Barbra Streisand.
American audiences knew him best for the films "Let's Make Love," a 1960 musical with Monroe, and "Z."
His other movies included "Grand Prix," "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever," and the widely popular 1986 films "Jean de Florette" and its sequel "Manon des Sources" released in the United States as "Manon of the Spring."