Yves Montand was born in Tuscany in 1921 as Ivo Livi. He left Italy in the fascist period and at the age of 19 he worked on a factory line in Marseille and then as a docker. At 24 he became the protege of Edith Piaf and starred in his first film. Married to Simone Signoret, he had affairs with Piaf and Marilyn Monroe (during the filming of Let's Make Love). He was a lifelong communist involved with politics at every level, meeting Krushchev in 1956, Kennedy in 1963, Mao in 1969 and Vaclav Havel in 1990. His best-known films include The Wages of Fear, Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources.