That secret that Clift was gay during an impossible era (the 1930s through the 60s) led many interpreters to conclude that the actor must have led a life riddled with fear and shame. She left him when one of his beatings made. The old Hollywood system was breaking apart and he was a major part of that., The first role Clift took, opposite John Wayne in Red River in 1948, offered a stark contrast in masculine presentations. Here, a primer on a little-understood ingredient, plus 15 products that address everything from wrinkles to dark spots. While the press assumed that Balaban and Clift were an item, Clift secretly dated British actor Roddy McDowall. BAFTA Awards 2023: The 19 Best-Dressed Stars. SAG Awards 2023: The Red Carpet Goes Pink. [31] MGM distributed the film nationwide as magazines generated massive attention for Clift. They went to London to see Laurence Olivier together, ate together, sat in front of the fire together, Clift said. Clift asserts that the actors use of alcohol and prescription drugs stemmed, primarily, from a near-fatal car accident in 1956. [72] Clift and Robbins camouflaged their relationship by dating women. John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in Red River. To help build their case, the film-makers had rare access to the actors archives, as well as to the familys story, courtesy of a special connection: the doc was co-directed by the stars nephew, Robert Clift, and his wife, Hillary Demmon. Once dubbed the Queen of the Movies, the golden-haired Myrna Loy was one of the few stars who successfully transitioned out of the silent-film era into talkies. She went on to become one of the film industrys most adored and highest-paid leading ladies. He described their relationship with fondness and kept taped film reels of Clift and the company of There Shall Be No Night enjoying leisure time together. Overall he ended up unhappy with his performance and left early during the film's premiere. Edward Montgomery Clift (/mntmri/; October 17, 1920 July 23, 1966) was an American actor. At the time, Clift was encouraged to hide his sexuality because it would destroy his career as a leading man in Hollywood. Hollywood's Montgomery Clift, who was highly wanted for his diverse acting skill in the industry, kept the public entertained during his time. Jan 30, 2016 - In 1956, Montgomery Clift checked into the Chateau Marmont to recuperate from a near-fatal automobile accident that occurred while he was in production on "Raintree County." The accident occurred as he was leaving a dinner party at the home of his co-star and close friend, Elizabeth Taylor, at the top of Tower Road in Beverly In a past interview, the star's friend, Kevin McCarthy, explained that Clift drove very high before the accident. Sadly the star got involved in a car crash that ruined his face and impacted his life and career. Clift was driving a Chevrolet Bel Air sedan when the accident occurred. After leaving a party at Elizabeth Taylor's house, he wrapped his car around a telephone pole . A short while later, Taylor and some of the others rushed to the scene of the accident. She was so incensed by director Joseph Mankiewiczs poor treatment of Clift that she is said to have spat at him. He and actor Kevin McCarthy later wrote a screenplay for a film adaptation that was never made. When he resumed filming on "Raintree County," he was a different man, one left in chronic pain because of the accident. Lorenzo was one of the reasons.. The younger Clift serves the added role of narrator, voicing his journey to discover who the late actor really was, in contrast to what so many others have made him out to be. These were extremely unorthodox, risky procedures, and had the effect of involving the audience with him, an exceedingly selfish aim if one thinks only in terms of the play, but a daring and stupendously courageous maneuver when one thinks of the ground he was breaking. He also helped bring a more natural acting style to film. He even appeared in the original production of Tennessee Williams' play "You Touched Me" (1945) (per Playbill). Actress Marilyn Monroe even warned him never to work with Hutson, whom she described as a "sadist. While he never excelled at school, his extraordinary abilities as an actor showed early. We also encourage everyone to report any crime incident they witness as soon as possible. Elizabeth Taylor put her salary on the line as insurance in order to have Clift cast as her co-star in Reflections in a Golden Eye, to be directed by John Huston. Taylor also threatened to end any photographer's career who dared to take a picture of the seriously wounded Clift. [40][41] In a filmed interview years later in 1963, Clift described his injuries in detail, including how his broken nose could be snapped back into place. He also didnt want to sign a contract with a studio, then the only viable way into the business. To help build their case, the film-makers had rare access to the actors archives. In the Spotlight Clift and Taylor would star again in another 1950s film, the Civil War-era drama, Raintree County the movie they were making when Clift almost died in the car wreck outside Taylor's homeand would remain deeply attached to one another until Clift's death, at the too-young age of 45, in New York City in 1966. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to The New York Times.[1][2]. Then again, nothing about Clifts life was expected. Clift's early foray into acting led him to a Broadway debut in 1935. His next four films were The Young Lions (1958), which is the only film featuring both Clift and Marlon Brando, Lonelyhearts (1958), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and Elia Kazan's Wild River, released in 1960. Clift had traveled extensively with his family while growing up, and it was while he and the family were in Florida that he landed his first part, per Britannica. He and his co-star Olivia de Havilland made an appealing couple in this film adaptation of a Henry James novel. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Clift got his start on Broadway as a teen and, after turning down film roles for nearly a decade, finally accepted a part in 1948's . He used them to numb his physical pain. A portrait of Montgomery Clift leaning on a fence with an intent expression before his accident on 01 January, 1950 | Photo: Getty Images. He represented the new wave of post-World War II actors who were handsome, intelligent, soft-spoken, introspective, and acted with intensity. 'Happy Days's' Anson Williams Divorced the Same Woman Twice after Almost Losing His Life in the Early 2000s, Marlo Thomas Spouse Was a Virgin before Marriage to Mom of His 5 Kids & a Lousy Lover Afterward, Why Is Chris Pratt Receiving Backlash? Happy Birthday, Montgomery Clift. [3] He also executed a rare move by not signing a contract after arriving in Hollywood, only doing so after his first two films were a success. [18][19] He instead continued to flourish onstage and appeared in works by Moss Hart and Cole Porter, Robert Sherwood, Lillian Hellman, Tennessee Williams, and Thornton Wilder, creating the part of Henry in the original production of The Skin of Our Teeth. His father, William Brooks "Bill" Clift (1886-1964), was the vice-president of Omaha National Trust Company. Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor lounging on the grass during the filming of Raintree County in Indiana, 1956. By 15, Clift made his Broadway debut in Cole Porters Jubilee. This image is titled Cheval et Marnie, in Clifts handwriting. He owed his life to his close friend Taylor, who immediately went to help him when she learned of the incident. The song "The Right Profile" by the English punk rock band The Clash, from their album London Calling, is about the later life of Clift. With the revelatory documentary Making Montgomery Clift, filmmakers Robert Clift (born eight years after his famous uncle's hyper-mythologized 1966 death) and Hillary Demmon compellingly. Clift's body was taken to the city morgue about 2 miles (3.2km) away at 520 First Avenue, and autopsied. On 12 May 1956, he was leaving the home of his friend, Elizabeth Taylor, high in Coldwater Canyon, Los Angeles, when his car crashed into a telephone pole. Clift was there, as were actors Kevin McCarthy and Rock Hudson, and Hudson's wife, Phyllis Gates, per Vanity Fair. Clift also took to drinking, and his addiction was well known amongst his colleagues. Clift's next major films were "The Heiress" (1949) and "A Place in the Sun" (1951), cementing his romantic lead status. All content, including text, and images contained on news.AmoMama.com, or available through news.AmoMama.com is for general information purposes only. This tragedy changed the course of his career and may have hastened his death a decade later. Clift, presumably an introvert, would have been super frustrated to know his physical look would be a topic for national speculation. But it was his next pairing with Elizabeth Taylor that proved to be his most dynamic on-screen. Who Is Julian Sands' Wife? He wasnt solely an actor, she said. He also detested the man. Immediately following the end of the war in September 1945 (in what would be Clift's penultimate Broadway performance) he starred in the stage adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's short story You Touched Me. Concerned and unable to break the door down, James ran down to the back garden and climbed up a ladder to enter through the second-floor bedroom window. Montgomery Clift | 20 Gay Hollywood Legends | Purple Clover "I love men in bed, but I really love women," Montgomery Clift is quoted as saying in a 1978 biography. Ex-lover Larson said in the film that Clift actually preferred his work after the accident to his performances before. Montgomery Clift was not a well man when he agreed to co-star in The Young Lions. While she sounds apologetic, the changes were never made. July 24, 1966 12 AM PT Actor Montgomery Clift, 45, three times nominated for Academy Awards, died early Saturday of a heart attack in his plush East Side townhouse. Continued pain from his injuries led him to rely on alcohol and pills for relief as he had done after an earlier bout with dysentery left him with chronic intestinal problems. The cause of death was listed as a heart attack, but a major contributing factor was the cumulative effect of pain killers and liquor. A portrait of Montgomery Clift after his accident on 01 January, 1958 | Photo: Getty Images, After Clift's terrible car accident, the star faced some challenging moments in the movie industry. Actor Montgomery Clift is best remembered for his striking good looks and his compelling dramatic performances in such films as "A Place in the Sun" (1951) and "From Here to Eternity" (1953), per IMDb. [33], Clift's first film for Paramount was The Heiress (1949). Before undertaking any course of treatment please consult with your healthcare provider. Clift had shown an interest in acting and theatrics as a child living in Switzerland and France but did not take the initiative to go out for a part in a local production until age 13, when his family was forced to downsize and relocate from Chicago to Sarasota, Florida. The secret life of legendary actor Montgomery Clift has been revealed by his nephew. Actor. Monty's post-accident career has been called "the longest suicide in Hollywood history." In 1966, ten years after his car accident, Montgomery Clift died alone in his New York apartment while watching "The Misfits" on TV. In 1965, he gave voice to William Faulkner's writings in the television documentary William Faulkner's Mississippi, which aired in April 1965. A critical and commercial success, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards.[29]. He was only 12 years old when he appeared in a production of "As Husbands Go" in Sarasota. He spent months in the hospital and had major plastic surgeries. Part of Clift's mother's effort was her determination that her children should be brought up in the style of true aristocrats. Clift (portrayed by Gavin Adams) was a major supporting character in the 2020 feature film As Long As Im Famous, which explored his intimate relationship with a young Sidney Lumet during the summer of 1948. The two starred in the 1961 film The Misfits; it would be Monroes last picture before her 1962 death. In one tape made by his father in the 1960s, we hear the stars mother tell him, with untroubled candor, that Monty was a homosexual early. Elegantly titled and captioned in white ink, the pages reveal that Clift had a filmmaker and photographers eye for framing, sense of place, and capturing action at its seminal moment. According to McCarthy, Clift told Taylor in a rather unregistered voice that his two front teeth were in his throat, suffocating him. [84] During the two and a half years that Clift stayed away from films, McDowall's career was nonexistent. [66][67][68] Clift's longest relationships were with men. By the age of thirty, Montgomery Clift seemed to have everything: youth, beauty, talent, and the prospect of a lucrative film career with limitless possibilities. (1936), Titled Marnie the Victor, in Clifts handwriting. [12] At age 7, aboard a European ship, a boy forced Clifts head underwater in the swimming pool for so long that a gland in his neck burst from his struggle to breathe; he had a long scar from the resulting infection and operation. Kramer, Stanley and Thomas M. Coffey (1997). He was linked to actresses Libby Holman[64][65] and Phyllis Thaxter. How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood. Still makes me weak in the knees. For decades, the star has been the subject of Hollywood gossip and speculation, and Robert Clift is determined to share his uncle's untold story. James Franco's brother, Dave Franco, portrays Montgomery Clift in a short scene in the movie. The accident changed his appearance, and many biographers assumed Clift felt ruined by it and, so, drank more. With a man of such conflicted legacy, one can at least fall back on the basics. The N.Y.P.L.s Montgomery Clift papers also contain several undated images of his Suddenly, Last Summer co-star Katharine Hepburn looking characteristically redoubtable and Waspy.