
Montgomery Clift
Born October 17, 1920 · Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Edward Montgomery “Monty” Clift (October 17, 1920 - July 23, 1966) was an American actor of the Golden Age, known for often playing sensitive or conflicted outcast characters with realistic emotional depth and anxieties. Clift, Marlon Brando and James Dean are the trio typically associated with the new wave of film acting, with Clift being the oldest and first to make his stage and screen debuts. Starting at age 14, he was a breakout talent on Broadway throughout 1935-1945. He finally accepted one of many Hollywood offers: starring in the Western “Red River” which was filmed in 1946 but delayed release for 2 years. Fred Zinnemann’s “The Search” preceded “Red River” as his first film in 1948 and first Academy Award nomination. Clift’s next major films were “The Heiress” (1949) and “A Place in the Sun” (1951), cementing his romantic lead status. At the time, audiences had rarely seen a type of masculinity softened with Clift’s vulnerability. Hollywood had also never seen a young actor control his career and instant stardom the way Clift did in the late 1940’s: notoriously selective, refusing the standard seven-year studio contracts and rewriting scripts to preserve his artistic freedom. In 1953, Zinnemann again directed Clift to an Academy Award nomination in war drama “From Here to Eternity.” After suffering a near-fatal car accident during “Raintree County” (1957) he starred in acclaimed 1960’s films "Wild River,” "The Misfits” and “Judgment at Nuremberg” for which he earned a fourth and final Academy Award nomination for his 12-minute scene. Despite a 4-year hiatus and mounting health problems, Clift was eager to make a comeback in "Reflections in a Golden Eye,” secured by the insurance and insistence of co-star Elizabeth Taylor, but he tragically died of a heart attack at the age of 45 just weeks before shooting began.
More Movies

Judgment at Nuremberg

From Here to Eternity

The Misfits

I Confess

A Place in the Sun

The Young Lions

Suddenly, Last Summer

Red River

Wild River

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes

Freud: The Secret Passion

Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire

The Heiress

Listen to Me Marlon

The Fabulous Allan Carr

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender

Raintree County

Rat Pack

Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage

Indiscretion of an American Wife

Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies

The Defector

George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey

Edith Head: The Paramount Years

Marilyn at the Movies

Operation Raintree

The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks

Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths

Sir John Mills' Moving Memories

The Big Lift

Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star

Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess

George Stevens and His Place In The Sun

The Search

Lonelyhearts

Montgomery Clift

Making 'The Misfits'

Gay! Gay! Hollywood

Making Montgomery Clift




