Clift's childhood was unconventional. While his brother claimed that Clift was bisexual, writer Truman Capotes unpublished work alludes to Clifts gayness quite explicitly. But that wasnt the wildest part of the story. Taylor had married British actor Michael Wilding in 1952, but by 1956, their marriage was in decline. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. RIP GEORGOUS MONTY. He spent a great deal of time and money on psychiatry.In 1956, during filming of Raintree County (1957), he ran his Chevrolet into a tree after leaving a party at Elizabeth Taylor's; it was she who saved him from choking by pulling out two teeth lodged in his throat. Indiscretion of an American Wife 1953, 1h 3min - Romance , Drama Jennifer Jones is the American housewife on vacation in Italy who must choose between returning home to her husband and family in Philadelphia or her romance with an Italian academic played by Montgomery Clift. A successful man in the business world, Bill nevertheless deferred to this strong-willed, opinionated woman at home. He died. His . About a month afterThe Misfitswrapped, Gable suffered a heart attack and passed. While they may not make old-timers forget the Greta Garbo-John Gilbert embraces of the 20s, Miss Taylor and Mr. Clift lose no chance to show why they are considered two of the hottest juveniles in Hollywood. Making distraction rewarding since 2017. Born in 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, Clift was raised like an aristocrat, with a private tutor and frequent trips to Europe. But Clift knew the film would be a smash, if only because audiences would want to compare his long unseen face from before and after the accident. He hated the criticism and the labels, and eventually, he just couldnt take it anymore. Of course, by this time, Clifts drinking problems werent much of a secret, making him a liability to the studio. Although he may not have realized it, Clifts horrific accident sparked the beginning of the end, intensifying his preexisting ailments and sending him down a dark path from which he could never return. This made him an A-list actor and a multi-award-winning star. But the troubled star. Hollywood began to see him as hostile and messy and frugal, and Clift wasnt having it. His own mother, in a voice recording played in Making Montgomery Clift, said, "Monty was a . My mom never told me how her best friend died. However, one salient fact remains: Clifts ruined face never made it to the papersIn fact, not one photograph of that night exists. However, he became more comfortable with her and eventually found it easy to open up about his sexuality. He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-1964). At the end of the day, Clifts private nurse Lorenzo James checked in on him just after midnight. His perpetual question to himself, as he once scribbled in his journal, was, How to remain thin-skinned, vulnerable, and still alive? For Clift, the task proved impossible. Following The Misfits, Clifts disintegration continued. But the drama didn't end there. (1936), Ghostwriting Gloria Swanson: The Strange, Sexually Charged Genesis of a Legendary Autobiography, A New Power Generation: Radhika Jones Introduces the 2023 Hollywood Issue, Salma Hayek Pinault Explains How She Got Hollywood to Stop Typecasting Her as Sexy. He insisted on maintaining his residence in New York, spending as little time in Hollywood as possible. Montgomery Clift may have been one of the most self-aware actors of his day, and he certainly knew the name of the game. Another confidant said his personal life didnt bother him. The Clift picture didn't pan out either, at least with her promised co-star. .. She made it known that it all boiled down to love. . Of course, as unusual as his lifestyle seemed, healso had a number of interesting routines. The director, Joseph Mankiewicz, was appalled by this wavering professionalismbut when he tried to fire Clift, two angels intervened. (The Clash famously referenced that awful scene, which changed the course of Clifts career and set him on a winding path of booze-and-painkiller-fueled decay, in the song The Right Profile from London Calling: I see a car smashed at night. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Search _ 1948 DVD Montgomery Clift Aline MacMahon Wendell Corey V Rare at the best online prices at eBay! He played the desperate, the drunken, and the deceived, and the trajectory of his life was as tragic as that in any of his films. Contact sheet from LIFE photographer Peter Stackpoles shoot on a Paramount lot with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in 1950. While filmingRaintree County, Clift attended a dinner party at Taylors housebut sadly, he didnt make it home in one piece. Quite fittingly, he once said, The closer we come to the negative, todeath, the more we blossom. Even after his passing, his forever friend, Elizabeth Taylor, never forgot him. But the tragedies didnt end there. However, this was no quick fix. Oddly enough, when he died, the homocons on Gay Patriot praised him on . If Paramount wanted him, theyd have to give him what he wanteda power differential that would go on to structure the star-studio relationship for the next 40 years. Clift, of course, knew better. His other side was mostly hidden and only became widely known after he passed on, thanks to his friend and colleague Elizabeth Taylor. Its impossible for us to know what happenedor if the two even had a relationship that went beyond the platonicbut it was returning from a party at Taylors house, mid-filming for Raintree County, that he smashed his car into a telephone pole. Woodbury Blair was the son of Montgomery Blair, after whom his great-grandson received his middle name, and wife Mary Elizabeth Woodbury, daughter of Levi Woodbury (1789-1851), United States Supreme Court, and wife Elizabeth Wendell Clapp. He naturally gravitated to the theater. Whisked away to the morgue, Clifts body underwent an autopsy that shed some light on his sudden demise. When James offered to join him, the belligerent shot him down immediately, crying, Absolutely not.Sadly, this was Montgomery Clifts final interaction. And when it came to riotous parties, well, he avoided nightlife like the plague. It was ironic his relationship with the bisexual middle-aged Holman would be the principal (and likely the last) heterosexual relationship of his life and only cause him further anguish over his sexuality. It left him with chronic health issues for the rest of his life. Montgomery Clift was an undeniably attractive man, and before long, hed cultivated a rather passionate female fan base. An interviewer once asked him what his hobbies were, Clift replied, "women. But her heroism didnt end there. However, his worry began to mount when the actor didnt respond to his insistent knocking. A seeming exception was one in his final years with a man named Lorenzo who had been hired to help him. And thus began what Robert Lewis, Clifts teacher at the Actors Studio, called the longest suicide in Hollywood history. Even before Raintree, the decline had been visible. / Is he alive? Other testimonies to Clifts gayness abound: early in his film career, he had purportedly been warned that being gay would ruin him; he was so conscious of being seen as feminine or fey in any way that when he ad-libbed a line in The Search, calling a boy dear, he insisted that director Fred Zinnemann reshoot the take. Can he still feel?). Just look at the fan magazine titles: Making Love the Clift Way, Two Loves Has Monty, Montgomery Clifts Tragic Love Story, Is It True What They Say About Monty? Who Is Monty Kidding? Hes Travelin Light, The Lurid Love Life of Montgomery Clift, and, perhaps most flagrantly, Monty Clift: Woman Hater or Free Soul?. Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock. But while his siblings enrolled in prestigious schools, Montgomery Clift went hurtling in a completely different direction. Clift wasn't one to hide a feeling, which made him a great actor and also a terrible straight man. The film went on to win six Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay, and is now hailed as a (flawed) classic. cocksucker, isnt he, Tallulah? Miss Bankhead said: Well, Montgomery Clift is a member of the following lists: American film actors, Actors Studio alumni and Bisexual actors. It was a huge wager: since everyone knew how much booze and pills Clift was on, he was virtually uninsurable on set. It wasnt until years after his tragic passing that Clifts darkest secret finally came out. In order to get him the part, she had to offer up some kind of insurance, and this time, she put her own salary on the line. Whatever the case may be, Montgomery Clifts life was unbelievably impressive and distressing. Luckily, although the public was out for blood, there was one woman on his side. . It turned into John Cassavetes' "Too Late Blues," with Bobby Darrin. When The Heiresscame out, Clifts loyal fanatics came with their claws out and wrote vicious letters to Olivia de Havilland for rejecting Clifts character in the film. Clift was so protective of Holman that when offered the plum role of the male lead in Sunset Boulevard, he turned it downreportedly to avoid any suggestion that Libby Holman was his own delusional Norma Desmond, using a handsome young man to pursue her lost stardom. A bulls horn scarred his nose and his attempt to tame a horse gave him intense rope burnnot to mention all the other scrapes he earned along the way. You see, Clift wasnt just a pretty face, he also had a bunch of quirks that made him incredibly singular in comparison to other leading men. Montgomery Clift had the most earnest of faces: big, pleading eyes, a set jaw, and the sort of immaculate side part we havent seen since. Not only would this film win him respect for his impeccable acting performance, but it would also fuel a brand new cycle of romance rumors. He wanted to be a free agent, and he did it successfully. He lived in a pampered bubbleuntil one day, it all came crashing down. When Clift became a household name in the movie industry, his romantic life became a widely-discussed subject by the press. Instead, he bided his time, and thankfully, luck was on his side. His injuries included a broken nose and jaw, a fractured sinus, and deep cuts across his face that called for extensive plastic surgery. Little did he know, he was always destined for something more. Observers also point out that Clift had sexual relationships with women. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. From the start, Clift was framed as a rebel and an individual. The most beautiful young man Ive ever seen. Sensitive. (The director himself never met his famous uncle, having been born eight years after his death). But that wasnt all. I am not one of Americas Angry Young Men. While driving, he fell asleep at the wheel and the consequences were utterly gruesome. Montgomery Clift as the confused, likable, rather stupid social climber; Shelley Winters as the dowdy working girl; Elizabeth Taylor as the dazzling rich girl. His parents were Quakers and met as students at Cornell University, marrying in 1914. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? A year and a half away from her own tragic end, Marilyn Monroe described Clift as the only person I know who is in even worse shape than I am. Together, this cast truly reflected a band of withering misfits. American Actor Montgomery Clift was born Edward Montgomery Clift on 17th October, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA and passed away on 23rd Jul 1966 Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA aged 45. We bring you all the headlines and gossip in one place! Thats why his work doesnt feel dated, Demmon said. Contact sheet from LIFE photographer Peter Stackpoles shoot with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in 1950. John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in Red River. "Monty," as his family called him, was the son of William Clift, a. The entire scene was extremely unsettling as Clift still wore his eyeglasses, and had his hands rigidly clenched. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. The Searchturned out to be a huge hit for Clift. Nobody wanted to deal with him anymore, and for four years, he couldnt land a single role. The unspoken truth was that Clift was gay. Still, unlike other notable gay actors, any affairs Montgomery Clift had were secured behind a lock and key. Luckily, over time, they clawed their way back to financial security. 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. Whether morally repulsive or philosophically compelling, The Misfits bombed, only to be recuperated, years later, as a masterpiece of the revisionist genre. He was a great talent but the male counterpart to Monroe, lonely, sad, and pitiful. Travel back in time with treasured photos and stories, sent right to your inbox. But even Monroe reported that Clift was the only person I know who is in even worse shape than I am. The pictures from the set are as poignant as they are heartbreaking: its as if all three were meditating on their respective declines, and theres a sad, peaceful resignation at the difference between what their bodies could do and how people wanted to remember them. Will she ride the term to Oscar gold? Between 1963 and 1966, he faded from public view, emerging only to film a final performance in the French spy thriller The Defector (1966). Biographies of Clift posit that he drank because he couldnt be his true self, because homosexuality was the shame he had to shelter within. Production resumed on Raintree County, which the studio feared would fail following Clifts accident.
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