MC
Montgomery Clift
Actor, Writer
Born October 17, 1920Died July 23, 1966 (45 years)
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.
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.
Known For
Filmography
| 2019 | Hitchcock Confidential · as Father Michael Logan |
| 2011 | These Amazing Shadows · as Matt Garth |
| 2008 | How the West Was Lost · as Perce Howland |
| 2004 | |
| 2002 | Edith Head: The Paramount Years · as (archive Footage) |
| 1997 | |
| 1995 | The Celluloid Closet · as Matthew Garth |
| 1990 | Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths · as (archive Footage) |
| 1981 | Sixty Years of Seduction · as Cast |
| 1976 | America at the Movies · as Matt Garth |
| 1966 | The Defector · as Professor James Bower |
| 1965 | The Legend of Marilyn Monroe · as Perce Howland |
| 1962 | Freud · as Sigmund Freud |
| 1961 | Judgment at Nuremberg · as Rudolph Petersen |
| 1961 | The Misfits · as Perce Howland |
| 1960 | Wild River · as Chuck Glover |
| 1959 | Suddenly, Last Summer · as Dr. Cukrowicz |
| 1958 | Lonelyhearts · as Adam White |
| 1958 | The Young Lions · as Noah Ackerman |
| 1957 | Raintree County · as John Wickliff Shawnessy |
| 1953 | From Here to Eternity · as Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'prew' Prewitt |
| 1953 | Terminal Station · as Giovanni Doria |
| 1953 | I Confess · as Fr. Michael William Logan |
| 1951 | A Place in the Sun · as George Eastman |
| 1950 | The Big Lift · as Sgt. 1st Class Danny Maccullough |
| 1949 | The Heiress · as Morris Townsend |
| 1948 | Red River · as Matthew Garth |
| 1948 | The Search · as Ralph Stevenson |