Montgomery Clift
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- October 17, 1920
- Died
- July 23, 1966 (aged 45)
- Birthplace
- Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Biography
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.
Known For
Photos
Filmography
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Rat Pack
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Making Montgomery Clift
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
The Fabulous Allan Carr
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Listen to Me Marlon
Movie · as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
Movie · as Self - Actor (archive footage)
Starring Sigmund Freud
Movie · as (archive footage)
Marilyn at the Movies
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Edith Head: The Paramount Years
Movie · as (archive footage)
Making 'The Misfits'
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
George Stevens and His Place In The Sun
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
Movie · as Dr. Cukrowicz (archive footage)
Gay! Gay! Hollywood
Movie
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies
Movie · as (archive footage) (uncredited)
Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Eve and Marilyn
Movie · as Self (archive photo)
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
Movie · as (archive footage)
Montgomery Clift
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
The Defector
Movie · as Professor James Bower
William Faulkner's Mississippi
Movie · as Self - Narrator
Freud: The Secret Passion
Movie · as Sigmund Freud
The Merv Griffin Show
TV · as Self · 1 ep
Judgment at Nuremberg
Movie · as Rudolph Petersen
The Misfits
Movie · as Perce Howland
Wild River
Movie · as Chuck Glover
Suddenly, Last Summer
Movie · as Dr. Cukrowicz
Lonelyhearts
Movie · as Adam White
The David Susskind Show
TV · as Self · 1 ep
The Young Lions
Movie · as Noah Ackerman
Raintree County
Movie · as John Wickliff Shawnessy
Operation Raintree
Movie · as Self
I Confess
Movie · as Fr. Michael William Logan
From Here to Eternity
Movie · as Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt
Indiscretion of an American Wife
Movie · as Giovanni Doria
A Place in the Sun
Movie · as George Eastman
The Big Lift
Movie · as Sgt. 1st Class Danny MacCullough
What's My Line?
TV · as Self - Mystery Guest · 1 ep
The Heiress
Movie · as Morris Townsend
Red River
Movie · as Matthew Garth
The Search
Movie · as Ralph Stevenson
The Ed Sullivan Show
TV · as Self · 1 ep