[43] He began to behave erratically in public, which embarrassed his friends. It was reported that Hutson was homophobic towards Clift after news of him being with a male reporter broke. While the press assumed that Balaban and Clift were an item, Clift secretly dated British actor Roddy McDowall. The two starred in the 1961 film The Misfits; it would be Monroes last picture before her 1962 death. One of the few men on this list is actor Montgomery Clift. Part of honoring someone is being open to that person not being just one, reductive thing., Making Montgomery Clift is showing at NewFest with a release date yet to be announced, Tab Hunter: how Hollywood's boy next door became a gay icon, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. [88], While filming for Vittorio De Sica in Italy, Clift had a romance with Truman Capote. This image is titled Cheval et Marnie, in Clifts handwriting. However, in 1962, Cliff had to sign up to play Sigmund Feud in Huston's biopic "Freud: The Secret Passion." The secret life of legendary actor Montgomery Clift has been revealed by his nephew. In his one 12-minute cameo scene in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Clift played a developmentally disabled German baker who had been a victim of the Nazi sterilisation programme testifying at the Nuremberg trials. Guided by the key biographies of Clift, they reliably parrot a narrative which paints the actor as a startlingly attractive and prodigiously gifted man who, according to one notably overheated tabloid TV show became a drug-addicted alcoholic living in a self-imposed hell because he had a secret he couldnt live with. Films like A Place in the Sun and From Here to Eternity made Clift a rare performer enjoyed by audiences and critics alike, but when he passed away in 1966 aged just 45, the actor had long since become best known for his personal dramas, in particular a disfiguring 1956 car accident that undid his once near-saintly beauty and accelerated his . 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. He was only 12 years old when he appeared in a production of "As Husbands Go" in Sarasota. [28] Although filmed in 1946, the film was delayed release until August 1948. 108, 135, Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About American Masters, Season 23, Episode 1, Somewhere the life of Jerome Robbins by Vaill, Amanda, p. 240, Jerome Robbins: his life, his theater, his dance by Jowitt, Deborah, pp. He was not worried [about being gay], Larson asserts in the film. Clifts papers include several undated, intimate, tender images of a young Elizabeth Taylor with one of her sons. [85][86] McDowall devoted himself to Clift entirely, and he moved from Los Angeles to New York to be closer to his idol. Clift had a brother named William Brooks Clift Jr., Montgomery Clift (1920-1966) is one of the most tragic figures in Hollywood history. [27], At age 25, Clift's first Hollywood film role was opposite John Wayne in the Western film Red River whose director Howard Hawks was impressed by his recent stage performance and was willing to sign him with no strings attached, which greatly appealed to Clift's sense of independence. [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. But it was his next pairing with Elizabeth Taylor that proved to be his most dynamic on-screen. A four-time Oscar nominee who died at 45, Montgomery Clift was a bright young talent, a tabloid fixture, and a posthumous gay icon. Clift asserts that the actor's use of alcohol and prescription drugs stemmed, primarily, from a near-fatal car accident in 1956. (1936), Clift with a sultry Marilyn Monroe in a souvenir photograph taken at San Franciscos Fairmont Hotel, which once boasted a variety of alluringly named nightspots, including the Venetian Room, the Squire Room, and the Tonga Room. Which gives that narrative a lot of traction. As a result, Clift's health and physical appearance deteriorated. To help build their case, the film-makers had rare access to the actors archives. Clift required intensive physical therapy as well. 7 Books We Cant Stop Thinking About This Month, Great speculative fiction, a novel about bad mothers, and more favorite reads from the staff of, Peptides, Explained: How a Skin Care Supercharger Became Beautys Big Buzzword. Girelli, Elisabetta (2013) "Montgomery Clift Queer Star", Wayne University Press. [48] In nephew Robert Anderson Clift's 2018 documentary, superimposed pages of Clift's own heavily annotated original script show that the actor was actually deliberately and consciously performing with his own rewritten dialogue as opposed to confused improvisation. In 1959, Clift was slammed by film director Joseph Mankiewicz after Taylor noted that the star was still "vulnerable. ", The "Suddenly, Last Summer" star reportedly had the worse of experience with John Huston. It also stresses Clifts crucial role in changing the power balance between actors and studio chiefs in Hollywood, as well as the advancements he brought to film acting. For his character's scenes in jail, Clift spent a night in a real state prison. Clift's second film role, though it premiered first that same year, was The Search which earned him his first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2000, at the GLAAD Media Awards, where Taylor was honored for her work for the LGBT community, she made the first public declaration by anyone of the fact that Clift was gay and called him her closest friend and confidant. The condition (among other things) lowers blood pressure; it could have caused Clift to appear drunk or drugged when he was sober. In 1963, when the "Red River" star recalled the traumatic incident, he mentioned a long day's shoot as the reason he was asleep during the crash. All rights reserved. A seeming exception was one in his final years with a man named Lorenzo who had been hired to help him. "[17] Clift spent a short time at the Dalton School in Manhattan but struggled with traditional schooling. The song "Montgomery Clift" by British band Random Hold concerns the legend that Clift enjoyed hanging from the window ledges of tall buildings. But the troubled star. But the documentary notes Clift made as many movies after the accident as before, and that those projects included some of his most acclaimed performances. He also talked publicly for the first time about his 1956 car accident, the injuries he received, and its aftereffects on his appearance. Clift was driving a Chevrolet Bel Air sedan when the accident occurred. Often, suicides are never fully understood. Behind the Scenes at New York Fashion Week 2023. Paramount Pictures Montgomery Clift was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and was a contemporary of Marlon Brando (also born in Omaha) and James Dean. His parents were Quakers and met as students at Cornell University, marrying in 1914. The true story of Montgomery Clift, as told by his youngest nephew Making Montgomery Clift explodes the myths surrounding the Hollywood star and queer icon. Paramount Pictures ended up offering him the best of any incoming studio offer (which he accepted): a three-film deal (down from the typical seven-year contract) that came with the freedom to turn down any script and any director, as well as the ability for either himself or the studio to terminate the agreement at any time. He had a holistic view.. 11:50 AM. BAFTA Awards 2023: The 19 Best-Dressed Stars. [91][92] He was also involved with Donald Windham and his partner Sandy Campbell. He owed his life to his close friend Taylor, who immediately went to help him when she learned of the incident. He didnt want the studios to dictate the kinds of roles he would play, his nephew said. [84] During the two and a half years that Clift stayed away from films, McDowall's career was nonexistent. For us, it seemed there was this big difference between what people thought about Monty in the public sphere and what people that knew him would say, said Clift. From Making Montgomery Clift (2018) via YouTube screen-grab. Sadly the star got involved in a car crash that ruined his face and impacted his life and career. Clift made his Broadway debut in "Fly Away Home" in 1935, according to the Irish Times. McCarthy had been driving in front of Clift when the crash occurred, and he thought that Clift had been killed. His body was discovered by his assistant. Clift, along with actor Kevin McCarthy, had been attending a party at Elizabeth Taylor's house in Beverly Hills. Clift was also a Hollywood maverick of sorts, choosing to remain independent at a time when most actors were under contract to the movie studios, per Vanity Fair. [24] In January 1951, he participated in the episode "The Metal in the Moon" for the series Cavalcade of America, sponsored by the chemical company DuPont Company. While she sounds apologetic, the changes were never made. In Making Montgomery Clift, the film-makers note that the actor made as many movies after the accident as before. On the evening of May 12, 1956, while filming Raintree County, Clift was involved in a serious auto accident when he smashed his car into a telephone pole after leaving a dinner party at the Beverly Hills home of his Raintree County co-star and close friend Elizabeth Taylor and her second husband, Michael Wilding. A portrait of Montgomery Clift leaning on a fence with an intent expression before his accident on 01 January, 1950 | Photo: Getty Images. Clift asserts that the actors use of alcohol and prescription drugs stemmed, primarily, from a near-fatal car accident in 1956. A portrait of actor Montgomery Clift on 01 January, 1960 | Photo: Getty Images, Clift died at age 45 of a heart attack in his East Side townhouse. We collect and tell stories of people from all around the world. Rock Hudson Visited Doris Day Before His Death While Hiding His Illness . [36], On the evening of May 12, 1956, while filming Raintree County, Clift was involved in a serious car crash after leaving a dinner party hosted by Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, Michael Wilding. He was only 45. He is best remembered for his roles in Howard Hawks's Red River (1948), George Stevens's A Place in the Sun (1951), Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity (1953), Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and John Huston's The Misfits (1961). [87] It is said that McDowall took the breakup with Clift hard. Still makes me weak in the knees. [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. Clift also took to drinking, and his addiction was well known amongst his colleagues. Kim Morgan writes in her not-to-be-missed essay on Clift: Clift' s eyes held secrets, and not merely the secrets we know about after discovering his real life. Thats why his work doesnt feel dated, Demmon said. [57] In preparation for the shooting of this film, Clift accepted the role of James Bower in the French Cold War thriller The Defector, which was filmed in West Germany from February to April 1966. After leaving a party at Taylor's house high in the Hollywood Hills and drowsy from two "downers" he'd taken before he left to help him sleep when he got home, Clift crashed into a telephone. Clift was able to appear in more Hollywood movies after he recuperated from the accident, but he was deeply affected by the decline in his career. In January 1963 Montgomery Clift made an uncharacteristic appearance on television to be interviewed on New York Herald Tribune columnist Hy Gardner's show. "[142] "Monty Got a Raw Deal" by rock band R.E.M. 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