By the early 1950s he was exclusively homosexual, though he continued to hide his homosexuality and maintained a number of close friendships with theater women (heavily promoted by studio publicists).His film debut was Red River (1948) with John Wayne quickly followed by his early personal success The Search (1948) (Oscar nominations for this, A Place in the Sun (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)). Which gives that narrative a lot of traction. Born in 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, Clift was raised like an aristocrat, with a private tutor and frequent trips to Europe. . Sadly, his greatest friend Elizabeth Taylor could only send flowers from Rome. The view then about queer people was that they would be inherently conflicted or tormented about their sexuality, said Demmon. 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. Sumner Redstone in Love: The Cringey Sexcapades of a Horny Billionaire, The elderly media titan flexed his MTV ownership, rang his grandson at 3 a.m. for hookups with new women, and rewarded companions with stock options and TV shows. James found his patient sitting up in bed and watching his film, The Misfits, but Clift clearly didnt want to be disturbed. Picture Information. . Montgomery Clift may have been one of the most self-aware actors of his day, and he certainly knew the name of the game. It was a huge wager: since everyone knew how much booze and pills Clift was on, he was virtually uninsurable on set. Over the next 10 years, he earned prominent roles in plays by Tennessee Williams and Thornton Wilder, opposite stars like Fredrick March and Tallulah Bankhead. Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor during the filming of A Place in the Sun. He read books about Montgomery Clift and James Dean, and credited seeing "Taxi Driver" at age 13 with fueling his desire to be in movies. But the press will always be the press, and no amount of Montgomery Clifts ire could change that. When the duo finally met in Stevens' office, it was pretty magical for Taylor. Please reach out to us to let us know what youre interested in reading. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life. After filming wrapped, she tracked him down and spat directly in his face. These are just among the many words which have been used to describe Montgomery Clift, the enigmatic heartthrob of the 1950s. His leading lady, Olivia de Havilland, disappointed him in every wayand his criticisms were downright brutal. 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. Of course, as unusual as his lifestyle seemed, healso had a number of interesting routines. Hailed as one of Hollywood's first true Method actors, Edward Montgomery Clift was born October 17, 1920, in Omaha, Nebraska. (He never won an Academy Award, although most movie aficionados feel he deserved at least one, for his unforgettable turn as the tortured Robert E. Lee Prewitt in From Here to Eternity.). 2023 Cond Nast. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950. Free delivery for many products! While filming a 15-minute supporting role as a mentally handicapped victim of the Holocaust in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), he had to ad-lib all of his lines. Montgomery Clift as the confused, likable, rather stupid social climber; Shelley Winters as the dowdy working girl; Elizabeth Taylor as the dazzling rich girl. According to two A-list biographers, the late star was gay. He was, at least in the press, something approaching asexualthe title of a Motion Picture article, authored by Clift, declared simply, I Like It Lonely!. Tellingly, theyre always pitched under working titles like Beautiful Loser and' Tragic Beauty. Even the press seemed to unintentionally hit upon the one thing he wanted to keep hidden, with titles like Two Loves Has Monty and Monty Clift: Woman Hater or Free Soul?. His apartment, which he rented for 10 dollars a month, was described by friends as beat up and by him as terrific. He survived on two meals a day, mostly combinations of steak, eggs, and orange juice, and he eschewed nightclubs, instead spending his spare time reading Chekov, classic works of history and economics, and Aristotle, whom he praised for his belief in happiness, or the gentle art of the soul. When he wasnt reading or exhausting himself in preparation for a part, he liked to go to the local night court and attend high-profile court cases just to watch the humanity on display. Montgomery Clifts sexuality finally emerged with the help of two biographers, and before long, the public turned him into a gay icon. According to Clifts doctors, it was amazing that he was even alive. 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. What finally brought him back to the screen? Until it sinks into a sentimental quagmire the end, the second movie excels first in being remarkably faithful to Dreisers tale of three pitiful youngsters and in telling the story with the same earnestness and breadth that have made the novel survive as a classic. They went to London to see Laurence Olivier together, ate together, sat in front of the fire together, Clift said. That secret that Clift was gay during an impossible era (the 1930s through the 60s) led many interpreters to conclude that the actor must have led a life riddled with fear and shame. Above all, Clift was perpetually curious. Production resumed on Raintree County, which the studio feared would fail following Clifts accident. Hollywood repeatedly came courting, but he put off offers for nearly a decade, even turning down roles in classic films like East of Eden and the co-lead in Sunset Boulevard. However, even with all the negative hubbub surrounding this shoot, it was nothing compared to the darkness of one of Clifts next projects. Throughout filming, members of the crew came up with code words to alert everyone about the lead actors level of intoxication. Luckily, his isolated lifestyle gave him an advantage. An inside look at the actors secretive love life. 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. Soon, Montgomery Clift became almost impossible to work with. Nope. Were not trying to give a definitive version of who Monty was, added Clift. Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. Montgomery Clift's full name is Edward Montgomery Clift and his nickname is Montgomery Clift. The Clift picture didn't pan out either, at least with her promised co-star. From the start, Clift was framed as a rebel and an individual. and his wife, the former Ethel Fogg. That secret, depending on your source, was that Clift was gay or bisexual. 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. .. Author Christopher Isherwood aptly illustrated Montgomery Clifts shocking transformation: Nearly all his good looks are goneHe has a ghastly, shattered expression. But remember, Clift was never one to dwell on his looks, and it must have been frustrating that everyone else cared so much. In fact, his doctors considered it amazing that the actor had even pulled through. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift goofed around during a break in filming A Place in the Sun. Montgomery Clift is American by birth. Clift was nominated for awards . They seem to have their stories all written out beforehand., Clifts private life was boringhe didnt date, he didnt flirt, he didnt hang out in public. . He knew that people would flock to the cinema just to see his damaged face. Not only did he rarely go out in public, but he also didnt date. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Hitchcock's I CONFESS (DVD, 1953); M CLIFT, A BAXTER. Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? Nothing could have prepared him for what he discovered. He advanced a collaborative approach with his directors, working over scripts and making suggestions for edits. Indeed, it was his apparent lack of romantic attachments that confounded the gossip press the most. 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. The surgeries led to the use of strong painkillers. The subject matter, which involved him assisting in the cover-up of a dead mans apparent homosexuality, must have sparked mixed emotions. cocksucker. Then, sweetly, wide-eyed with little girl navet, she His . [6] His mother was Ethel Fogg "Sunny" Clift ( ne Anderson; 1888-1988). There were even speculations that he was warned about being gay. He looked about ten years older than the Montgomery Clift audiences remembered and adored. Peace. Realizing that Clift was in mortal danger, McCarthy raced to the scene of the accident. "Indiscretion of an American Wife" romance and drama movie produced in Italy and USA and released in 1953. In the face of such criticism, Clift went ahead and confused the gossip columns even more. But this was only the beginning. Yet Clift would come to hate the image that constrained him, just as he hated the suggestion that he was a slob, unfriendly, or loathed in Hollywood: after the story of his bare closet came out in the Saturday Evening Post, he worked arduously to set the record straight, underlining the ways in which publicity takes a kernel of the truth and expands it into legend. He surely wasnt a suave Prince Charming, and yet, on-screen, he was a downright masterpiece. Thanks for your help! He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-1964). Here was someone who was vulnerable and sensitive - and who actually listened to women.. A Place In The Sun (1951) & From Here To Eternity (1953). Marlon Brando: Portraits of a Charismatic Young Star, 1952, Marilyn, Arthur Miller and More: A Star Producers Spectacular Orbit. One time when he was delivering his line on the set of "The Search," he mistakenly called a boy 'dear' and insisted that the director did a reshoot. A wild exclusive excerpt from the new book, Oscars 2023: Yes, Some Awards Movies Flopped, but Art Matters, How in the F--k Does Anyone Live Here?: Bret Easton Ellis on Life, Art, and What the Hell Happened to Manhattan, Todd Field on 2 Decades of Oscar Campaigns, From, I didnt realize the deadly minefield of a campaign season, the Oscar nominee says in a career-spanning interview. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from Life to Compact Cars and Trucks to A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius. Well get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics youre interested in. Clift was unperturbed by his apparent lack of a love life: he told the press that he would get married when he met a girl he wanted to marry; in the meantime, he was playing the field. When another columnist asked him if he had any hobbies, he replied, Yes, women. But as the years passed, it became more and more clear that Clift wasnt just picky. Lorenzo was one of the reasons.. The entire scene was extremely unsettling as Clift still wore his eyeglasses, and had his hands rigidly clenched. Montgomery Clift made a name for himself in Hollywood with several awards and nominations. His parents were Quakers and met as students at Cornell University, marrying in 1914. Today, its impossible to know the specifics of Clifts sexuality: his brother, Brooks, would later claim that his brother was bisexual, while various writings from within Hollywood indicate that Clifts sexuality wasnt entirely a secret. An interviewer once asked him what his hobbies were, Clift replied, "women. . His body was found by his live-in personal secretary/companion Lorenzo James, who found Clift lying nude on top of his bed, dead from what the autopsy called "occlusive coronary artery disease." He was such a mess on the set of Freud (1962) that Universal sued him. She noted that they needed to live a life of equality while being able to get married and adopt kids. MONTY YOU WERE THE BEST!!! However, one salient fact remains: Clifts ruined face never made it to the papersIn fact, not one photograph of that night exists. Between 1963 and 1966, he faded from public view, emerging only to film a final performance in the French spy thriller The Defector (1966).