Montgomery Clift |
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Actor Credits
Other InformationAwardsBest Actor in a Supporting Role Academy Awards [1962] (Won/Nominated: nominated) Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: nominated) Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Awards [1952] (Won/Nominated: nominated) Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Awards [1949] (Won/Nominated: nominated) |
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Montgomery Clift Biography |
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Edward Montgomery Clift (October 17, 1920–July 23, 1966) was an American film actor. He was known for brooding, sensitive, working-class character roles, and received four Academy Award nominations during his career.
Clift was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Ethel Fogg (she had been adopted by the Fogg family) and William Brooks Clift, at that time Vice-President of Omaha National Bank. Clift had a twin sister Roberta, and also a brother William Brooks (born eighteen months earlier). Clift was always treated as the baby of the family, although he was only minutes younger than his twin Roberta. Their mother Ethel, nicknamed "Sunny", spent part of her life and her husband`s money seeking to claim her southern lineage. She at age 18 had been told the secret of her birth. Clift was the great-grandson of Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General under President Abraham Lincoln. He was also the great great-grandson of Francis Preston Blair, a journalist and adviser to President Andrew Jackson, and Levi Woodbury, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. As part of Sunny`s lifelong preparation for acceptance by her biological family (a goal never fully achieved), she raised Clift and his siblings as if they were aristocrats. As a result, her children lived a very sheltered life during their early years, including when they traveled to Europe with their mother. They had private tutors, not attending a regular school until they were in their teens. The adjustment was difficult, particularly for Montgomery. His performance as a student lagged behind that of his sister and brother. Clift was trained in French, German, and Italian. Monty was Best friends with Liz Taylor Since their first movie together A Place In The Sun (1951) Was Elizabeth Taylor`s choice to play her husband, the closeted homosexual Major Weldon Penderton, in Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). He died before the film began shooting and was replaced by Marlon Brando, who at one time was considered his only rival as an attractive leading man who was also a great actor. |
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Trivia |
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BiographyFriends and FamilyDean Martin [Friend] :: Kevin McCarthy [Friend] :: Marilyn Monroe [Friend] :: Roddy McDowell [Friend] :: Elizabeth Taylor [Friend] :: Brooks Clift [Brother] :: Roberta Clift [Sister] (twins) :: Ethel "Sunny" Clift [Mother] :: William Clift [Father]Trivia and QuotesQuotes Good dialogue simply isn`t enough to explain all the infinite gradations of a character. It`s behavior -- it`s what`s going on behind the lines. I don`t want to be labeled as either a pansy or a heterosexual. Labeling is so self-limiting. We are what we do, not what we say we are. I feel my real talent lies in directing for my later years. I keep my family out of my public life because it can be an awful nuisance to them. What`s my mother going to tell strangers anyway? That I was a cute baby and that she`s terribly proud of me? Nuts. Who cares? love the stage, but after a few months you can get tired. I would rather do three movies than play in one stage hit. I played in four flops in a row when I was about 17 and I was delighted. I was being paid to be trained. on Elizabeth Taylor] Liz is the only woman I have ever met who turns me on. She feels like the other half of me. What do I have to do to prove I can act? [on Marilyn Monroe] Marilyn was an incredible person to act with, the most marvelous I ever worked with and I have been working for 29 years. [recalling his arrival in Hollywood] I told them I wanted to choose my scripts and my directors myself. "But sweetheart," they said, "you`re going to make a lot of mistakes." And I told them, "You don`t understand; I want to be free to do so." [reported last words, upon being asked if he wanted to see one of his movies on TV[ Absolutely not!Trivia A sometime guest of Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne at their rural retreat Ten Chimneys in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin. At his near-fatal car accident in 1956, Rock Hudson, Michael Wilding and Kevin McCarthy formed a protective shield to protect Clift`s photo from being taken by photographers as he was carried from the wreck to the ambulance. Became good friends with Dean Martin while filming The Young Lions (1958), and Clift helped the singer, who was best known at that time as a light comedian, with rehearsing his heavy dramatic scenes. In later years, as Clift was ostracized by the Hollywood social set for his substance abuses and mental instability, Martin stuck by the troubled actor and often brought him along as his guest to parties. He was a close friend of Elizabeth Taylor, although he greatly disliked her husband Richard Burton, and the feeling was mutual. Clift once said, "Richard Burton doesn`t act, he just recites.". Hollywood folklore has it that his ghost haunts the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The actor had stayed there while filming From Here to Eternity (1953). In Italy, most of his early films were dubbed by Giulio Panicali, then by Giuseppe Rinaldi. He was occasionally dubbed by Gianfranco Bellini (in The Search (1948) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)), Nando Gazzolo (in The Young Lions (1958)) and once by Pino Locchi in Raintree County (1957). Marilyn Monroe described him as "the only person I know who is in worse shape than I am." One of only six actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance. The others are Orson Welles, James Dean, Alan Arkin, Paul Muni and Lawrence Tibbett. Related to actor Michael Anderson Brown. Voted for Republican Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential election, but later actively campaigned for Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election - much to the annoyance of his father. He had so many health problems on the set of Freud (1962) that Universal sued him for the cost of the film`s production delays. During the trial, the film opened and was such a huge hit that Clift`s lawyers brought up the point that the film was doing well because of Clift`s involvement. Clift won a lucrative settlement. He is the subject of R.E.M.`s song "Monty Got a Raw Deal", from their LP "Automatic For the People". His father was a violent, abusive, ultra-conservative bigot and did not get along with his son. As an actor, whenever Clift was playing characters snapping as they went up against ignorance or brutality, Clift was said to have acted with his father in mind as an antagonist. In Robert Laguardia`s "Monty" (1977), the first published biography, Laguardia tells of how Clift was discomfited when he initially met co-star Burt Lancaster on the set of From Here to Eternity (1953). Lancaster was in awe of Monty and was so nervous, he actually shook during their first scene (as also mentioned in Lancaster`s biography). Marlon Brando, who calls him a "friend" in his autobiography, says that Clift was a tormented soul addicted to alcohol and chloral hydrate, a depressant and sedative which he drank. On the set of The Young Lions (1958), he warned Clift that he was destroying himself like Brando`s own alcoholic mother had. For his part, Clift was always supportive of Brando as an actor, even when his career began faltering after Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). On the set of The Young Lions (1958), Marlon Brando insisted on doing his own stunt fall after being "shot" by co-stars Clift and Dean Martin and wound up dislocating his shoulder. Clift, seeing that Brando was in pain, offered him a swig from the thermos jug he carried with him at all times. The combination of vodka and prescription drugs in the thermos helped Brando through the ordeal. Spoke fluent French, Italian and German. Suffered from dysentery and colitis for most of his adult life. The release of Red River (1948) made him an overnight sensation and instant star. He embodied a new type of man on screen, the beautiful, sensual and vulnerable man that seemed to appeal to women and men alike. After A Place in the Sun (1951) came out he was Hollywood`s hottest male star and adored by millions. He looked incredible and was a fine actor, a rare combination. His only rival in this regard during the next few years was Marlon Brando, whose career turned out to be more stable and successful in the end. Clift`s mental problems prevented him from staying at the top, as his drinking and drug problem began to affect his acting and bankability. The loss of his dashing looks in a well publicized road accident during the filming of Raintree County (1957) didn`t help, either. What followed could be described as the longest suicide in show-business history. Was Elizabeth Taylor`s choice to play her husband, the closeted homosexual Major Weldon Penderton, in Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). He died before the film began shooting and was replaced by Marlon Brando, who at one time was considered his only rival as an attractive leading man who was also a great actor. | ||
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