But 1961 audiences were too close to the day-to-day deterioration of its stars to see the meditative genius of The Misfits. He was only 15 years old, but this wasnt just a fun pastimeit was serious business. Contact sheets from LIFE photographer Peter Stackpoles shoot on a Paramount lot with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in 1950. Historys most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. When he came to visit storied fan-magazine author Elsa Maxwell at her home, she had her maid darn the elbow in his jacket. Another confidant said his personal life didnt bother him. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. Sadly, his greatest friend Elizabeth Taylor could only send flowers from Rome. [6] His mother was Ethel Fogg "Sunny" Clift ( ne Anderson; 1888-1988). A bulls horn scarred his nose and his attempt to tame a horse gave him intense rope burnnot to mention all the other scrapes he earned along the way. In order to get him the part, she had to offer up some kind of insurance, and this time, she put her own salary on the line. By 1950, he was troubled with allergies and colitis (the U.S. Army had rejected him for military service in World War II for chronic diarrhea) and, along with pill problems, he was alcoholic. He also sunk into alcoholism, of which Taylor and some other friends tried to help him. In this exclusive excerpt from her forthcoming book, Anne. There were no wild outings for this reserved homebody. Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter. Taylor, caught up in filming with Richard Burton in Paris, sent flowers to the funeral. He knew that people would flock to the cinema just to see his damaged face. It was a flimsy speculation built on shaky evidence, but with no sign of any real lovemaking in Clifts life, it was all the fan magazines had. He also helped bring a more natural acting style to film. Grasping at straws, the media decided to do what little they could to sensationalize the actors non-existent, One of Clifts closest friends was a woman named Myra Letts, and for the ruthless gossip columns, it wasnt a huge leap from friend to girlfriend. Clift didnt entertain this for a second and shot the sordid speculations down immediately, saying that there was zero intimacy between them: those romantic rumors are embarrassing to both of us.. All his life, it was misery," said McCarthy. A seeming exception was one in his final years with a man named Lorenzo who had been hired to help him. In remembering Clift, McCarthy said, his face was torn awaya bloody pulp. The Life and Sad Ending of Montgomery Clift - YouTube So the fan magazines got creative: the August 1949 cover of Movieland, for example, featured a grinning, suited, respectable-looking Clift paired with the tantalizing headline Making Love the Clift Way. But when readers looked inside the magazine, all they found was a two-page spread of stills from The Heiress, featuring Clift in various stages of flirtation with Olivia de Havilland, extrapolating that Clifts kissing style was soft yet possessively brutal; pleading, but demanding all. What a pity hes a Montgomery Clift made a name for himself in Hollywood with several awards and nominations. Free shipping for many products! His mother wanted all of her children to be raised as distinguished aristocrats, and as such, little Clift and his siblings received an elite upbringing: private tutors, extensive travel, and language lessons. Copyright 2023 by Factinate.com. 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. So finely Nope. The film went on to win six Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay, and is now hailed as a (flawed) classic. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. While filmingRaintree County, Clift attended a dinner party at Taylors housebut sadly, he didnt make it home in one piece. Help us build our profile of Montgomery Clift! In Montgomery Clift: A Biography, author Patricia Bosworth describes Monty's father Bill as passive, good-natured, and very dependent on his charismatic wife, Sunny. Have I said something wrong? Monroe and Taylor are shadowed by Montgomery. Sensitive. However, Clift's sexuality was not much of a secret within the movie industry. Taylor and Clift: Photos From the Set of A Place in the Sun. A four-time Academy Award nominee, The New York Times said he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men". Clift cared nothing for appearances: the Los Angeles Times called him the Rumpled Movie Idol; he infamously owned only one suit. A still of Montgomery Clift. Montgomery Clift - Wikipedia Fellow actor Kevin McCarthy was driving ahead of Clift when the horror show went down. Montgomery Clift was in relationships with Sal Mineo, Paul Newman, Henry Willson, Jack Larson, William LeMassena, Libby Holman, Maurice Leonard and Arnold Saint Subber. The script wasnt necessarily that special, but it would give him a chance to re-unite with Elizabeth Taylor, and that, it seemed, was enough to pull him out of semi-retirement. 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!. Con Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, Gino Cervi, Richard Beymer. The unspoken truth was that Clift was gay. Indiscrecin de una esposa (1953) - IMDb Looking back, the film had a legacy of darkness surrounding it: Gable died of a heart attack less than a month after filming; Monroe was only able to attend the films premiere with a pass from her stay at a psychiatric ward. What happened next has since become the stuff of Hollywood legend. Because of the accident, the studio worried about the success of Raintree County. And even more shocking? But that didnt mean that the gossip press didnt hint at something different, something queer, in the broadest sense of the word, about him. He could watch the real grit of humanity play out before himthe court a stage for some of the most sensational high-profile cases. During her appearance at the GLAAD Media Awards, Taylor openly spoke about her late friends sexuality while she addressed the rights of gay people. While on his way back, he had an accident. In his first film, Red River, Clift had the chance to play opposite the western superstar John Wayne. She made it known that it all boiled down to love. True or not, the resilience of the story is a testimony to what people wanted to believe about the bond between the two stars. Montgomery Clift Hid His Sexuality for Years but Elizabeth Taylor Knew His Secret & Revealed It after His Death By Olowokandi Fiyin Aug 14, 2021 04:00 P.M. Montgomery Clift made a name for himself in Hollywood with several awards and nominations. A Place In The Sun (1951) & From Here To Eternity (1953). 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. Montgomery Clift was certainly one of a kind, and when he landed in Hollywood, it became extremely clear that he was going to do things his own way. At the age of 25, Clift made the leap to Hollywoodbut he was a rebel right from the get-go. Courtesy Everett Collection Elizabeth was more visible than the publicity-shy Monty. Elizabeth Taylor at Paramount Studios, 1950. I am not one of Americas Angry Young Men. Montgomery Clift | 20 Gay Hollywood Legends | Purple Clover Making Montgomery Clift - Wikipedia Between 1963 and 1966, he faded from public view, emerging only to film a final performance in the French spy thriller The Defector (1966). Edward Montgomery Clift (; October 17, 1920 July 23, 1966) was an American actor. Absolutely stunning. Throughout filming, members of the crew came up with code words to alert everyone about the lead actors level of intoxication. 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. It wasnt until years after his tragic passing that Clifts darkest secret finally came out. But after an initial flurry of coverage, he retreated from public view entirely. His mother was born out of wedlock and spent much of her life and the family fortune finding her illustrious southern lineage and raising her children as aristocrats.At age 13, Monty appeared on Broadway ("Fly Away Home"), and chose to remain in the New York theater for over ten years before finally succumbing to Hollywood. Oh dear. He played the desperate, the drunken, and the deceived, and the trajectory of his life was as tragic as that in any of his films. [view couple] # 8 Carlo Fiore 12 28. In the rife, overstuffed annals of Hollywood, few real-life love stories can match that of Liz Taylor and Montgomery Clift. to add information, pictures and relationships, join in discussions and get credit for your contributions. Clifts early foray into acting led him to a Broadway debut in 1935. Taylor had married British actor Michael Wilding in 1952, but by 1956, their marriage was in decline. Help us build our profile of Marlon Brando! Clift once said, The closer we come to the negative, to death, the more we blossom. He took himself to that precipice, but he fell straight in. She is completing her PhD in Toronto, Canada. When interviewed, the "From Here to Eternity" actor would wave it off, noting that he would be with a woman when he finds the right person. The long suicide was complete. Although Clift and Montgomery were only good friends, their coupling inA Place in the Sunhelped drive its popularity. Clift and Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor first became acquainted when they played counterparts on George Stevens's "A Place in the Sun." It hardly helped lend nuance to that reading that Clift was a well-known and long-time abuser of pain killers and alcohol, actions which likely sped his death from a heart attack at 45 in 1966. He looked about ten years older than the Montgomery Clift audiences remembered and adored. He also didnt want to sign a contract with a studio, then the only viable way into the business. His other side was mostly hidden and only became widely known after he passed on, thanks to his friend and colleague Elizabeth Taylor. The actress had read many articles about Clift's acting prowess and thought she would not be the perfect match. July 22, 1966, was a sweltering day in New York City, and Montgomery Clift had been languishing in his townhouse on 61st Street. Many of the myths surrounding Clift sprang from two biographies: a salacious one by Robert Laguardia and another flawed work by Patricia Bosworth, titled A Life. A portrait of Montgomery Clift acting as Matt Garth in the western film "Red River" on 01 January, 1948 | Photo: Getty Images. Horrified, James immediately called for help, but of course, it was already too late. Regardless of the veracity of this story, one thing remains true: theres not a single picture of Clifts broken face. Elizabeth Taylor & Montgomery Clift Relationship, Friendship, Films He wasnt the only one who challenged such norms at the time. Tom Sizemore's acting dreams and troubled journey began in Detroit He pleaded with her to make changes to her book to correct the mischaracterizations. You see, the reason behind Montgomery Clifts barren dating life was rather simple: He was gay. His smashed face was rebuilt, he reconciled with his estranged father, but he continued bedeviled by dependency on drugs and his unrelenting guilt over his homosexuality.With his Hollywood career in an irreversible slide despite giving an occasional riveting performance, such as in Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Monty returned to New York and tried to slowly develop a somewhat more sensible lifestyle in his brownstone row house on East 61st Street in Manhattan. However, the filming of The Misfits had a shadow lurking over it. 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. Marlon Brando girlfriend, wife list. William Brooks Clift (Was A Vice-President Of Omaha National Trust Company. He was lonely, yet with the help of his refusal to live in Los Angeles or participate in caf society, he was able to keep his private life private. These are just among the many words which have been used to describe Montgomery Clift, the enigmatic heartthrob of the 1950s. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950. I thought he was dead. McCarthy ran to fetch Taylor, Wilding, and Rock Hudson and Hudsons wife, Phyllis Gates, who all raced to the site of the accident. According to Clifts doctors, it was amazing that he was even alive. Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor during the filming of A Place in the Sun. That, combined with his spiraling alcohol addiction, wrung the youth right out of the handsome actor. He has a ghastly, shattered expression. And it wasnt just in private record: in October 1956, Louella Parsons reported on Clifts very bad health and Holmans attempts to clean him up. After Eternity he dropped out of Hollywood for several years, and signed a three-year contract with MGM in 1955 to make Raintree County, which re-united him with his Place in the Sun co-star Elizabeth Taylor. John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in Red River. The two met under the big tent where they performed together. From Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of Hollywood Cinema by Anne Helen Petersen, to be published by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC on September 30, 2014 2014 by Anne Helen Petersen. Whatever relationships Clift may have had, he was circumspect. My mom never told me how her best friend died. 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. However, his worry began to mount when the actor didnt respond to his insistent knocking. This was entertainment at its finest. But that wasnt all. In 1961, Montgomery Clift went on to star alongside some of Hollywoods greatest legendsMarilyn Monroe and Clark Gable. Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? About He was a great talent but the male counterpart to Monroe, lonely, sad, and pitiful. Lancaster's first wife, June Ernst, was, like her mother before her, a renowned acrobat. One infamous fact about Montgomery Clift is that he only owned one suit. His interests lay elsewhere. Production resumed on Raintree County, which the studio feared would fail following Clifts accident. According to this version of the story, when photographers arrived, Taylor announced that she knew each and every one of them personally-- and if they took pictures of Clift, who was still very much alive, shed make sure they never worked in Hollywood again. Firstly, he didnt even like Hollywood, preferring to stay in New York as much as he could. Fearful for her friends image, she threatened the press: If they even dared to take one photo of her friend, she would personally ensure the end of their careers. He pointed out that she just let the director determine her every move. He spent a great deal of time and money on psychiatry.In 1956, during filming of Raintree County (1957), he ran his Chevrolet into a tree after leaving a party at Elizabeth Taylor's; it was she who saved him from choking by pulling out two teeth lodged in his throat. 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. He summoned a doctor, but it was already too late. Adopted at the age of one, his mother was told by a well-intentioned doctor years later that she was the offspring of Southern aristocrats, so she chose to raise her own children accordingly. ': What Happened to the Stars of the Iconic Series through the Years, Debbie Reynolds Called Elizabeth Taylor's Phone Yet Her Own Husband Eddie Fisher Picked Up, Rock Hudson & Jim Nabors Never Spoke Again after They Were Reportedly Seen Getting Married, Elizabeth Taylor Proposed to an Actor 20 Years Her Senior & Replaced Him with 25-Year Older Man. Montgomery Clift had an encounter with Marlon Brando. The movie, which plays at the LGBTQ movie festival NewFest in New York, refutes scores of oft-repeated assumptions about Clifts life, from his motivations as an actor, to his relationship with his mother to the characterization of his later years. Peace. After all, his leading lady was none other than the beguiling Elizabeth Taylor, and together, these two stars were pure fire. Teach, I loved the way how he played in A Place in the Sun. There was a nonchalance to Clifts attitude in regards to women. Who is Montgomery Clift dating? Montgomery Clift girlfriend, wife When The Heiress came out, Clift's loyal fanatics came with their claws out and wrote vicious letters to Olivia de Havilland for rejecting Clift's character in the film. With Clift on board, Suddenly, Last Summer morphed into a verifiable mess. With his screenwriting suggestions, the film took home an Academy Award. In 1951, Clift embarked upon one of his most famous roles as George Eastman inA Place in the Sun. That said, he kept his sexuality a secret: The prejudices of the time left him no choice. Close friends, such as actor Kevin McCarthy and his wife, tried to get Clift to slow down and dry out, but their pleas . Determined to keep his gayness under wraps, Clift made sure that his masculine facade shone onscreen. It was also a dark, melancholy film: as a review in Variety pointed out, the complex mass of introspective conflicts, symbolic parallels, and motivational contradictions was so nuanced as to seriously confound general audiences, who were likely unable to cope with the philosophical undercurrents of the Arthur Miller script. This would not only show off his range but allow him to sidestep any dangers of typecasting. Clift asserts that the actors use of alcohol and prescription drugs stemmed, primarily, from a near-fatal car accident in 1956. Of course, Clifts words had always been futile in the face of Hollywood. (The Clash famously referenced that awful scene, which changed the course of Clifts career and set him on a winding path of booze-and-painkiller-fueled decay, in the song The Right Profile from London Calling: I see a car smashed at night. Indiscretion of an American Wife (1954) - Turner Classic Movies When The Heiresscame out, Clifts loyal fanatics came with their claws out and wrote vicious letters to Olivia de Havilland for rejecting Clifts character in the film. Well, in 1955, he had a chance to reunite with his old friend and co-star, Elizabeth Taylor, in Raintree County. Login It shows a different side to Clift, portraying him as a man who enjoyed life and love, and was comfortable enough with him being a gay man. Instead, he bided his time, and thankfully, luck was on his side. His decline was never explicitly evoked, but with his visage in Raintree County, it was there for all to see. But the press will always be the press, and no amount of Montgomery Clifts ire could change that. While filming his next picture, Lonelyhearts (1958), Clift lashed out, proclaiming, I am notrepeat nota member of the Beat Generation. Liz Taylor, Montgomery Clift: Rare Photos, 'A Place in the Sun,' 1950 The Search _ 1948 DVD Montgomery Clift Aline MacMahon Wendell Corey V The next morning, James returned to Clifts room to rouse him but found the door locked. The pieces of the puzzle dont quite fit. For over 30 years, scripts have floated around Hollywood promising to tell the story of Montgomery Clift, one of the most innovative and handsome actors in history. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. . His father, William Brooks "Bill" Clift (1886-1964), was the vice-president of Omaha National Trust Company. 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. Clift earned best-actor Oscar nominations for 1951s A Place in the Sun and 1953s From Here to Eternity; both times he lost to older actors (Humphrey Bogart and William Holden, respectively), and established his reputation, alongside Marlon Brando and James Dean, as a young outsider whose talent intimidated Hollywood. Clifts sexuality, like those other 50s idols Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, was carefully concealed from the public. Oddly enough, when he died, the homocons on Gay Patriot praised him on . Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed 'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just after his twin sister Roberta (1920-2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. Realizing that Clift was in mortal danger, McCarthy raced to the scene of the accident. He told everyone that hed marry when he met the right girl, but that in the meantime, he was simply playing the field. Once, when questioned about his pastimes, he quipped, Yes, women. But where were they? If you have a story that tracks along that line, that will feel true to people. Elizabeth Taylor Tried to Seduce Montgomery Clift - Peoplemag Whether he liked it or not, they were out for a storyAnd the one they wanted above all? You see, when Clift sat down to read through the script for The Search,he was less than enthused with the writing. Christine Tran is a history buff(ette) and media scholar. 42 Dark Facts About Montgomery Clift, The Original - Factinate 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. By 15, Clift made his Broadway debut in Cole Porters Jubilee. Indiscretion Of An American Wife -- (Movie Clip) Open, Rome High-wattage credits in unusual combination, from David O. Selznick's short feature Indiscretion Of An American Wife, 1954, starring Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift, directed by Vittorio De Sica, dialogue by Truman Capote. When Clift became a household name in the movie industry, his romantic life became a widely-discussed subject by the press. 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." Montgomery Clift is American by birth. 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)). You see, the entire healing process put Clift through the paces. Lorenzo came into the picture when Monty was at his lowest. In fact, the attitudes he and his family held towards his relationships with men were strikingly modern. "Monty," as his family called him, was the son of William Clift, a. Some believe that Clifts romantic leanings were much less of a secret than originally thought. They went to London to see Laurence Olivier together, ate together, sat in front of the fire together, Clift said. Prior to leaving by train for Paris, a married American woman tries to break off her affair with a young Italian in Rome's Stazione Termini. In fact, after the lovers have been separated for good and the young man is in the death house [Clifts character murders Winters after getting her pregnant], the face of the girl comes floating in via double exposure to give him a last unsubstantial peck before he goes out to be executed. But if you look at his own words, his testimonies about what acting did to him, youll see the culprit. 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. Next came "The Nutty Professor" as Lewis' student, Stella Purdy, who he is infatuated with. He surely wasnt a suave Prince Charming, and yet, on-screen, he was a downright masterpiece. Even his diet was rather spartan: orange juice, steak, and eggs. Montgomery Clift Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family Many Hollywood stars have committed versions of the long suicide. Still, his second venture was perhaps even more of an impressive feat. For Clift, The Heiress was a mess from top to bottom, and he even walked out on the films premiere, disgusted with his own performance. Even if Clift himself was already spiraling out of control, playing a character that did the same only amplified the psychological toll. Will she ride the term to Oscar gold? Moments after the accident, actor Kevin McCarthy, driving in front of Clift, ran back to check on him, seeing that his face was torn awaya bloody pulp. To help build their case, the film-makers had rare access to the actors archives. 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. "Indiscretion of an American Wife" is currently available to stream on Fubo TV. Were always looking for your input! . 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. Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed 'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just after his twin sister Roberta (1920-2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. The Young Lions (film) - Wikipedia All rights reserved. In Truman Capotes unpublished novel Answered Prayers, for example, the author imagines a dinner party between Clift, Dorothy Parker, and flamboyant stage actress Tallulah Bankhead: . Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock. He got him going again. In its May 28, 1951, issue, meanwhile, LIFE magazine wrote of A Place in the Sun: It is easy for an ambitious young man to get himself involved simultaneously with a simple-hearted girl who lives in a cheap boarding house and an extravagant rich girl who gives gay parties. Clift's last 10 years prior to his death from his 1956 car accident were called the "longest suicide in history" by famed acting teacher Robert Lewis.