Montgomery Clift

Son of William Brooks Clift and wife Ethel Anderson Fogg. Ethel is believed by some biographers to have been an illegitimate daughter of Woodbury Blair by Maria Latham Anderson. Woodbury Blair was the son of Montgomery Blair, after whom his great-grandson received his middle name, and wife Mary Elizabeth Woodbury, daughter of Levi Woodbury (1789-1851), United States Supreme Court, and wife Elizabeth Wendell Clapp. Montgomery's ancestry was English, as well as more distant Scottish, Dutch, German and French.

He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-1964). His father made a lot of money in banking but was quite poor during the depression. 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. He gained excellent theatrical notices and soon piqued the interests of numerous lovelorn actresses; their advances met with awkward conflict.

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.

His first professional acting assignment was in the play Fly Away Home in 1934 a the Berkshire Playhouse in Stockbridge, Massachusetts where he co-starred with Mary Wickes.

While working in New York in the early 1940s, he met wealthy former Broadway star Libby Holman. She developed an intense decade-plus obsession over the young actor, even financing an experimental play, "Mexican Mural" for him. 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.

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)).

Starred in four Oscar Best Picture nominees: The Heiress (1949), A Place in the Sun (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). From Here to Eternity is the only winner.

She would wield considerable influence over the early part of his film career, advising him in decisions to decline lead roles in Sunset Boulevard (1950), (originally written specifically for him; the story perhaps hitting a little too close to home) and High Noon (1952). His long apprenticeship on stage made him a thoroughly accomplished actor, notable for the intensity with which he researched and approached his roles.

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).

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 spent a great deal of time and money on psychiatry.

Had appeared with Elizabeth Taylor in three movies: A Place in the Sun (1951), Raintree County (1957) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).

Hollywood folklore has it that his ghost haunts the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The actor had stayed there while filming From Here to Eternity (1953), even though all filming locations for "From Here to Eternity" were in Hawaii.

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. 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.

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. Seeing that Brando was in pain, Clift 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.

Turned down Dean Martin's role in Rio Bravo (1959), which would have reunited him with his Red River (1948) co-star John Wayne.

He was voted the 60th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

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.

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 was set to play in Taylor's Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), when he died in the early morning hours of July 23, 1966, at his home at age 45. 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.

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.

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).

Is the subject of the song "The Right Profile" by the punk rock band The Clash on their album "London Calling" (1979).

Footage of home movies shot by his family and which included Monty Clift, was used for a 1980s feature length documentary on the actor.

In his biography "Monty" (1988), Robert LaGuardia claimed that director John Huston, who had paternalistic feelings towards Clift after directing the alcoholic and emotionally troubled actor in The Misfits (1961) (1961), became sadistic towards him during the troubled Freud (1962) (1962) shoot. Basing his charges on interviews with co-star Susannah York, LaGuardia claimed that Huston kept asking Clift about the Freudian concept of "represssion", obviously alluding to Clift's repressed homosexuality. Apparently, Huston himself could not broach the idea that Monty was gay in his own mind, but subconsciously, he reacted to Monty's homosexuality quite negatively. (Marilyn Monroe had admonished Monty not to work with Huston again, finding him a sadist on the "Misfits" set. Her ex-husband Arthur Miller, on the other hand, did not fault Huston in his autobiography "Timebends", but instead, marveled about how he kept his cool during the "Misfits" shoot, which was also troubled due to Marilyn Monroe's mental illness and frequent absences from the set.) Monty's biographer thought that Huston still had paternalistic feelings towards the actor, but was subconsciously appalled at his surrogate son's homosexuality; thus, he began to torture him on the set by insisting on unnecessary retakes and that he perform his own stunts, such as climbing up a rope. Despite Monty's many problems, he always proved a trouper, and gave as much as he could, including diving into a river in his last film, The Defector (1966).

Is the subject of the song "Monty Got a Raw Deal" by the rock band R.E.M. on their album "Automatic for the People" (1992).

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#29) (1995).

Played by Alexander Des Combes in Hollywood Mouth 2 (2014).