Lorenzo was one of the reasons.. Later that same year, he appeared in Cole Porter's "Jubilee." 'Happy Days's' Anson Williams Divorced the Same Woman Twice after Almost Losing His Life in the Early 2000s, Marlo Thomas Spouse Was a Virgin before Marriage to Mom of His 5 Kids & a Lousy Lover Afterward, Why Is Chris Pratt Receiving Backlash? Along with his friend and colleague Marlon Brando, Clift was the most visible and gifted of a new generation of movie star who'd been trained . In 1959, Clift was slammed by film director Joseph Mankiewicz after Taylor noted that the star was still "vulnerable. Clift detested Waynes antiquated male constraints. [89][90] One of Clift's first intimate relationships was with composer Lehman Engel. Clift was driving a Chevrolet Bel Air sedan when the accident occurred. He and his co-star Olivia de Havilland made an appealing couple in this film adaptation of a Henry James novel. Clift was nominated for. Clift gave a stronger performance in "The Misfits" (1961), a John Huston contemporary western that proved to be the last film for both his co-stars, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. 11:50 AM. 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. But, in general, his relationships with men had more to do with sex than with a deep emotional connection. Kevin McCarthy: "Montgomery Clift was brilliant in every way". Please fill in your e-mail so we can share with you our top stories! Monty brought a different masculinity to the screen, said Demmon. In this classic version of Theodore Dreiser's novel "An American Tragedy," George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), the nephew of a wealthy industrialist, is excluded from high society and given a blue . He used inner silence, unusual pauses in his speeches, awkward body movements. Monty's post-accident career has been called "the longest suicide in Hollywood history." In 1966, ten years after his car accident, Montgomery Clift died alone in his New York apartment while watching "The Misfits" on TV. Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor lounging on the grass during the filming of Raintree County in Indiana, 1956. news.AmoMama.com does not take responsibility for any action taken as a result of reading this article. All rights reserved. We collect and tell stories of people from all around the world. His main acting rival (and fellow Omaha native), Marlon Brando, was so moved by Clift's performance that he voted for Clift to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, sure that he would win. Clift (portrayed by Gavin Adams) was a major supporting character in the 2020 feature film As Long As Im Famous, which explored his intimate relationship with a young Sidney Lumet during the summer of 1948. Taped interviews with his brother reveal that the actor felt those roles werent quite right for him and he didnt want to make the wrong first impression. His heavy drinking had already been a problem before his crash and the addition of taking painkillers afterwards only accelerated his decline, according to Vanity Fair. Why not have a musical about Romeo and Juliet but make it with gangs in New York?' After the car accident, Clift only took on a few more movie roles. Inside, he found Clift dead: he was undressed, lying in his bed still wearing his eyeglasses and with both fists clenched by his side. McCarthy had been driving in front of Clift when the crash occurred, and he thought that Clift had been killed. We raise awareness about these issues to help potential victims seek professional counseling and prevent anyone from getting hurt. [84] During the two and a half years that Clift stayed away from films, McDowall's career was nonexistent. It tells the story of a working-class young man who is entangled with two women: one who works in his wealthy uncle's factory, and the other a beautiful socialite. Actor. In a 1957 issue of McCalls magazine, Clift quipped, "My childhood was hobgoblin, my parents traveled a lotThats all I can remember."[15]. According to Clift biographer Patricia Bosworth, Taylor considered Clift her dearest friend, and he was unflinchingly loyal to her. Another confidant said his personal life didnt bother him. Clift asserts that the actor's use of alcohol and prescription drugs stemmed, primarily, from a near-fatal car accident in 1956. Over the next decade, the burgeoning actor dug his heels in and made a name for himself on the stage. 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. According to McCarthy, Clift told Taylor in a rather unregistered voice that his two front teeth were in his throat, suffocating him. 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. In this film, Clift plays an ambitious fortune hunter who lands a job in his uncle's factory, dates (and impregnates) a fellow worker (played by a youthful Shelley Winters), but soon falls for Taylor's character - a rich, beautiful young woman well above his social station in life and ostensibly out of his reach. He was not worried [about being gay], Larson asserts in the film. ", The "Suddenly, Last Summer" star reportedly had the worse of experience with John Huston. Clift was born in Omaha, Nebraska, a son . He insisted on performing his stunts himself, including swimming in the river Elbe in March. Clift never fully physically or emotionally recovered from his car accident. Still, the last half of his 20-year career has been referred to as the "longest suicide in Hollywood history" by acting teacher Robert Lewis because of Clift's subsequent abuse of painkillers and alcohol. [31] MGM distributed the film nationwide as magazines generated massive attention for Clift. 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. Which gives that narrative a lot of traction. Montgomery Clift was not a well man when he agreed to co-star in The Young Lions. [30] The film was awarded a screenwriting Academy Award for the credited writers. Place in the Sun. It all took a toll on him physically and mentally, and movie studios became wary of hiring him. The crash caused severe damage to his face, and McCarthy noted in a 2018 interview that he thought Clift was dead when he saw the scene. Clift also took to drinking, and his addiction was well known amongst his colleagues. She was so incensed by director Joseph Mankiewiczs poor treatment of Clift that she is said to have spat at him. Before shooting began on A Place in the Sun, Paramount Pictures arranged for Elizabeth to be Clift's date at the premiere of his film, The Heiress. [93][94] In his memoir, Arthur Laurents suggests that Clift had a fling with Farley Granger. Monty Clift looking every bit his age. He had terrific roles in "The Misfits," "Confess," and he was last seen on screen in "Freud," which earned him his highest fee ever. He worked extensively on his character, and was again nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Clift countersued with the assertion that he struggled to keep up with an overwhelming volume of last-minute script revisions and that an accidental blow to both eyes on set gave him cataracts. He used them to numb his physical pain. 2023 Cond Nast. Tellingly, theyre always pitched under working titles like Beautiful Loser and' Tragic Beauty. His 15 minute funeral was at attended by 150 mourners, including Lauren Bacall and Sinatra. In this exclusive excerpt from her forthcoming book, Anne. While he never excelled at school, his extraordinary abilities as an actor showed early. He would continue to act, but by the 1960's his career wasn't going well and he died prematurely at 45 suffering a heart attack most likely brought on by years of drug and alcohol abuse. Clift, who lived in Room 928 for three months while filming "From Here to Eternity" in 1952, was one of Hollywood's most appealing leading men, a slender Tom Cruise with edgy good looks. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Clift got his start on Broadway as a teen and, after turning down film roles for nearly a decade, finally accepted a part in 1948's . Photographer Vincenzo Dimino captures just a bit of the magic, he says, of New York Fashion Week with his Fuji Instax Mini 40 camera. His post-accident career has been referred to as the "longest suicide in Hollywood history" by acting teacher Robert Lewis because of Clift's subsequent abuse of painkillers and alcohol. 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 is said to have valued privacy and ambiguity in his personal life, though he was known to be friendly and affectionate, blurring the emotions of platonic love and sexual attraction, particularly with close friend Elizabeth Taylor, as soon as Paramount Pictures arranged her to attend the Los Angeles premiere of The Heiress as Clift's date to generate publicity.[58]. [37] Clift had veered off one of the twisting hairpin turns and smashed into a telephone pole and the surrounding cliffside. [16] Close to a year later, around the time the family moved again, settling in New York City, Clift debuted on Broadway at 14 years old as Harmer Masters in the comedy Fly Away Home which ran from January to July 1935 at the 48th Street Theatre. 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. A portrait of Montgomery Clift leaning on a fence with an intent expression before his accident on 01 January, 1950 | Photo: Getty Images. In 1957 however, he suffered from a terrible car accident and was pulled from the wreck by his friend Eizabeth Taylor. The schedule for Reflections in a Golden Eye was then set for August 1966, but Clift died in July 1966. When he took his final curtain call, Clift was just 45 years old. [85][86] McDowall devoted himself to Clift entirely, and he moved from Los Angeles to New York to be closer to his idol. He apparently fell asleep at the wheel of his car while driving and smashed his car into a telephone pole. [60] According to Clift's brother, Clift was either gay or bisexual. [21] At age 20, he appeared in the Broadway production of There Shall Be No Night, a work which won the 1941 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The re-opening of the German market since WW2 put potential profits ahead of everything else and the picture suffered for it. Hollywood's Montgomery Clift, who was highly wanted for his diverse acting skill in the industry, kept the public entertained during his time. 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. He was only 15 years old, but this wasn't just a fun pastimeit was serious business. At the time, audiences had rarely seen a type of masculinity softened with Clift's . In one tape made by his father in the 1960s, we hear the stars mother tell him, with untroubled candor, that Monty was a homosexual early. In a past interview, the star's friend, Kevin McCarthy, explained that Clift drove very high before the accident. [44] Marilyn Monroe (in what was to be her last filmed role) was also having emotional and substance abuse problems at the time; she described Clift in a 1961 interview as "the only person I know who is in even worse shape than I am". His body was discovered by his assistant. Ah, Monty. A seeming exception was one in his final years with a man named Lorenzo who had been hired to help him. In January 1963 Montgomery Clift made an uncharacteristic appearance on television to be interviewed on New York Herald Tribune columnist Hy Gardner's show. Barred from feature films, Clift turned to voice work. In one instant Montgomery Clift's life changed forever. In 1964, he recorded for Caedmon Records The Glass Menagerie, with Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, and David Wayne. is for general information purposes only. During the filming of Raintree County (1957), Clift suffered a near-fatal automobile accident on his way home from a party at the home of his friend and costar Taylor. The New York Times' obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men". 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. [38] She pulled a hanging tooth that was cutting into his tongue, before accompanying him into the ambulance.[39]. Clift was recovering from a car accident during the movies shoot (the actor was dying on his feet, according to one biography), but Hepburn treated him with great kindness. Montgomery Clift would've celebrated his 98th birthday on October 17, 2018. Clift, Robert Anderson and Hillary Demmon (2018). Whether he was leaving from or arriving at Taylor's home, it is an undisputed fact that Clift drove his car into a telephone pole and suffered horrific injuries, including significant facial damage (via Vanity Fair). that benefits the victims. Clift's naturalistic performance led to director Fred Zinnemann's being asked, "Where did you find a soldier who can act so well?" does not support or promote any kind of violence, self-harm, or abusive behavior. Wayne portrayed a hard and brutal father and boss while Clift played a gentler and more vulnerable son. "[79] Robbins called Clift a "theatrical genius" early on in their affair.[80]. Clift was recovering from a car accident during the movie's shoot (the actor was "dying on his feet," according to one biography), but Hepburn treated him with great kindness. After completing John Huston's Freud: The Secret Passion (1962), Universal Studios sued him for his frequent absences that caused the film to go over budget. 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Despite the studio's concerns over profits, Clift correctly predicted the film would do well, if only because moviegoers would flock to see the difference in his facial appearance before and after the crash.[42]. He was only 12 years old when he appeared in a production of "As Husbands Go" in Sarasota. "[17] Clift spent a short time at the Dalton School in Manhattan but struggled with traditional schooling. Before undertaking any course of treatment please consult with your healthcare provider. Jack Larson, famous for playing Jimmy Olsen in the hit 1950s TV series Adventures of Superman, recalled how Clift gave him a full mouth kiss the first time they casually met. He was born Edward Montgomery Clift on October 17, 1920. He even appeared in the original production of Tennessee Williams' play "You Touched Me" (1945) (per Playbill). A studio portrait of Montgomery Clift before his accident on 01 January, 1940 | Photo: Getty Images. According to the actor's lawyer, Jack Clareman, Clift was found by his secretary Lorenzo James, who claimed the actor went to bed "in good spirits.". After a two-month recovery period, Clift returned to the set to finish the film. Marilyn Monroe, on the set of The Misfits, wearing costar Monty Clift's Lee Storm Rider denim jacket, ca. From Making Montgomery Clift (2018) via YouTube screen-grab. How? Clift asserts that the actors use of alcohol and prescription drugs stemmed, primarily, from a near-fatal car accident in 1956. [88], While filming for Vittorio De Sica in Italy, Clift had a romance with Truman Capote. 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. Then again, nothing about Clifts life was expected. Although the results of Clift's plastic surgeries were remarkable for the time, there were noticeable differences in his facial appearance, particularly the left side of his face, which was nearly immobile. "I was warned not to trust all the stories," Robert told . He said that he was with Monty at a party on Fire Island [and Clift said] 'I've got an idea for a musical. In neon and stretch knits, dance straight on till morn. The accident changed. 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. Clift, along with actor Kevin McCarthy, had been attending a party at Elizabeth Taylor's house in Beverly Hills. [71], Clift was deeply and intensely involved with Broadway choreographer Jerome Robbins; very few associates were aware of how intimate and emotionally charged the relationship between the pair was. It was taken in 1936. [citation needed]. 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