Montgomery Clift
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Edward Montgomery “Monty” Clift (October 17, 1920 - July 23, 1966) was an American actor of the Golden Age, known for often playing sensitive or conflicted outcast characters with realistic emotional depth and anxieties. Clift, Marlon Brando and James Dean are the trio typically associated with the new wave of film acting, with Clift being the oldest and first to make his stage and screen debuts. Starting at age 14, he was a breakout talent on Broadway throughout 1935-1945. He finally accepted one of many Hollywood offers: starring in the Western “Red River” which was filmed in 1946 but delayed release for 2 years. Fred Zinnemann’s “The Search” preceded “Red River” as his first film in 1948 and first Academy Award nomination. Clift’s next major films were “The Heiress” (1949) and “A Place in the Sun” (1951), cementing his romantic lead status. At the time, audiences had rarely seen a type of masculinity softened with Clift’s vulnerability. Hollywood had also never seen a young actor control his career and instant stardom the way Clift did in the late 1940’s: notoriously selective, refusing the standard seven-year studio contracts and rewriting scripts to preserve his artistic freedom. In 1953, Zinnemann again directed Clift to an Academy Award nomination in war drama “From Here to Eternity.” After suffering a near-fatal car accident during “Raintree County” (1957) he starred in acclaimed 1960’s films "Wild River,” "The Misfits” and “Judgment at Nuremberg” for which he earned a fourth and final Academy Award nomination for his 12-minute scene. Despite a 4-year hiatus and mounting health problems, Clift was eager to make a comeback in "Reflections in a Golden Eye,” secured by the insurance and insistence of co-star Elizabeth Taylor, but he tragically died of a heart attack at the age of 45 just weeks before shooting began.
Known for
Credits
The Misfits (1961)
as Perce Howland
The Heiress (1949)
as Morris Townsend
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
as Rudolph Petersen
Red River (1948)
as Matthew Garth
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes (2024)
as Self (archive footage)
The Young Lions (1958)
as Noah Ackerman
I Confess (1953)
as Fr. Michael William Logan
From Here to Eternity (1953)
as Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt
The Defector (1966)
as Professor James Bower
A Place in the Sun (1951)
as George Eastman
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
as Dr. Cukrowicz
Freud: The Secret Passion (1962)
as Sigmund Freud
Wild River (1960)
as Chuck Glover
Raintree County (1957)
as John Wickliff Shawnessy
Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953)
as Giovanni Doria
Rat Pack (2022)
as Self (archive footage)
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage (1994)
as Dr. Cukrowicz (archive footage)
Lonelyhearts (1959)
as Adam White
The Search (1948)
as Ralph Stevenson
The Big Lift (1950)
as Sgt. 1st Class Danny MacCullough
Operation Raintree (1957)
as Self
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths (1990)
as (archive footage)
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire (2014)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks (1973)
as Self (archive footage)
The Fabulous Allan Carr (2017)
as Self (archive)
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender (1997)
as Self (archive footage)
Edith Head: The Paramount Years (2002)
as (archive footage)
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories (2000)
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn at the Movies (2011)
as Self (archive footage)
Starring Sigmund Freud (2012)
as (archive footage)
Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies (1988)
as (archive footage) (uncredited)
Making 'The Misfits' (2002)
as Self (archive footage)
Montgomery Clift (1983)
as Self (archive footage)
Listen to Me Marlon (2015)
as Self (archive footage)
Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star (1987)
as Self (archive footage)
Making Montgomery Clift (2018)
as Self (archive footage)
Gay! Gay! Hollywood (1994)
Actor
Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess (2004)
as Self (archive footage)
William Faulkner's Mississippi (1965)
as Self - Narrator
George Stevens and His Place In The Sun (2001)
as Self (archive footage)