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 Defector (1966)
as Professor James Bower
From Here to Eternity (1953)
as Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
as Rudolph Petersen
Red River (1948)
as Matthew Garth
I Confess (1953)
as Fr. Michael William Logan
The Heiress (1949)
as Morris Townsend
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
as Dr. Cukrowicz
The Young Lions (1958)
as Noah Ackerman
A Place in the Sun (1951)
as George Eastman
The Misfits (1961)
as Perce Howland
Freud: The Secret Passion (1962)
as Sigmund Freud
Raintree County (1957)
as John Wickliff Shawnessy
Wild River (1960)
as Chuck Glover
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes (2024)
as Self (archive footage)
Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953)
as Giovanni Doria
Operation Raintree (1957)
as Self
Listen to Me Marlon (2015)
as Self (archive footage)
The Search (1948)
as Ralph Stevenson
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire (2014)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
Gay! Gay! Hollywood (1994)
Actor
Lonelyhearts (1959)
as Adam White
William Faulkner's Mississippi (1965)
as Self - Narrator
The Fabulous Allan Carr (2017)
as Self (archive)
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender (1997)
as Self (archive footage)
Starring Sigmund Freud (2012)
as (archive footage)
Edith Head: The Paramount Years (2002)
as (archive footage)
Rat Pack (2022)
as Self (archive footage)
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories (2000)
as Self (archive footage)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks (1973)
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies (1988)
as (archive footage) (uncredited)
Making 'The Misfits' (2002)
as Self (archive footage)
Making Montgomery Clift (2018)
as Self (archive footage)
George Stevens and His Place In The Sun (2001)
as Self (archive footage)
Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess (2004)
as Self (archive footage)
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage (1994)
as Dr. Cukrowicz (archive footage)
Montgomery Clift (1983)
as Self (archive footage)
Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star (1987)
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths (1990)
as (archive footage)
Marilyn at the Movies (2011)
as Self (archive footage)
The Big Lift (1950)
as Sgt. 1st Class Danny MacCullough