He also detested the man. The pieces of the puzzle dont quite fit. His father, William Brooks "Bill" Clift (1886-1964), was the vice-president of Omaha National Trust Company. That said, he kept his sexuality a secret: The prejudices of the time left him no choice. In this exclusive excerpt from her forthcoming book, Anne Helen Petersen recounts the actors lonely life, ferocious talent, and tragic decline. He was one of Hollywoods most desirable leading men, but mystery shrouded his entire private life. But 1961 audiences were too close to the day-to-day deterioration of its stars to see the meditative genius of The Misfits. 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? Montgomery Clift, Nando Bruno. Elizabeth Taylor (all of 17 years old) and Montgomery Clift posed together at Paramount Studios during a break in filming A Place in the Sun. When he wasnt reading or preparing for his next role, he took pleasure in visiting the local night court. As to why Bosworth drew on the gay-self-hate narrative, and why that view took hold, the directors blame the homophobia of the time the book was written, in the 1970s. A way into the 70s, there was more clarification to his sexuality. In the rife, overstuffed annals of Hollywood, few real-life love stories can match that of Liz Taylor and Montgomery Clift. The view then about queer people was that they would be inherently conflicted or tormented about their sexuality, said Demmon. Travel back in time with treasured photos and stories, sent right to your inbox. It left him with chronic health issues for the rest of his life. Taylor talked about the need for staunch support for gay people and their rights. Even his diet was rather spartan: orange juice, steak, and eggs. Whatever relationships Clift may have had, he was circumspect. Production resumed on Raintree County, which the studio feared would fail following Clifts accident. I mean, he is a For example, in 1956 Taylor likely saved Clifts life when, after he crashed his car leaving a party at her home, she raced to the wreck and literally pulled from his mouth broken teeth on which he had begun to choke. Clifts recuperation took months, and when he finally returned to set, there was more trouble afoot. Taylor opened his mouth, put her hand down his throat, and pulled out the teeth. 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!. By the time they shared the screen together for the first time, in the classic murder-romance-melodrama, A Place in the Sun (1951), both were bona fide box-office draws: Taylor had been onscreen since she was 10, and Clift a soulful, introverted Method actor who influenced countless others who came after him had already garnered the first of his four career Oscar nominations. The Big Lift (1950) Approved | 120 min | Drama, War 6.4 Rate Montgomery Clift had an encounter with Marlon Brando. Little did he know, he was always destined for something more. Courtesy Everett Collection Elizabeth was more visible than the publicity-shy Monty. The director, Joseph Mankiewicz, was appalled by this wavering professionalismbut when he tried to fire Clift, two angels intervened. Fellow actor Kevin McCarthy was driving ahead of Clift when the horror show went down. She once lovingly described how she was in awe of the star actor's perfect facial features. They took a risk on the troubled actorand it endedbadly. I do not count myself as a member of the ripped-sweatshirt fraternity.. Clift was there, as were actors Kevin McCarthy and Rock Hudson, and Hudson's wife, Phyllis Gates, per Vanity Fair. In 1951, Clift embarked upon one of his most famous roles as George Eastman inA Place in the Sun. Clift cared nothing for appearances: the Los Angeles Times called him the Rumpled Movie Idol; he infamously owned only one suit. But the drama didnt end there. During the filming of Raintree County, Clift and Taylor seemed to have rekindled their is-it-or-isnt-it relationship; according to one of Clifts biographers, Some days he would threaten to stop seeing Elizabeth Taylorthen, the thought would make him burst into tears. Other apocryphal legend has Taylor sending Clift piles of love letters, which he then read aloud to his male companion at the time. Between 1963 and 1966, he faded from public view, emerging only to film a final performance in the French spy thriller The Defector (1966). His other side was mostly hidden and only became widely known after he passed on, thanks to his friend and colleague Elizabeth Taylor. However, this was no quick fix. An interviewer once asked him what his hobbies were, Clift replied, "women. In fact, Hepburn was so offended by Mankiewicz that she did something outrageous. A four-time Oscar nominee who died at 45, Montgomery Clift was a bright young talent, a tabloid fixture, and a posthumous gay icon. Over the next decade, the burgeoning actor dug his heels in and made a name for himself on the stage. . 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. A successful man in the business world, Bill nevertheless deferred to this strong-willed, opinionated woman at home. I wanted to figure out why there was such a difference., A deep trove of never-before-revealed evidence makes that disparity bracingly clear. Montgomery Clift later resided in . 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. Perkins, who once fended off the advances of Brigitte Bardot, later went to a shrink who maintained that homosexuality could be "cured," and in 1973 he married photographer Berry Berenson. A car crash in the prime of his career left him in constant pain, and he drank himself to an early death, creating an aesthetic of suffering that has guided the way we think about him today. Monty brought a different masculinity to the screen, said Demmon. Born in 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, Clift was raised like an aristocrat, with a private tutor and frequent trips to Europe. Clift detested Waynes antiquated male constraints. What finally brought him back to the screen? Apparently, one of Clifts tooths had pierced his tongue, causing him to choke. Nothing could have prepared him for what he discovered. Clift had a fraternal twin sister, Roberta, and a brother, William Brooks Clift Jr, who had an illegitimate son with actress Kim Stanley. He pointed out that she just let the director determine her every move. There were even speculations that he was warned about being gay. The two met under the big tent where they performed together. 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. INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE 1953 DVD PUBLIC DOMAIN FILM MONTGOMERY CLIFT. Thats not what people would expect from a mother in that period.. 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. They went to London to see Laurence Olivier together, ate together, sat in front of the fire together, Clift said. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. Along with Marlon Brando and James Dean, he helped delineate a new paradigm for American cinematic heroes. 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. 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. . Hes so beautiful, murmured Miss Parker. Unlike Rock Hudson, whose affairs were very nearly exposed to the entire nation by Confidential, Clift never made the pages of the scandal rags. But even as Clift consistently took the road less traveled, he still had some biting things to say about the media, especially its desire to pin down his image. According to Clifts doctors, it was amazing that he was even alive. Because of the accident, the studio worried about the success of Raintree County. The film-makers interviewed Bosworth extensively for the movie, but they contrast her words with old taped conversations she had with the actors brother. After filming wrapped, she tracked him down and spat directly in his face. Contact sheets from LIFE photographer Peter Stackpoles shoot on a Paramount lot with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in 1950. Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock. But even though his marred looks never made it to the headlines, for Clift, the horror was far from over. When it came to the lengthier scenes, the actor just couldnt deliver; they had to be divided into smaller cuts just so he could see them through. He served in the Lincoln administration cabinet as Postmaster-General from 1861 to 1864, during the Civil War. But after an initial flurry of coverage, he retreated from public view entirely. Montgomery Clift as Noah Ackerman Dean Martin as Michael Whiteacre Hope Lange as Hope Plowman Barbara Rush as Margaret Freemantle May Britt as Gretchen Hardenberg Maximilian Schell as Captain Hardenberg Dora Doll as Simone Lee Van Cleef as First Sergeant Rickett Liliane Montevecchi as Franoise Parley Baer as Sergeant Brandt You`ve being alwasy an inspiration for me. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun. That was really frightening to see., Penn Badgley Loves His Wife Too Much to Do Sex Scenes in, I askedSera Gamble, the creator, Can I just do no more intimacy scenes? the former, Oscar-winning producer Dede Gardner looks back at her many groundbreaking awards darlings, from the triumph of. And yet, the mystery persists. He surely wasnt a suave Prince Charming, and yet, on-screen, he was a downright masterpiece. He still drank, but not as heavily. Will she ride the term to Oscar gold? said: Oh. . I think he was 12 or 13., Its obviously a non-issue for her, co-director Demmon said. "Indiscretion of an American Wife" is currently available to stream on Fubo TV. 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. With alarm bells screaming in his head, James raced outside to fetch a ladder, climbing up toward Clifts bedroom window. However, the filming of The Misfits had a shadow lurking over it. Indiscrecin de una esposa: Dirigido por Vittorio De Sica. Montgomery Clift was an undeniably attractive man, and before long, hed cultivated a rather passionate female fan base. Sealed, new. The most beautiful young man Ive ever seen. A bout five years ago, filmmaking duo Robert Clift and Hillary Demmon Clift decided to make a documentary about Robert's long-dead uncle. cocksucker. Then, sweetly, wide-eyed with little girl navet, she Okay, if were being totally honest, Montgomery Clifts reserved lifestyle didnt exactly excite the press; it actually kind of stumped them. "Monty," as his family called him, was the son of William Clift, a. His father made a lot of money in banking but was quite poor during the depression. 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. A Place In The Sun (1951) & From Here To Eternity (1953). According to two A-list biographers, the late star was gay. 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. 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. Indiscretion of an American Wife 1953, 1h 3min - Romance , Drama Jennifer Jones is the American housewife on vacation in Italy who must choose between returning home to her husband and family in Philadelphia or her romance with an Italian academic played by Montgomery Clift.
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