
Montgomery Clift
Biography
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.
Acting (34 movies)

Judgment at Nuremberg
1961

Red River
1948

Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
2000

The Defector
1966

Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
1990

I Confess
1953

The Misfits
1961

From Here to Eternity
1953

A Place in the Sun
1951

The Young Lions
1958

The Heiress
1949

Freud: The Secret Passion
1962

The Search
1948

Suddenly, Last Summer
1959

The Big Lift
1950

Raintree County
1957

Wild River
1960

Indiscretion of an American Wife
1953

Lonelyhearts
1959

Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star
1987

The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks
1973

Montgomery Clift
1983

Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess
2004

Rat Pack
2022

Edith Head: The Paramount Years
2002

Listen to Me Marlon
2015

Operation Raintree
1957

Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
1994

Making Montgomery Clift
2018

Making 'The Misfits'
2002

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
1997

Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
2014

George Stevens and His Place In The Sun
2001

Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies
1988
| Title | Year | Job |
|---|---|---|
| The Search | 1948 | Writer |