Montgomery Clift: the untold story of Hollywood's misunderstood star

He wasn't misunderstood, he was drunk.

One of his best friends was soap opera actress Augusta Dabney

He was also really good friends with Elizabeth Taylor too.

One of those rare men who actually looked more beautiful in color than in black and white.

Until I see nude photos, I choose not to believe the Princess Tinymeat rumors.

I think he's painfully beautiful in A Place In The Sun.

Eleanor Clift was married to his brother..

It was an unkind fate that allowed him to survive that auto accident.

If he'd died then he'd be more famous than James Dean, he'd be considered the magical, brilliant male equivalent of Marilyn Monroe! But because he survived and the world got to see his slow, embarrassing decline, he's largely forgotten.

At least the article is saying he was gay and not bi.

He has always been a favorite of mine. Wish his life had turned out differently.

For those of you interested, there is a guy named Brad Robins in a talented male trio of three Mormon guys called Gentri who looks amazingly like Montgomery Clift.

Clift looks like shit @ R4. Easily 50 years old with those brows and old man eyes. He did have handsome proportions but there are many of his type who are more beautiful.

He never looked better than he did in George Stevens' "A Place in the Sun."

R11 doesn't know that people existed before Botox.

More beautiful than his friend Elizabeth -

r3, NO KIDDING.

R8 is correct.

Dying young is a great career move, and Clift would be better regarded today if he'd gone through with it.

There is no "untold" story. He was a beautiful, talented actor who was also a homosexual in an era where it was not acceptable to be so. After his accident, he hated his appearance and became a total self-pitying nightmare. He had all sorts of self-destructive behaviors that led to an early death.

R17, he was the original Dylan O’Brien.

the pathologist who did his autopsy confirmed the small dick rumors. I think it was what drove his horribly depressing life, particularly at the end. He had a lot of very close friendships especially with women, Libby Holman ( there is a woman I would have liked to have met),Nancy Walker, and others; kevin mccarthy, kevins wife, etc

He was beautiful *face)but he destroyed his looks relatively young and he was way too hairy for my tastes, way way............

R19, he could have been a grower. The pathologist presumably wouldn’t have gotten the corpse hard.

He was an ordinary pretty boy with a bit of a potato nose and unremarkable eyes. Looked 50 before he was 30 and didn't even live to see 50. That's a tiny dick.

There was nothing at all ordinary about him. He was the most beautiful actor of his generation (pre-crash).

People are arguing about the size of his dick 50 some years later. Tiny meat. Tiny lives.

You guys and your tiny meat. Who cares.

What about his bee-hind? Much more important.

He wasn't near as handsome as young Brando or Newman and not as perfectly pretty as young Warren Beatty, Rob Lowe or Matt Bomer. He was a second string Herb Ritts model, weak TV dad type.

I think Broadway leading man Corey Cott has a lot of Montgomery Clift going on - also in the hairy department. Hopefully NOT in the endowment category.

One of the most beautiful Hollywood actors I've ever seen and some of these posts about "too hairy" or "potato nose," sheesh! Tough crowd tonight!

I don't find this picture depressing, just interesting. Candid.

He was absolutely terrible in Suddenly Last Summer. Wooden, strange and seeing this drugged up zombie coupled against the over the top scenery chewing Taylor...was cringe worthy. I never found him particularly ' Handsome '..just strange

One of the most beautiful actors ever.

The best looking and best actor of his generation.

So when will this show be released?

Knockout in Red River, The Heiress. Monroe, with whom he starred in The Misfits, was supposed to have said that he was one of the few people more screwed up than she was. And she liked him.

Apparently the family want to tell 'their side' of the story and make some coin at the same time. The 'He was ugly!" trolls on here probably look like Camilla Parker-Bowles after a hard night on the tiles.

R4 That’s true. I never really understood how he was considered handsome, but in OP’s photo, I see that geometry of his face. Those were fine features.

Although there are no film clips, there are fantastic interviews and home movies in this documentary. All Clift's cultured old friends seem to have trouble with the word gay, although homosexual rolls more easily off their tongue in the early eighties, when this was made. Regardless, Monty Clift was a disaster, briefly beautiful. I don't mean to be flippant. A self destructive beauty with great talent makes for a great bio, usually. But he was very infantile and strange. A hopeless and mean addict.

I cradled his mangled head and pulled the broken teeth out of his throat. Next!

Did he and his BFF Kevin McCarthy ever engage in homosex?

McCarthy was married to the above-mentioned Augusta Dabney. Also was the brother of Mary McCarthy. The two guys had a long friendship, but in the last few years grew apart, iirc, because MC was increasingly erratic.

McCarthy interviews figure prominently in the YouTube biography posted at R36.

His name was Princess Tiny Meat. I guess he had a lot of parties and took a lot of pills. His face was destroyed from an accident he had when leaving Elizabeth Taylor's party, Hollywood?

He came across as a sweet guy, in his films.

There's a scene in The Young Lions when he's taken Hope Lange home after a party. Really tender.

In a biography I read many years back (I can't remember if it was a book written by McCarthy or not - it's been that long), McCarthy talked about the time he and Clift were in some city and McCarthy lost sight of Clift and couldn't find him. He searched far and wide for him and said he eventually got word he was in some gay establishment nearby. McCarthy went there and looked around and finally find Clift, naked on his back on the floor with a group of naked men standing around him jacking off onto him.

Best actor of his time. Don’t know why he isn’t as famous as Brando, Grant, or Dean.

R44, just another Tuesday evening.

Dean was an awful actor

The bio I read indicated that Kevin was the love of his life even though it was thought that the two of them never indulged in the "love that dare not speak its name." Kevin was told by some movie exec that him "shacking up" with MC was not going to further his career. Kevin expressed shock that there were rumors about the two of them. MC was equally crazy about Kevin's wife Augusta and rumors of a menage a trois floated around for a while.

The intense friendship did lose steam as the years went by and by the time they were both working on "The Misfits," they were polite but distant with each other. Kind of sad. Kevin was a very handsome man and was still handsome when he guest starred in "The Golden Girls" as a wealthy Blanche beau.

Montgomery Clift was the rarest sort of American actor - stunningly handsome and prodigiously talented but also extremely cultured and well-read. For those posters who don't see his beauty....well, you must be blind. At the height of his looks and career he was like a beautiful angel - otherworldly, luminous and possessed of a special quality. He delivers dialogue like no one else. He was also a hardass when it came to dealing with Hollywood as the article references. Hollywood wanted him more than he wanted them and because of that he was able to get almost anything he wanted for a time. There's been nobody like him before or since and he's the only male actor I connect with emotionally as I do the great female stars like Davis, Crawford, Bergman and Garbo. Looking at the better pictures of him people have posted here I'm struck by his presence - almost as if he's in the room. That's a star.

Nah. He simply wasn't all that.

Tammy Cruise was created as a re-incarnatia of Miss Clift.

R53 - He wishes.

Read the biography of Clift written by Patricia Bosworth. Definitive.

Well, r54, they were both short pretty nelly queens with high pitched voices......

Of their type, Warren Beatty was the better looking. Clift had more going on behind his eyes though.

He was way before my mom’s time, but his face and presence are very current. Chalamet, hedges and elgort would kill to have his presence because they are just so vanilla.

"People are arguing about the size of his dick 50 some years later. Tiny meat. Tiny lives."

So, it's not much of a Clifthanger.

Clift was addicted to gay sex and probably booze too. Like so many ultra talented people he had some serious demons that eventually did him in.

Yes, R57, but Beatty is such a mediocre actor by comparison - to anyone.

It's been written that James Dean took Brando's "fuck you" and combined it with Clift's "forgive me" to create his own style. Hmm.

Frankly, I don't understand how Clift got leading romantic roles after the accident, he's not only ugly, he's scary looking.

R11 he was 36 when the car accident happened. He looks about 34 in the photo to me.

We are used to our male stars being more groomed today. His brows are a little bushy but his green eyes are nice and his cheekbones are like, well a movie star.

Not great skin. Blame booze, pills and sun. He was vain as hell until the accident but sadly a hopeless drunk. The guy had a gay therapist who told him repression was the best way to get through it. It didn’t work.

R61. That’s “Judment at Nuremberg” Monty Clift. After the car accident in 1956 he doubled the pills and drinking.

He was supposed to be in “reflections in a golden eye” because Elizabeth Taylor was pushing hard for him after the failure of his movies about Sigmund Freud. Sadly he died before the movie was made and they get Marlon Brando to do it He probably would’ve been very good in the movie. He was drunk and pilled out all day by that point With no confidence.

He was one of the most handsome actors that came out of Hollywood. Tragic figure.

R63, feel better with a Raintree County pic? He still looks scary.

R60 he was a classic case of a gay kid that was bullied, made fun of and rouged up by a drunk dad. Grew up handsome and used “women that understood” about him by living with them and partying. He turned down Sunset Blvd. because it hit too close to home. He was living with a rich woman at the time and laying around taking pills with her all day. He drank. He drugged. He had a terrible therapist to deal with being gay.

Elizabeth Taylor acts like they were best friends and I’m sure they were close but she was more interested in drinking on a yacht with Richard Burton polishing her diamonds while he was slowly killing himself.

He had a car accident and it ruined his looks. I was watching “Suddenly Last Summer” the other day with a friend and he was in really bad shape.

[R47] I always thought Fean was a good looking guy but a ham.

He’s borderline ridiculous in “Giant.” So over the top.

^ Dean

In The Search MC is so sweet with the orphan kid. There's a movie called the The Accused (1949) with Loretta Young. In a couple of scenes there's a quick shot of someone who really looks like him and I've wondered if it was an in-joke. It would have been around the time that he made APITS, also at Paramount.

R59 Mary me.

Another take on the docu. Lovely pics of young healthy Monty too.

Wasn't the actress who played Seinfield's mother also very good friends with him or am I thinking of someone else?

Shitty trailer. Really short but some really good shots of a younger, healthier Monty.

Montgomery Clift: better than Brando, more tragic than Dean

R69. I know. I WW’d him For making me laugh out loud

R71 that's Liz Sheridan, who had an affair with James Dean. Never heard of a MC link.

Montgomery Clift movies: 12 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include ‘A Place in the Sun,’ ‘From Here to Eternity’

He was at least twice as good looking as Warren Beatty. No two people have ever looked better together than he and Elizabeth in A Place in the Sun. Fantastic actor. I just find his story heart-breaking overall.

I like him most in 'From Here to Eternity', although his chemistry with Donna Reed was not good. She did not deserve an Oscar, but Clift did and so did Deborah Kerr.

R78, i agree with that assessment.

People always seem to forget he was a mess before the accident. He probably would have healed decently if he weren't already a pill popping alcoholic at the time.

A Place in The Sun has some iconic black and white close-ups of Monty and Liz. But he was not as handsome as many others and she was never as beautiful as Vivien Leigh or Ava Gardner. They were just beautifully photographed in B&W. Long lashed liz looked better the further you got from her body and Monty had a nice profile and a pretty and sensitive mouth. I bet. But bushy brows and a big forehead. His nose was broken more than once before the accident, which explains why he didn't look as perfect as he did when he was very young. Still, he was never as handsome as Brando, Newman, Cooper or Grant. And not as pretty as young Beatty. Lowe, Pitt or Bomer.

Interesting actor though. Tortured, never sexy.

He was in at least three films where his co-stars got Oscars.

The Heiress (Livvy's second one)

FHTE (Reed, Sinatra)

Nuremburg (Schell)

When quite young, he got dysentery in Mexico and had digestive problems from then on. That can make for rough skin.

R77, he looked very nice with Joanne Dru in Red River. That scene in the rain is hot.

Joanne Dru was Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall's sister.

R78. Donna Reed just won the Oscar because they thought it was brave for a little sweetheart starlet to play a dance hall hooker.

I guess for the time it was but it seems pretty safe considering the book was big, the director and production were too notch and she had a great cast to work with.

Joan Crawford and Joan Tontaine turned down the Kerr role.

Well, thank you both (R69 and R74).

It was almost a double pun.

[R85] Actually the story with Crawford goes a bit different. She was hired and cast as Karen but during preproduction she got into a dispute with director Fred Zinnemann over costumes. Joan insisted that her costumes be designed by her regular designer, Sheila O"Brien, but Jean Louis had already been hired to do them. Crawford overplayed her hand and was told to fuck off. It was a huge mistake on Crawford's part because she was coming off a 3rd (and final) Oscar nomination for SUDDEN FEAR and ETERNITY, a phenomenal hit, would have propelled her into the '50's with much greater career momentum. On the other hand, if Crawford had done ETERNITY we probably wouldn't have JOHNNY GUITAR so maybe it worked out for the best.

Sheila O'Brien also did Joan's costumes for JOHNNY GUITAR.

"She [Donna Reed] did not deserve an Oscar, but Clift did and so did Deborah Kerr. "

Agree that Clift deserved the Oscar for "FHtE"! The main reason he didn't win is that Burt Lancaster was also nominated for Best Actor for the same film, and having two actors from the same film split the vote and they both lost.

The other reason Clift lost is that the studio was pushing Lancaster to win, for the simple reason that Clift had spent the shoot getting blind drunk with Sinatra every night, while Lancaster was sober and focused. The suits thought that Lancaster was a better bet to bring in the bucks in the years to come, which turned out to be quite correct. To Lancaster's credit he thought that Clift deserved to win and didn't play along with the studio's campaign on his behalf, and didn't come to the awards. He did show up a few years later when he won for "Elmer Gantry", when he won on his own terms.

Except Lancaster did not have a long-term contract with Columbia, like Ford did. So their incentive wouldn't be so great to promote him.

I know Gregory Peck wasn't even nominated for Roman Holiday, but he's awfully good in it. By far the best performance of his I've seen. I think he and Clift were tops that year.

R91, at the time, I don't believe that either Clift or Lancaster had a long-term contract with a studio. Either could have hired on at Columbia for the right role, so in the absence of a contract player the studio pushed the careerist.

This is stuff I got out of biographies of both Clift and Lancaster. "FHtE" was before the accident, but apparently Clift spent every night after shooting drinking heavily with Sinatra. So heavily that in Hawaii they'd both come back to the hotel falling out of a taxi and unable to walk, and Lancaster would drag them both up to bed (Sinatra called Lancaster "Mom" for the rest of his life). I don't know why that affected Clift's career and not Sinatra's, that film was the start of Sinatra's career resurgence, but it was all downhill for Clift after that.

Monty was drinking and pilling before the accident. They said he fell asleep while driving, but he was drunk and fell asleep. The news at the time left out that part. He got much worse at abusing drinks and drugs afterwards.

Clift & Reed did a lot of rehersal outside of the work day. I don't think the drinking with Sinatra happened every night. Reed was the only contract player with a major role in the film. Columbia never had many contract players even in the 50s when they were doing well and the once bigger studios like MGM weren't. Hooker roles are the original Oscar bait and Reed was very good in the role--she was meant to be the unattainable girl and played that well.

I believe that the new doc is said to debunk the tragic-artist legend, but he must have been very unhappy to have gotten so deeply into drugs, even before the accident. A happy person doesn't do that. In any case, he was great.

I suspect no studio really knew what to do with Clift and, so he wasn't going to get much push from a studio (esp. one where the studio head had no investment) at the Oscars. Lancaster obviously was going places and the beach scene with Kerr was iconic.

R61 Beatty's early performances, up to and including Mickey One, are the worst Method acting I've ever seen. Every phrase, every gesture is hilariously overloaded with "meaning". He's like a parody of Brando and Clift.

He acted with his hands beautifully. Case in point is his famous and heartbreaking scene in Judgment at Nuremberg.

Clift is wonderful in that movie R99. The method study and his lack of vanity worked. I think he was a mess by this time but Stanley Kramer had a way of wringing pathos out of great film stars. He exposed their loss of glamor but gave them back some dignity when they seemed to need it in their professional lives.

He looked great in "The Heiress".

Monty should have won an Oscar for The Search but I suppose being one of his first films it would have been considered 'too early'.

I always thought that Clift and Elizabeth Taylor had similar type eyes. Very striking with heavy brows. Their eyes always stood out.

[quote] he was a classic case of a gay kid that was bullied, made fun of and rouged up by a drunk dad.

"You little bitch, you'll wear this blusher if it kills me! Hold still!"

R44, and do you know if he was also lucky at cards?

Not all that great looking. His face was doughy---not chiseled and masculine as actors of that time usually were. I think the person upthread who said Monty Cliff was "not sexy" got it right. Not sure if his ancestry was Irish or not, but I get that vibe from him---slight build, big head, wide set eyes, heavy brow, thin lips, narrow chin .and of course.....tiny meat.

Allegedly, during the making of "Judgment at Nurenberg" he was on the set when Judy Garland arrived to do her scene. Monty decided to hang around and watch and kept offering his two cents to Stanley and Judy about how Judy's scene should be shot and how Judy should play the role.

After a few rehearsals they revved up the cameras and Judy proceeded to blow everyone away with her emotional take for the scene. After "cut and print" were heard, Monty approached Stanley and through a strangled voice said: "Aww Stanley, she did it all wrong."

Monty himself had a hard time doing his part, forgetting his lines and getting confused about what was going on. It was said that Spencer Tracy took him aside and told him to forget about the script and to just play it naturally. Monty relaxed and nailed it.

Did Donna Reed ever make another movie again after her Oscar win?

Talk about Featured Oscar curse!

Idiot at R11.

Patti Bosworth's bio back in the 1970s was terrific, but the publisher (HB) cut out some of the most compelling stuff about his homosexuality because they didn't believe that readers would buy it -- but I can tell you, it was remarkable dirt she uncovered. She has all the files still, but has decided never to release it.

According to the article, Monty wasn't the least bit ashamed of being gay. The documentary interviews people who knew him at the time, such as Jack Larson (they were lovers for awhile) who affirm that he was quite comfortable with his sexuality. His troubles stemmed from his alcohol and drug abuse, not from his sexuality.

The bios such as "A Life" were influenced by the homophobia that was rife in the '70s and '80s. Gay men just *had* to be tortured souls who were haunted by their "sickness." According to the documentary, the notion of Clift propogated by such misinformation is wholly inaccurate. That's why they did the docu in the first place: to set the record straight.

R107 beat me to it. A lot of people thought having Monty and Judy in the same movie was a train wreck waiting to happen, but they both gave incredible performances.

[quote]She has all the files still, but has decided never to release it.

I'll bite, and admit that sentence is quite the tease.

Many don’t know this, but he is buried in the center of Prospect Park in Brooklyn in a small private Quaker Friends cemetery.

Superb in from here to eternity.As was burt as well.

Rumors of a brief affair between Monty and Burt have recently materialized. That's a lot of male beauty colliding.

In the Bosworth bio, she tells of Monty being pretty forward in his quest for male bed partners. She was told that he would hang out by the front window of his townhouse and holler at any potential promising prey.

You know with the stories that Marlon Brando could probably shock us with, he became very protective and close mouthed when it came to Marilyn and Monty. He very politely refused all comments about his personal interactions with both of them.

Reed wound up in a couple B programmers and left for Universal after "eternity". Cohn was angry with her for not participating in the film PR as much as other actors which was a problem given her being the only contract player.

As for her casting---she tested multiple times. Zinnemann initially didn't want her and Cohn didn't push.

[quote] rouged up by a drunk dad

Well, if his father put makeup on him, it's no wonder he turned gay!

Just imagine the magnificent and massive sizemeats she enjoyed during her lifetime!

"the pathologist who did his autopsy confirmed the small dick rumors."

Huh? Why would a pathologist even be commenting on something like that?

If the culo is from heaven what matters the pinga size?

Monty always knew where to find the booze and the boys.

R106 is beyond moronic.

Way way beyond.

r123 r124 All the way to "blind in both eyes."

I have to say I've seen MANY guys as handsome as Clift. I don't get all the adulation about his looks. I've not seen many of his movies so I'm not commenting on his acting skills.

Completely agree R126. He was good looking but nothing that special. My next door neighbour is more handsome than Clift.

r126 r127 you type young.

R126, a serious question: who are some of the public figures who you think are equally handsome?

[quote]you type young

r128 what a weird thing to say

Why, r130? Back when I was realizing how beautiful Monty was (1950s), there was a lot less competition. Now, we are inundated with images of attractive men on a daily basis. Someone young has a much greater basis for comparison.

The young Clift had a depth of beauty and soul that someone like Matt Bomer or most instagram whores can't possibly match.

Remember. I said most.....

R132, that deserves a Mary! And yet I agree with you.

Why thank you, R128. Such nice complements are rare on DL. We look young too. We're both 60 and pass for 30.

"My next door neighbour is more handsome than Clift."

I seriously doubt that - I'd love to see a picture of your neighbor

I read that too, r111, but frankly find this version where his sexuality was untroubled suspicious, especially considering the quote about his mother which is not at all evidence she was ok with it. And to say that the problem with him was the drinking and drugs like some, well duh....people are that self destructive for a reason...

I also doubt that.

How could any international movie star who had to remain closeted during his public life possibly be untroubled about their homosexuality? I'm not saying that Clift wished he were straight, but back then, being gay could not have been an easy life for any public figure. It must have cost him some inner turmoil and stress, at the very least.

I agree @ R138. Can you imagine MC trying to fit in with the likes of the Rat Pack, led by known homophobe Frank Sinatra? They were brutal to anyone who was different.

When some people here say he was "untroubled by his sexuality", maybe they meant "he didn't try to turn straight". Because face it, his sexuality was a bit of a professional handicap at the very least, that had to bother him.

As to whether Clift was beautiful, well, he was monumentally photogenic when he was young... which isn't the same thing as being beautiful. The camera loved him and thought he was beautiful, and it thought he was soulful as well - he was "transparent to the camera", that is, you look in at eyes and you think you can tell what he's thinking and feeling. It's a very rare quality in actors, Monroe and Garbo had it. Plus he was a skinny little person with a large head, and his facial features were small and sort of squinched together below a large forehead, that's a proportion that looks a bit odd in real life, but which photographs well on film.

I'm still astonished that gay men are debating whether breathtakingly beautiful/handsome Montgomery Clift was good looking! Then again, I've read DL threads in which posters say Elizabeth Taylor wasn't that attractive. I guess you queens live way up on Mt. Olympus.

[R141] Right on!

Clift was beautiful. Taylor was very very very pretty.

[quote]gay men are debating whether breathtakingly beautiful/handsome Montgomery Clift was good looking!

r141 Of course Clift was very good looking. I just don't think he's "breathtakingly beautiful/handsome" as some guys on this thread do. I agree with R131.

[quote] Back when I was realizing how beautiful Monty was (1950s), there was a lot less competition. Now, we are inundated with images of attractive men on a daily basis.

Some of you guys are blind as bats...you freak out over ugly muscles but can't understand a perfect face....a real movie star. You melt over the chubby cheeked Lautner...it's weird.

[quote]As to whether Clift was beautiful, well, he was monumentally photogenic when he was young... which isn't the same thing as being beautiful. The camera loved him and thought he was beautiful ..., he was a skinny little person with a large head, and his facial features were small and sort of squinched together below a large forehead, that's a proportion that looks a bit odd in real life, but which photographs well on film.

Totally agree r140 I wonder he he would be judged now. The standard of male beauty seems to be larger facial features and a very full smile. Robert Redford is a good example.

[quote]Some of you guys are blind as bats...you freak out over ugly muscles but can't understand a perfect face....a real movie star. You melt over the chubby cheeked Lautner...it's weird.

It's not weird. Lot's of people in this world and lots of different opinions on male beauty. No reason to go off the deep end r145 - your opinion is perfectly valid.

^^^ a YOUNG Robert Redford is a good example ..

Director John Huston viciously mocked Montgomery for being gay on the set of whatever movie they made together. I alway thought Angelica should take it upon herself to apologize for that. He wasn't just her legendary dad, he was also apparently a homophobic dickhead. Actor Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) was a close friend and not supportive about him being gay at all. He acted like it was a moral weakness or affliction like alcoholism, and would chide Montgomery when he "slipped." I wonder why Monty would put up with that when he had supportive friends like Elizabeth Taylor.

Dean was a superior actor. You people who scream "bad actor" know nothing about acting or enjoying a film.

Children shouldn’t have to apologize for their fathers, r149, Angelica Houston is not responsible for John Houston being homophobic.

Of course MF was one of the most beautiful men ever, I didn’t know a lot of photos in this thread, particularly the ones in colour (thank you). However, though looking at them I wish to kiss him, I don’t particularly wish to fuck him. I agree it doesn’t make a lot of sense....

[quote]Director John Huston viciously mocked Montgomery for being gay on the set of whatever movie they made

Really - Montgomery Clift lived a charmed life until the accident. He was wealthy, he had a supportive friends and family, he had a great career, and apparently he was comfortable with his gayness and had fun with it. The fact that a couple of homophobes called him a fag dosent make me think he suffered a whole lot about being gay. The theory that he was a drunk/druggie because he couldn't handle his gayness doesn't see right to me.

[quote]looking at his photos I wish to kiss him, I don’t particularly wish to fuck him. I agree it doesn’t make a lot of sense....

Love is blind r151. I sure if you guys got naked things would work out.

Only an actor of Clift's soulful beauty, empathy and talent could put over a character like Morris Townsend in The Heiress and make you root for him.

R152, if you don't think that guilt about being gay caused the addiction, do you have a theory as to what did? I think it was already a problem before the accident, which of course intensified it (I'm guessing that's when opioids were added). People who are content don't abuse substances.

r154 - do you live in bubble. Do you sit at home in a smoking jacket listening to old 78's and reading old fan Hollywood fan magazines ??

[quote]People who are content don't abuse substances.

Nonsense - all kinds of people abuse substances. Lot of rich and famous and very successful people get sucked into drugs and alcohol.

R154, yes, I can be that cruel. I have been taught by masters.

R156, sympathies

[quote]I have been taught by masters

Masturbaters perhaps

Will people please stop insisting that his drug/alcohol problems must necessarily be related to his homosexuality? Why must the psyche of a complex artist be reduced to a simple pop psychology formula? As many people have pointed out, drug and alcohol problems are hardly limited to gay people and all gay people who have drug/alcohol problems aren't abusing substances simply due to their sexuality. The attempt to politicize his problems is both naive and boring. The filmmakers are making the case that his homosexuality and substance abuse issues were not related - and they have access to a huge archive relating to the private Monty. Why can't you hear them out?

John Houston was the director of The Misfits. He talked to everybody by megaphone. Mostly yelled. He was mad at everybody but mostly the "late Miss Monroe."

Monty was very much liked by all the extras there. He mingled amongst them and was very kind and considerate to all. He didn't separate himself from the extras like the rest of the cast did. I liked him immediately. I have a vague memory of him talking to me a little but I didn't really know who he was. I just knew I liked him.

I've told on here how he carried a bottle of booze at his side the whole day. I would watch the level of the whiskey lower as the day wore on. Then sometime in the afternoon, he would have a fresh bottle. It made me mad that someone there was furnishing him with it. I never saw who that was. But that happened every day. Sadly the one unique thing I noticed was that when he was thoroughly drunk - his eyes were really bloodshot. Really bad. I don't think I've ever noticed that on another drunk person since. He would be sloppy drunk by mid-afternoon. But the reverse was true too. He showed up every morning, bright, clean and sober and ready to go.

If only he and Marilyn Monroe could have worked out their dysfunctional schedules.

Thank you, Misfit Girl!

Misfit girl really working her few stories.

I don't understand why everyone jumps to the conclusion that his internal problems were based on his sexuality. There are plenty of drunks and druggies in the world who aren't gay.

Did he ever get pressured to try to enter into a beard marriage?

[R164] They do it to make his problems seem externally focused because they "own" him because he's gay and politically useful. "See poor Montgomery Clift? This wouldn't have happened in our more tolerant age - we must fight homophobia!" Right.

[quote]I don't understand why everyone jumps to the conclusion that his internal problems were based on his sexuality.

I think during the homophobic 50's and 60's it was an assumption that seemed to fit and people kept repeating it. It was a peculiarity that talented handsome guy with lots to live for also a disgusting drunk. Clift's homosexuality was a convenient handle.

I read this years ago when Elizabeth Taylor was married to Senator John Warner, they did some kind of fundraiser "have dinner with John and his glamorous wife Elizabeth Taylor." During the fundraising dinner, someone asked her a question about her relationship with Monty, and she said something along the lines, my life has been documented and gossiped about since I was a kid, it comes with this job. But the only subject I will not speak of is my relationship with Montgomery Clift.

She really was a great friend, she even put up her own salary as insurance in order for Monty to get the role in "Raintree County". At that time he was so fucked up, the movie studio couldn't get him insured. So Miss Taylor vouched for him with her own money.

When Raintree started, MC had not yet had the accident. Was he already uninsurable? I could believe that for Suddenly.

So, ok, he was thrilled about being gay. What made him unhappy enough to be a major drunk?

Haven't you ever known any drunks, R169? It can be a variety of reasons...or not much of one at all. What makes Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh one?

There's always a reason for someone to abuse his body so terribly that he dies at 45. Thats major. Too bad Kav isn't in that company.

[quote]What made him unhappy enough to be a major drunk?

You keep asking the question and several people have answered. How would Datelounge know what made MC a drunk??

Also I question the assumption he was unhappy. I just think he got addicted to booze and pills and was rich and famous and had lots of enablers and he never got his life straightened out. Then the accident and he really WAS unhappy - he supposedly died of heart failure but I wouldn't be surprised if he OD's and it was covered up.

Yes, I in fact do know several well-balanced and content people who are drug addicts, R173. Sometimes it just sort of sneaks up a person.

Elizabeth Taylor wouldn't have had the power to ensure Clift's casting in Raintree County. And at that point, he was considered a bigger star than her. Hence, his top-billing.

I assume the above poster meant to cite Suddenly Last Summer, not Raintree County, where Liz used her influence.

[quote] I know several well-balanced and content people who are drug addicts, Sometimes it just sort of sneaks up a person.

Well I guess you're being sarcastic r174. But yes - it can sneak up on people. Especially young people who love to party and live in the fast lane (and have the means and are surrounded by enablers. It's not an uncommon story. Rock bands are replete with examples.

If MC had the same level of fame and and the same level of addiction in 2018 as he did in 1960 I think he would have had a completely different outcome. People are much more into rehab and "cleaning up" now and there is a whole industry in place to deal with celebrity drunks. (Think Betty Ford where Liz went.) Not so much in 1960 (or at all).

Glad to see the thread open up to exploring different opinions on his looks and whether gay guilt and shame or some predisposition caused his complete destruction. We will never know, but to suggest that he didn't mind being gay and only wanted to do important work and maintain loving friendships goes against most biographical material.

Like many gay men of his time, he lived a double life until drink and drugs made him sloppy and performative. He was extremely vain but cared not at all for clothes or prestige or peacock matters. He was well read but had no particular discipline when playing a part. His skin was exposed and his mouth was more expressive than his eyes - he was described as the first whiny actor, but obviously there was more. I think that's where some posters idea of his "beauty" comes in. He wasn't that incredibly handsome but the combination of his looks and vulnerability drove women then, and some gay men now wild. It's a type. People want to undress him and caress him. But he wanted to be pissed on, crawled on all fours for dick and was abusive to his best friends for days on end. He trolled bars and never had a male love. He was petty and mean and eventually too fucked up to remain even loyal. He spit in the eggs he prepared for Elizabeth Taylor if you choose to believe it. She didn't attend his funeral. Addicts wear people out.

Clift turned down Sunset Boulevard out of loyalty or on orders from Libby Holman, his older mentor, lover or fellow opium addict? He didn't want the parallel to his personal life. Pretty men get corrupted when they can't be gay. There was no such thing as gay. He minded. He fought as hard as others to change the discussion when his career was hot. So maybe being gay did destroy him?

I love the glorious B&W beauty of A Place in The Sun. Shelley Winters is a heavy dose of reality in the swoon of Taylor and Clift. It's a pretty fine movie when you're in the mood. Can't say I like his acting or Taylor's either in much else. He is a much better actor than she is, but they were both a silly trainwreck in Suddenly Last Summer.

The very early years of Clift's career make him seem iconoclastic, enjoying the pretty, taking his time and learning from those he respected. Repressed homosexual movie stars whose beauty is DESTROYED in one moment are likely not to recover from their existing addictions and self destructive predilections.

That big head, the wild eyes, bushy brows, - he was never cute. But in motion and when speaking Clift was quite beautiful and alluring. Like a strange skinny butterfly in a bad suit sitting at the end stool of the bar.

Wow r177 - that's really nice. Thanks a lot !!

Interesting post, r177.

What do you think of MC's performance and appearance in The Heiress? For me, that's the performance of his I remember. It's not getting a lot of appreciation or even mention in this thread.

[quote]Pretty men get corrupted when they can't be gay.

Rich, famous pretty men even more so.

Is that you Jared?

Jared is sort of pretty. I wonder if he likes to get pissed on ??

He grew up under the thumb of his very domineering Mother and rather passive Father. She spent the majority of her time trying to establish a link with a very wealthy and prominent family claiming that she was an abandoned daughter who was entitled to the man's wealth and name. She never succeeded although she did manage to get herself recognized by some members of the extended family as telling the truth. It ruled her life and in some ways ruined it too. Monty and his twin sister and older brother were dragged from America to Europe as she tried to educate them to be members of the upper classes. The middle class Father was forced to finance all of it on a very meager salary. The kids were spoiled rotten, especially Monty, because of his looks and his success as a child stage actor.

In the end Monty, when drunk, was known to call his mother a "cunt" to her face. She looked the other way and always forgave him and he stayed unnaturally attached to her.

[quote]Like a strange skinny butterfly in a bad suit sitting at the end stool of the bar.

The bar is mostly empty and although it's only 2:00 the skinny man is drunk. He stares into his drink. Patsy Cline is softy falling to pieces in the background. The ice machine regularly drops a loads of fresh ice. The bartender is flirting with a sailor at the other end of the bar. I sit by the wounded butterfly in the bad suit. He looks over and ....

He was very good in The Heiress. He looked dashing in the formal clothes too.

He WAS dashing, with a huge head.

Thanks R179. My thoughts on The Heiress are this: It's a great movie in that's it's well made and acted, beautifully directed and that house reminds us why great townhouses are still claustrophobic and stairs are only fun to come down when you're beautiful, but you can climb them everyday.

It's the material that fails. DeHavilland is good, Clift is fantastically charming and beautiful and sensitive and shallow. But we can't believe that he could love her, or that her father could be so mean or that he ever cared for more than her money. But we should believe he was ready to fuck her. DeHavilland has a creepy ominous voice, like The Haunting of Hill House narration. She's hard to hug, never mind fuck. So yeah they're great and the movie is black and white and rainy all over.

But if only she were a bit prettier and her father less monstrous and Clift a bit less obsequious - then the film might affect me more. Clift is excellent and dashing and touching in it. I wish he had a boyfriend, ha.

"A strange skinny butterfly in a bad suit."

It's a teensy weensy bad suit, woven of spider silk by little nixies who hum as they spin. A plangent lullaby for a melancholy baby. They also fashion for him a tiny fedora that perches freakishly atop his drooping antennae.

"The Heiress" is where I fell in love with him. I thought he was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. Again, not as much competition those days for our attention. I must have known instinctively that we had being gay in common, kind of like with NPH as Doogie Howser.

Dear R26, I have met with Corey Cott about portraying Clift in a project. He is great looking in person, amazingly talented and surprisingly young looking. He could pass for early 20's off stage. Hell of a nice guy who would make a better Clift than Matt Bomer who is not as talented. Also, Matt's looks prevent him from disappearing into a character. R177 Regarding his relationship with Libby Holman, she asked him to drop out of Sunset Blvd 3 weeks before they were supposed to begin filming. After the accident during the filming of Raintree County, Libby Holman wanted Monty to recuperate at her estate in Connecticut. When the studio wanted Monty back at work before he could heal properly, Libby offered to buy the film from the studio. Libby Holman is going to be the subject of a film by the the producer of Hacksaw Ridge.

[quote]But we can't believe that he could love her, or that her father could be so mean or that he ever cared for more than her money.

Ralph Richardson's character is painfully familiar to anyone who grew up with an abusive parent. Even though a child is desperate to please she is reminded on a daily basis that she can never be good enough, attractive enough, smart enough. Nothing she does is right. She is tolerated rather than loved and she knows it. After enduring years of such treatment the child gets ground into dust or hardened into stone.

Monty Got A Raw Deal.

[quote]R85 Joan Crawford and Joan Fontaine turned down the Kerr role.

Crawford got her uptight ass CANNED when she demanded her army wife character’s wardrobe be specially created by her usual swank designer, Sheila O’Brien.

The studio was like, “Yeah, uh, this isn’t going to work.”

Liz Taylor fucked up her “dear friend” Monty’s life (and face!) forever by badgering him into coming to her house the night of the car crash.

She kept calling and calling incessantly after he initially declined, and he finally went just to shut her up.

R191, I'll see your "Monty Got a Raw Deal," and raise you one "The Right Profile."

Would love to know what the story is with this picture and who took it.

Was this just Monty’s usual state? This was clearly before the accident...

On the set of “Raintree County” with Liz in ‘57 (Monty’s in the back chair seen in the mirror’s reflection); is this before the accident?

It looks like someone's spare bedroom: small and crowded ..

He could be watching TV?

Well, it appears that he wasn’t afraid to be photographed getting wasted while still young...

Knowing now (since I’ve read a tiny bit about him since reading this thread), that he had a psycho stage mom and was a successful child actor on Broadway (sounds like a nightmare childhood; maybe part of why he and Liz Taylor bonded?), is it possible young Monty was preyed on by lecherous Broadway producers or casting directors?

Monty’s twin sister Ethel lived until 2014 and she was an extremely accomplished woman (college grad and was key in organizing and participating in multiple prominent social activist and charity organizations, programs, and groups) married to the same husband until she died and had 5 kids with him.

It seems like she may have had no real relationship with Monty though as an adult.

She lived with her husband and family in Austin, TX and it’s a little odd reading about the apparent extreme stability of her life vs. her extremely tormented, drugged up twin.

Maybe because the mother was obsessed in a psycho way with Monty and not her, the family craziness didn’t effect her?

So this is Monty’s crazy mom, Ethel. I didn’t realize that she named her daughter after herself (Ethel) and her other twin (Monty) after the imagined (or genuinely believed) rich relative she thought she descended from😬

It is all very odd...

The mom lived until ‘88 (clearly Monty’s death didn’t kill her) and she was burried next to Monty.

Here is the weird stuff about her obsession with the rich relative:

“Mother of Actor Montgomery Clift. She may have been a granddaughter of Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General under President Abraham Lincoln. (Lineage undocumented.) Ethel and Bill Clift are buried next to their son.”

The weird thing about the mom too: wasn’t it a shameful thing back then to be somebody’s illegitimate child?

Even if she was the Postmaster General’s illegitimate daughter, wasn’t it more embarrassing (back then in the U.S.) to be proclaiming to be illegitimate?

The mother’s thinking on that is really strange.

*granddaughter (not daughter)

Regarding Monty's 'internal torment', I read the Bosworth bio, and there was quite a bit in there about his having contracted an intestinal parasite in his early 20s that tormented him for many years. Those of us with IBS and Crohn's and parasites know how painful and debilitating intestinal problems can be. He probably would have been a good candidate now for a fecal transplant that would probably have alleviated it, but that was not an option 60+ years ago.

As for the issue of his mother's obsession with the name 'Montgomery', I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, and the name is everywhere, and the families are still rich and powerful (though not as preeminent in politics as they used to be).

This is sad: in color you can really see how much his facial features and appearance were different shortly before his death.

Compare that to Roddy McDowell—who still essentially looks like himself, just older...

Oops, here’s the pic (from “The Defector” 1966)

Frankenclift

[quote]wasn’t it more embarrassing (back then in the U.S.) to be proclaiming to be illegitimate?

There was money involved. She wanted "her share" of the inheritance.

I've not seen many pics of CM smiling - what a pleasant difference. He looks he's very young -barely into his 20's I would think ..

^^^ MC

[quote]can really see how much his facial features and appearance were different shortly before his death.

I'm sure they tried everything to make MC look better but his hair seems so severe. Maybe if he did something really radical -like maybe giving him white hair in a softer style would have helped. A mustache might have been nice - who knows. But at this point in his life MC was so addle brained from the drugs and booze I don't think he had many good ideas. Obviously they were trying to cling to his "old" look and obviously it didn't work that well.

Yes, R194, it's entirely Liz's fault MC was a black out drunk who had NO choice but to accept an invitation to a party AND get in a car and drive wasted.

I believe the photo at R196 / R198 was taken by Stanley Kubrick who had done a series of photos featuring Clift. I think there's still some question whether this photo in particular was staged by Kubrick or if Clift actually had been drinking.

As to the night of the accident, Clift had spent almost the entire day preparing and/or working on a film and Taylor kept pressing him to attend her party, even though he said he was exhausted but wound up attending to please her. Even though he showed up late and told Taylor how tired he was, she insisted he stay late into the evening even after most of the other guests had left. When he eventually went home, the weather was still damp and foggy as it had been when he arrived as well as the road to Taylor's house being curved.

Yeah, well, if he hadn't had an accident that night, he would have had one some other night. Because he was already a blackout drunk.

R216, think I read years ago that those pics were staged.

[quote]R215 Yes, [R194], it's entirely Liz's fault MC was a black out drunk who had NO choice but to accept an invitation to a party AND get in a car and drive wasted.

And straight girls harassing their gay friends into livening up their parties as a dancing monkey, refusing to take No for an answer, is sooo admirable.

[quote]When he eventually went home, the weather was still damp and foggy as it had been when he arrived as well as the road to Taylor's house being curved.

Then he should have stayed at her house

Fwiw, his brother Brooks fathered a child with Kim Stanley.

He was followed down that road by his good friend Kevin McCarthy who also attended the dinner party at Taylor's house. It was said that he drank very little and was sober when he left the house. I'm sure if he had been noticeably drunk that Kevin would not have let him drive on his own. Taylor's husband at that time was Michael Wilding and apparently nobody liked him very much, including Elizabeth.

McCarthy ran back to the house to sound the alarm about the accident.

Liz nagged him into coming to her boring party. He should have told her to fuck off. But he found it hard to say no to her; she had that effect on men. She was relentless when it came to getting her own way, as Richard Burton was soon to find out.

It was an ACCIDENT. Kevin McCarthy was in front of Clift, not behind for a change. Elizabeth loved all the mos, but she had been IN love with Monty. Just because they say he was sober doesn't mean he was. Sober was a very relative term to that group. He had many, many operations in a short period of time because he wanted to finish the movie and remain bankable. He might not have turned out so Frankenstein like if he hadn't been so determined to do everything in such reckless fashion. He lived a life of great secrecy, even from his closest friends. But long before Raintree County he would often come crawling up the stairs covered in vomit and had to be put to bed by friends he was staying with, most often married couples. People grow weary of that. Poor guy.

I'm not a Liz Taylor fan but I don't think she was any more demanding with Clift than she was of anyone else. I can't picture him as much of a lapdog as Roddy McDowall was anyway. Still Taylor did lay it on thick after all these men were gone. She lost a lot of good gay friends but never let them get in the way of a drink or a good fuck.

Obviously, R220 has no friends, and no party invitations.

Is Raintree County the greatest Hollywood epic no one has actually seen?

I know the novel on which it's based was a huge bestseller, though I believe the author Ross Lockridge died young with no followup book.

[quote]R224 Liz nagged him into coming to her boring party. He should have told her to fuck off.

He did. Three times. But she wouldn’t stop calling.

Years ago Leo Di Caprio was on Charlie Rose and said "People like James Dean and Montgomery Clift of course" when asked about what actors got him into acting.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm .....

"Is Raintree County the greatest Hollywood epic no one has actually seen? "

No. It's shown on TCM now and then, and it sucks. Long, dull, and pointless.

R230 I agree, it’s almost impossible to watch, and got bad reviews to boot. I’ve started it 3 times in my life and always turn it off.

The best thing is the clothes. Walter Plunkett felt his costumes for RAINTREE COUNTY were better than those he made for GONE WITH THE WIND.

[quote]R227 I know the novel on which it's based was a huge bestseller, though I believe the author Ross Lockridge died young with no followup book.

He killed himself (via carbon monoxide poisoning) two months after the book was published.

R189 to me brother Casey Cott has more of a MC look and demeanor to him. He is especially good at quiet moments like MC had in his acting. And he not afraid to play gay, which is good.

Some of you star struck saps need to visit the other Monty thread that's active right now with excerpts from his bio. Lots of quotes from people who actually knew him very well. He was a blackout drunk, a drug addict and a needy, narcissistic man baby. He used and abused literally everyone. Liz and others, including his psychiatrist (gay and in love with him), enabled him. MC needed constant nannying 24/7. If he wasn't famous, talented and good looking, I'm sure his friends would have been dumped in the gutter on skid row.

BTW--La Liz begging him to come to a party was literally nothing compared to the demands he made on her and others. He once demanded that a friend fly from Maine to NYC in the middle of night because he "didn't want to be alone". When the guy showed up that morning, Monty didn't even remember making the request/demand. His friends put up with A LOT of really disgusting behavior.

Link to the Monty bio thread.

Correction: his friends would have dumped HIM in the gutter.

They're playing "Red River" on TCM now. It's one of his best roles. He was gorgeous in it. And it featured some homo-erotic scenes between him and another cowboy, like the scene where they both show each other their "guns."

Monty's lil pistol was hanging out of his pants on his crawl up the stairs most nights. He was one of those dudes who whacked his tiny peen off while others spit or pissed on him. He couldn't get close even to his own desires. There's nothing homoerotic about a man who is incapable of having sexual pleasure with another. Role play can be degrading, risky, kinky or rough. But sexy is a positive light. Always. Clift didn't have it. Brando did.

I seem to remember info from the Bosworth bio of Monty that he was "involved" with several older theater men from a very young age. I don't think there was anything sexual going on but they would take him under their wing and escort him around town. His mother seemed to encourage the relationships. Monty was acutely aware of his attractiveness as a twink and wasn't shy about using it to his advantage.

Lynn Fontaine wishes that Alfred Lunt would look at her the way he looks at a young Monty.

[quote]he was "involved" with several older theater men from a very young age. I don't think there was anything sexual going on

Uh huh.

[quote]Lynn Fontaine

Oh, dear.

I think like almost all celebrities, we're never going know everything about Clift unless someone should happen to find an undiscovered autobiography which he secretly wrote - and people sometimes even leave out details and/or embellish others in autobios. As pointed out in the OP article, there were the two biographies and while they appeared to get mostly everything "right", they were each slightly flawed. At least in this new documentary, we get to hear Clift's own words.

He was in a very early TV production (1942?) of a Noel Coward play. I think it's lost.

I saw in an article that Kevin McCarthy claimed that Bosworth "misquoted him so badly, he vowed to never be interviewed again unless he could have approval of the content before publication." I wonder what quotes so upset McCarthy?