The Curious case of Liz Taylor and Montgomery Clift's friendship
There was never a friendship like Liza Taylor's with Monty, in Hollywood. She saved his life multiple times in multiple ways. And Monty never let any other woman get close to him as much as he did with La Liz. Elizabeth Taylor, in fact, agreed to work in Reflections of Golden Eye only if the producers cast Clift in the lead role. Clift at the time was hardly getting work, known to be erratic and unreliable on movie sets. But Taylor put her salary (which at the time highest for any actor, male or female, in Hollywood) as insurance. Even close family members wouldn't do that.
But when he died, she didn't even pay her last respects to him. She was in Rome for a shoot and only sent flowers when she heard about his death.
What gives ?
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 30, 2021 2:15 AM
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I don't think you just jumped on a plane like that back then. And if she was shooting she had a contractual obligation to be on set.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | November 4, 2021 9:19 PM
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Taylor may have not gone to his funeral, but Burton wrote in his diary that when he broke the news to her, she went into her bedroom wailing and crying for two days when she finally emerged again. Her flower arrangement to him read "Rest, perturbed spirit."
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | November 4, 2021 9:21 PM
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Liz Taylor obviously had contractual obligations that she couldn't dismiss to fly half-way around the world to attend a funeral of a man who drank himself into a heart attack @ 45
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | November 4, 2021 9:26 PM
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Breaking contractual obligations when one of the most important people in your life is dead, isn't a far fetched idea, no ? Especially if you are by far the biggest movie star on the planet.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | November 4, 2021 9:28 PM
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Taylor helped when it mattered. What difference does it make whether she attended his funeral?
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | November 4, 2021 10:10 PM
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r2, I'm guessing Burton and Taylor were filming The Taming of the Shrew?
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | November 4, 2021 10:26 PM
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[quote]Liz Taylor obviously had contractual obligations that she couldn't dismiss to fly half-way around the world...
Read about the making of Cleopatra.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | November 4, 2021 11:19 PM
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Funerals are for the living. Sounds like Liz was good to MC while he was alive. She probably did not feel obligated to anyone who might turn up at a funeral.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | November 4, 2021 11:46 PM
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"Read about the making of Cleopatra. "
Perhaps Miss Taylor learned a thing or two about professionalism from that mess
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | November 5, 2021 4:56 AM
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The Making of Cleopatra - very interesting two part doc - here's part 1
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | November 5, 2021 8:12 PM
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Some people can not emotionally handle funerals. I am one of them. It makes me feel guilty and ashamed beyond description, but I can not bare to see my loved ones lowered into the cold ground, I just can't. I am a very private person. To be unable to hide my grief in public, and I can't, is just unbearable.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | December 30, 2021 1:47 AM
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The last time she saw Monty alive, he came to visit her and Richard Burton at their hotel room and they were both so busy trying to get her dog to come out from underneath the bed that it hurt Monty deeply.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | December 30, 2021 1:51 AM
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She was in Rome completing filming of "Doctor Faustus". The day after Clift died, Taylor stated to the press: "I am so shocked I can barely accept it. I loved him. He was my dearest friend. He was my brother." She phoned Clift's last lover, Lorenzo, and one of his doctors. Crew on the set of "Doctor Faustus" said she was constantly weeping between takes. She said she would start a memorial research foundation for heart disease, but that never happened.
Those who attended Clift's funeral included: Lauren Bacall, Libby Holman, Dore Schary, and Nancy Walker.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 30, 2021 2:15 AM
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