Montgomery Clift
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Oct 17, 1920
- Died
- Jul 23, 1966 (aged 45)
- Place of birth
- Omaha, Nebraska, USA
- Credits
- 46
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
Judgment at Nuremberg
1961Movie
Rudolph Petersen
From Here to Eternity
1953Movie
Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt
Red River
1948Movie
Matthew Garth
I Confess
1953Movie
Fr. Michael William Logan
The Misfits
1961Movie
Perce Howland
A Place in the Sun
1951Movie
George Eastman
Filmography
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes
2024Movie
Self (archive footage)
Rat Pack
2022Movie
Self (archive footage)
Making Montgomery Clift
2018Movie
Self (archive footage)
The Fabulous Allan Carr
2017Movie
Self (archive footage)
Listen to Me Marlon
2015Movie
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
2014Movie
Self - Actor (archive footage)
Starring Sigmund Freud
2012Movie
(archive footage)
Marilyn at the Movies
2011Movie
Self (archive footage)
Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess
2004Movie
Self (archive footage)
Edith Head: The Paramount Years
2002Movie
(archive footage)
Making 'The Misfits'
2002Movie
Self (archive footage)
George Stevens and His Place In The Sun
2001Movie
Self (archive footage)
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
2000Movie
Self (archive footage)
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
1997Movie
Self (archive footage)
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
1994Movie
Dr. Cukrowicz (archive footage)
Gay! Gay! Hollywood
1994Movie
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
1990Movie
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies
1988Movie
(archive footage) (uncredited)
Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star
1987Movie
Self (archive footage)
Eve and Marilyn
1987Movie
Self (archive photo)
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
1985Movie
(archive footage)
Montgomery Clift
1983Movie
Self (archive footage)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks
1973Movie
Self (archive footage)
The Defector
1966Movie
Professor James Bower
William Faulkner's Mississippi
1965Movie
Self - Narrator
Freud: The Secret Passion
1962Movie
Sigmund Freud
The Merv Griffin Show
1962TV
Self
Judgment at Nuremberg
1961Movie
Rudolph Petersen
The Misfits
1961Movie
Perce Howland
Wild River
1960Movie
Chuck Glover
Suddenly, Last Summer
1959Movie
Dr. Cukrowicz
Lonelyhearts
1959Movie
Adam White
The David Susskind Show
1959TV
Self
The Young Lions
1958Movie
Noah Ackerman
Raintree County
1957Movie
John Wickliff Shawnessy
Operation Raintree
1957Movie
Self
From Here to Eternity
1953Movie
Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt
Indiscretion of an American Wife
1953Movie
Giovanni Doria
I Confess
1953Movie
Fr. Michael William Logan
A Place in the Sun
1951Movie
George Eastman
The Big Lift
1950Movie
Sgt. 1st Class Danny MacCullough
What's My Line?
1950TV
Self - Mystery Guest
The Heiress
1949Movie
Morris Townsend
Red River
1948Movie
Matthew Garth
The Ed Sullivan Show
1948TV
Self
The Search
1948Movie
Ralph Stevenson