Montgomery Clift

Edward Montgomery Clift, known as "Monty" throughout his life, was born on October 17, 1920, in Omaha, Nebraska, shortly after his twin sister Roberta (1920–2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888–1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886–1964). His father earned significant wealth in banking but faced financial hardship during the Great Depression. His mother, born out of wedlock, spent much of her life and the family's fortune searching for her distinguished southern ancestry and raising her children in an aristocratic manner. At age 13, Monty appeared on Broadway in *Fly Away Home*, and he remained in New York theater for over ten years before eventually moving to Hollywood. He received strong theatrical notices and attracted the attention of several actresses, whose romantic advances caused him considerable discomfort. While working in New York in the early 1940s, he met the wealthy former Broadway star Libby Holman, who became intensely devoted to him. She financed an experimental play, *Mexican Mural*, for him. Their relationship, which was likely Clift's only heterosexual one, caused him further distress over his sexuality. Holman exerted significant influence over the early part of his film career, advising him to decline lead roles in *Sunset Boulevard* (1950)—originally written for him—and *High Noon* (1952). His long stage career made him a highly skilled actor, known for the intensity with which he researched and approached his roles. By the early 1950s, he was exclusively homosexual, though he concealed this aspect of his life and maintained several close friendships with women in the theater, often promoted by studio publicists. His film debut was *Red River* (1948), followed by his early personal success in *The Search* (1948), for which he received an Oscar nomination. He was also nominated for *A Place in the Sun* (1951), *From Here to Eternity* (1953), and *Judgment at Nuremberg* (1961). By 1950, he was suffering from allergies and colitis (he had been rejected for military service in World War II due to chronic diarrhea) and struggled with pill use and alcoholism. He spent considerable time and money on psychiatric treatment. In 1956, while filming *Raintree County* (1957), he crashed his Chevrolet into a tree after leaving a party at Elizabeth Taylor's home; it was Taylor who saved him from choking by removing two teeth lodged in his throat. His face was reconstructed, he reconciled with his estranged father, but he continued to struggle with drug dependency and guilt over his sexuality. As his Hollywood career declined, despite occasional powerful performances such as in Stanley Kramer's *Judgment at Nuremberg* (1961), Clift returned to New York and attempted to establish a more stable lifestyle in a brownstone on East 61st Street in Manhattan. He was set to appear in Taylor's *Reflections in a Golden Eye* (1967), but he died in the early morning hours of July 23, 1966, at his home at age 45. His body was discovered by his live-in personal secretary and companion, Lorenzo James, who found Clift lying nude on his bed, having died from what the autopsy described as "occlusive coronary artery disease." Clift's final decade, from the 1956 car accident until his death, was described by famed acting teacher Robert Lewis as "the longest suicide in history."