- Born
- 17 October 1920Omaha, Nebraska, USA
- Died
- 23 July 1966New York City, USA · aged 45
Montgomery Clift
One of Hollywood’s first great method actors lived his love for men in secret – a strain that shaped his tragic life.
Montgomery Clift grew up in a wealthy family that travelled through Europe; he was taught by private tutors. At 13 he was already acting on Broadway, and he spent more than ten years on the New York stage before going to Hollywood.
His first films, “Red River” and “The Search” (both 1948), made him a star. With his sensitive, vulnerable acting he became one of the first great method actors alongside Marlon Brando. He received four Academy Award nominations, among others for “A Place in the Sun” (1951) with Elizabeth Taylor, who became his lifelong friend, and “From Here to Eternity” (1953).
Clift loved men, but in the Hollywood of the 1950s this had to remain hidden. He refused to sign long-term contracts with the studios, which allowed him more freedom, and he never married. In 1956 he had a serious car accident that injured his face; Elizabeth Taylor saved his life at the scene. Afterwards he struggled with pain, alcohol and pills.
He still gave great performances in “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961) and “The Misfits” (1961). He died of a heart attack in New York in 1966, aged 45.