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Montgomery
Clift Montgomery Clift's father William made a lot of money in banking but was quite poor during the depression. Their mother Ethel "Sunny" was born out of wedlock and spent much of her life and the family fortune finding her illustrious southern lineage and raising her children as aristocrats. At thirteen Monty appeared on Broadway ("Fly Away Home"), remaining in New York theatre for over ten years before coming to Hollywood. By that time he was an accomplished actor, notable for the intensity with which he researched and entered into his roles. He was also by that time exclusively homosexual, though he maintained a number of close friendships with theatre women (heavily promoted by studio publicists). What followed could be described as the longest suicide in showbusiness history. His film debut was Red River (1948) with John Wayne quickly followed by his early personal success The Search (1948) (Oscar nominations for this, A Place in the Sun (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)). By 1950 he was troubled with allergies and colitis (the army had rejected him in WWII for chronic diarrhea) and, along with pill problems he was alcoholic. He spent a great deal of time and money on psychiatry. In 1956 during filming of Raintree County (1957) he ran his car into a tree after leaving a party at Elizabeth Taylor's drunk; it was she who saved him from choking by pulling out two teeth lodged in his throat. His smashed face was rebuilt, he reconciled with his estranged father, but he continued bedeviled by dependency on drugs and guilt over homosexuality. The crash also obliterated his self-confidence. Monty managed to slowly develop a more sensible lifestyle back in his New York brownstone, and he was set to play in Taylor's Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), when his companion Lorenzo James found him lying nude on top of his bed, dead from what the autopsy called "occlusive coronary artery disease".
Clift is referred to in the Jets to Brazil song, "Conrad" on their album, "Orange Rhyming Dictionary." and is the subject of the song "The Right Profile" on The Clash's album "London Calling". and is also the subject of REM's song "Monty Got a Raw Deal", from their LP "Automatic For the People" Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#29), in 1995. Complete Filmography: The Search (1948)
.... Ralph Stevenson
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