Montgomery Clift

Montgomery Clift

Born: October 17, 1920
Died: July 23, 1966
in Omaha, Nebraska, USA
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.

Movies for Montgomery Clift...

Rat Pack
Title: Rat Pack
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 11, 2022
Type: Movie
In the 1950s, a small group of artists monopolized the attention of the cameras and the public. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford together form the "rat pack": they sing the most popular hits of the moment, star in the most profitable Hollywood films and are already making a splash on television . This documentary, produced by a recognized specialist in the history of Hollywood, recounts the exceptional destiny of this informal group which flirted with the greats of this world, notably through Sinatra, personal friend of American President Kennedy.
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Making Montgomery Clift
Title: Making Montgomery Clift
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: September 23, 2018
Type: Movie
Classic film star and queer icon Montgomery Clift’s legacy has long been a story of tragedy and self-destruction. But when his nephew dives into the family archives, a much more complicated picture emerges.
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Listen to Me Marlon
Title: Listen to Me Marlon
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: July 29, 2015
Type: Movie
With exclusive access to his extraordinary unseen and unheard personal archive including hundreds of hours of audio recorded over the course of his life, this is the definitive Marlon Brando cinema documentary. Charting his exceptional career as an actor and his extraordinary life away from the stage and screen with Brando himself as your guide, the film will fully explore the complexities of the man by telling the story uniquely from Marlon's perspective, entirely in his own voice. No talking heads, no interviewees, just Brando on Brando and life.
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Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
Title: Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
Character: Self - Actor (archive footage)
Released: September 20, 2014
Type: Movie
In his early days as an actor, Marlon Brando (1924-2004) was a shy young man with theatrical ambitions, like many others; but his charisma and superb acting skills made him truly unique, so that the doors to the starry sky of Hollywood opened for him. However, his peculiar manners, political commitment and complicated love life always overshadowed his artistic success.
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Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess
Title: Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: September 7, 2004
Type: Movie
Documentary short focusing on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1953 film I Confess.
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Edith Head: The Paramount Years
Title: Edith Head: The Paramount Years
Character: (archive footage)
Released: November 26, 2002
Type: Movie
A tribute to the legendary costume designer Edith Head during her years providing costumes for the films of Paramount studio which includes Sunset Boulevard, Roman Holiday and many others during her distinguished career that lasted more than six decades and earned her eight Academy Awards wins in between more than 30 nominations.
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Making 'The Misfits'
Title: Making 'The Misfits'
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: October 2, 2002
Type: Movie
A behind-the-scenes and in-depth look at the making of John Huston's The Misfits (1961).
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George Stevens and His Place In The Sun
Title: George Stevens and His Place In The Sun
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: August 14, 2001
Type: Movie
This short documentary takes a look at director George Stevens' making of the classic 1951 film A Place in the Sun.
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Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
Title: Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: August 1, 2000
Type: Movie
A film biography with a difference, Sir John Mills' Moving Memories charts the life of one of Britain's most distinguished actors. Compiled from interviews with the man himself and with his family and friends, it traces his career from humble beginnings to all-time great of British cinema. The many film clips reveal an electric screen presence and a willingness to undertake a range of difficult, challenging roles.
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The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Title: The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: November 1, 1997
Type: Movie
A film scrapbook, images, phrases from our past, hiding their meanings behind veils. Let's lift those veils, one by one, to find how images, at one time seeming innocent, have revealed, after decades, to have homosexual overtones.
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Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
Title: Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
Character: Dr. Cukrowicz (archive footage)
Released: December 19, 1994
Type: Movie
A study of Tennessee Williams's life and work as a whole, ranging from his youth in Mississippi and in St. Louis to success and acclaim, followed by the final difficult years. Includes some of the most celebrated scenes from film adaptations of Williams' work, among them extracts of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951),Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Night of the Iguana, The (1964), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1993) (TV). Contains footage of Williams being interviewed, including conversations with David Frost, 'Edward R. Murrow (I)', and Melvyn Bragg, as well as reminiscences from people who knew and worked with him, among them Edward Albee, Gore Vidal, and his lifelong friend, Lady Maria St. Just. Features readings from Elia Kazan's Notebook by Kim Hunter.
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Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
Title: Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
Character: (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1990
Type: Movie
Welcome behind the closed doors of a Hollywood that only a select few will ever get to see -- a Hollywood of tragic lives and tragic deaths. Some of the worlds brightest stars are hiding deep, dark secrets that - once revealed show a life of unhappiness, heartbreak and torment that has been so carefully hidden behind the glamour and glitter of the big screen. See the true lives behind some of Hollywoods most iconic stars and learn why, for some, it was as if the act of dying itself was a final performance.
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Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star
Title: Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: October 7, 1987
Type: Movie
One of Hollywood's brightest stars is eclipsed by drink, drugs and self-doubt.
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George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
Title: George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: March 3, 1985
Type: Movie
Biography of the legendary filmmaker directed by his son.
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Montgomery Clift
Title: Montgomery Clift
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1983
Type: Movie
A documentary incorporating footage of Montgomery Clift’s most memorable films; interviews with family and friends, and rare archival material stretching back to his childhood. What develops is the story of an intense young boy who yearned for stardom, achieved notable success in such classic films as From Here to Eternity and I Confess, only to be ruined by alcohol addiction and his inability to face his own fears and homosexual desires. Montgomery Clift, as this film portrays him, may not have been a happy man but he never compromised his acting talents for Hollywood.
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The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks
Title: The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1973
Type: Movie
A documentary filmography of Howard Hawks, including lengthy footage of Hawks himself discussing his films and many clips from his best-known pictures.
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The Defector
Title: The Defector
Character: Professor James Bower
Released: October 19, 1966
Type: Movie
An American scientist is sent by the CIA to East Germany to retrieve a secret microfilm from a Soviet scientist interested in defecting to the West but the Stasi secret police's surveillance complicates matters.
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The Love Goddesses
Title: The Love Goddesses
Character: (archive footage)
Released: March 3, 1965
Type: Movie
This insightful documentary features some of the major and most beautiful actresses to grace the silver screen. It shows how the movie industry changed its depiction of sex and actresses' portrayal of sex from the silent movie era to the present. Classic scenes are shown from the silent movie 'True Heart Susie,' starring Lillian Gish, to 'Love Me Tonight' (1932), blending sex and sophistication, starring Jeanette MacDonald (pre-Nelson Eddy), and to Elizabeth Taylor in 'A Place in the Sun' (1951), plus much , much more.
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Freud: The Secret Passion
Title: Freud: The Secret Passion
Character: Sigmund Freud
Released: December 12, 1962
Type: Movie
An examination of Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud's career when he began to treat patients diagnosed with hysteria, using the radical technique of hypnosis.
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Judgment at Nuremberg
Title: Judgment at Nuremberg
Character: Rudolph Petersen
Released: December 18, 1961
Type: Movie
In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner.
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The Misfits
Title: The Misfits
Character: Perce Howland
Released: February 1, 1961
Type: Movie
While filing for a divorce, beautiful ex-stripper Roslyn Taber ends up meeting aging cowboy-turned-gambler Gay Langland and former World War II aviator Guido Racanelli. The two men instantly become infatuated with Roslyn and, on a whim, the three decide to move into Guido's half-finished desert home together. When grizzled ex-rodeo rider Perce Howland arrives, the unlikely foursome strike up a business capturing wild horses.
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Wild River
Title: Wild River
Character: Chuck Glover
Released: May 26, 1960
Type: Movie
A young bureaucrat for the Tennessee Valley Authority goes to rural Tennessee to oversee the building of a dam. He encounters opposition from the local people, in particular a farmer who objects to his employment (with pay) of local black laborers. Much of the plot revolves around the eviction of a stubborn octogenarian from her home on an island in the river, and the young man's love affair with that woman's widowed granddaughter.
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Suddenly, Last Summer
Title: Suddenly, Last Summer
Character: Dr. Cukrowicz
Released: December 22, 1959
Type: Movie
The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.
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Lonelyhearts
Title: Lonelyhearts
Character: Adam White
Released: March 4, 1959
Type: Movie
Burdened by a family secret, Adam White lands a job as a newspaper advice columnist. Little does he realize that it's all part of a nasty desire by cynical editor William Shrike to crush the souls of his underlings. Adam feels his readers' pain, and eventually, he takes an assignment to meet with Faye Doyle, who is exasperated by her crippled husband. When Faye tries to seduce Adam, he must choose between his job and his girl.
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Title: The David Susskind Show
Character: Self
Released: January 18, 1959
Type: TV
The David Susskind Show is an American television talk show hosted by David Susskind. The program began its existence in 1958 as Open End, and was broadcast by WNTA-TV in New York City. The title referred to the fact that the program continued until Susskind or his guests were too tired to continue late on a Sunday night.
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The Young Lions
Title: The Young Lions
Character: Noah Ackerman
Released: April 2, 1958
Type: Movie
The Young Lions follows the lives of three soldiers: one German and two Americans, paralleling their experiences in World War II until they meet up at the end for a confrontation
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Raintree County
Title: Raintree County
Character: John Wickliff Shawnessy
Released: December 20, 1957
Type: Movie
In 1859, idealist John Wickliff Shawnessey, a resident of Raintree County, Indiana, is distracted from his high school sweetheart Nell Gaither by Susanna Drake, a rich New Orleans girl. This love triangle is further complicated by the American Civil War, and dark family history.
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Operation Raintree
Title: Operation Raintree
Character: Self
Released: August 31, 1957
Type: Movie
MGM short that looks at the behind the scenes production of Raintree County.
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From Here to Eternity
Title: From Here to Eternity
Character: Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt
Released: August 28, 1953
Type: Movie
In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.
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Indiscretion of an American Wife
Title: Indiscretion of an American Wife
Character: Giovanni Doria
Released: April 2, 1953
Type: Movie
While on vacation in Rome, married American Mary Forbes becomes entangled in an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni Doria. As she prepares to leave Italy, Giovanni confesses his love for her; he doesn't want her to go. Together they wander the railroad station where Mary is to take the train to Paris, then ultimately reunite with her husband and daughter in Philadelphia. Will she throw away her old life for this passionate new romance?
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I Confess
Title: I Confess
Character: Fr. Michael William Logan
Released: February 18, 1953
Type: Movie
Unable, due to the seal of the confessional, to be forthcoming with information that would serve to clear himself during a murder investigation, a priest becomes the prime suspect.
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A Place in the Sun
Title: A Place in the Sun
Character: George Eastman
Released: June 12, 1951
Type: Movie
An ambitious young man wins an heiress's heart but has to cope with his former girlfriend's pregnancy.
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The Big Lift
Title: The Big Lift
Character: Sgt. 1st Class Danny MacCullough
Released: April 26, 1950
Type: Movie
The Berlin Air Lift from the point of view of two NCOs.
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Title: What's My Line?
Character: Self - Mystery Guest
Released: February 2, 1950
Type: TV
Four panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions.
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The Heiress
Title: The Heiress
Character: Morris Townsend
Released: October 6, 1949
Type: Movie
Dull and plain Catherine lives with her emotionally distant father, Dr. Sloper, in 1840s New York. Her days are empty — filled with little more than needlepoint. Enter handsome Morris Townsend, a dashing social climber with his eye on the spinster's heart and substantial inheritance.
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Red River
Title: Red River
Character: Matthew Garth
Released: August 26, 1948
Type: Movie
Headstrong Thomas Dunson starts a thriving Texas cattle ranch with the help of his faithful trail hand, Groot, and his protégé, Matthew Garth, an orphan Dunson took under his wing when Matt was a boy. In need of money following the Civil War, Dunson and Matt lead a cattle drive to Missouri, where they will get a better price than locally, but the crotchety older man and his willful young partner begin to butt heads on the exhausting journey.
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Title: The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: June 20, 1948
Type: TV
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
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Title: The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self
Released: June 20, 1948
Type: TV
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
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The Search
Title: The Search
Character: Ralph Stevenson
Released: March 26, 1948
Type: Movie
In postwar Germany, a displaced Czech boy, separated from his family during wartime, is befriended by an American GI while the boy's mother desperately searches for him.