Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed
'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just 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 made a lot of money in banking but was quite poor
during the depression. His mother 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 age 13, Monty appeared on Broadway ("Fly Away Home"), and chose to
remain in the New York theater for over ten years before finally
succumbing to Hollywood. He gained excellent theatrical notices and
soon piqued the interests of numerous lovelorn actresses; their
advances met with awkward conflict. While working in New York in the
early 1940s, he met wealthy former Broadway star
Libby Holman. She developed an intense
decade-plus obsession over the young actor, even financing an
experimental play, "Mexican Mural" for him. It was ironic his
relationship with the bisexual middle-aged Holman would be the
principal (and likely the last) heterosexual relationship of his life
and only cause him further anguish over his sexuality. She would wield
considerable influence over the early part of his film career, advising
him in decisions to decline lead roles in
Boulevard der Dämmerung (1950), (originally
written specifically for him; the story perhaps hitting a little too
close to home) and Zwölf Uhr mittags (1952).
His long apprenticeship on stage made him a thoroughly accomplished
actor, notable for the intensity with which he researched and
approached his roles. By the early 1950s he was exclusively
homosexual, though he continued to hide his homosexuality and
maintained a number of close friendships with theater women (heavily
promoted by studio publicists).
His film debut was Panik am roten Fluß (1948)
with John Wayne quickly followed by
his early personal success
Die Gezeichneten (1948) (Oscar nominations
for this,
Ein Platz an der Sonne (1951),
Verdammt in alle Ewigkeit (1953)
and
Das Urteil von Nürnberg (1961)).
By 1950, he was troubled with allergies and colitis (the U.S. Army had
rejected him for military service in World War II 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
Das Land des Regenbaums (1957), he ran
his Chevrolet into a tree after leaving a party at
Elizabeth Taylor's; 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 his
unrelenting guilt over his homosexuality.
With his Hollywood career in an irreversible slide despite giving an
occasional riveting performance, such as in
Stanley Kramer's
Das Urteil von Nürnberg (1961),
Monty returned to New York and tried to slowly develop a somewhat more
sensible lifestyle in his brownstone row house on East 61st Street in
Manhattan. He was set to play in Taylor's
Spiegelbild im goldenen Auge (1967),
when he died in the early morning hours of July 23, 1966, at his home at
age 45. His body was found by his live-in personal secretary/companion
Lorenzo James, who found Clift lying nude on top of his bed, dead from
what the autopsy called "occlusive coronary artery disease." Clift's
last 10 years prior to his death from his 1956 car accident were called
the "longest suicide in history" by famed acting teacher
Robert Lewis.
