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.

Filmography

• 2012Starring Sigmund Freud — (archive footage)
• 2002Edith Head: The Paramount Years — (archive footage)
• 1994Gay! Gay! Hollywood
• 1994Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage — Dr. Cukrowicz (archive footage)
• 1988Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies — (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 1985George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey — (archive footage)
• 1966The Defector — Professor James Bower
• 1962Freud: The Secret Passion — Sigmund Freud
• 1961Judgment at Nuremberg — Rudolph Petersen
• 1961The Misfits — Perce Howland
• 1960Wild River — Chuck Glover
• 1959Lonelyhearts — Adam White
• 1959Suddenly, Last Summer — Dr. Cukrowicz
• 1958The Young Lions — Noah Ackerman
• 1957Raintree County — John Wickliff Shawnessy
• 1953From Here to Eternity — Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt
• 1953I Confess — Fr. Michael William Logan
• 1953Indiscretion of an American Wife — Giovanni Doria
• 1951A Place in the Sun — George Eastman
• 1950The Big Lift — Sgt. 1st Class Danny MacCullough
• 1949The Heiress — Morris Townsend
• 1948Red River — Matthew Garth
• 1948The Search — Ralph Stevenson

Appearances as themselves (23)

• 2024Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes — Self (archive footage)
• 2022Rat Pack — Self (archive footage)
• 2018Making Montgomery Clift — Self (archive footage)
• 2017The Fabulous Allan Carr — Self (archive footage)
• 2015Listen to Me Marlon — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 2014Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire — Self - Actor (archive footage)
• 2011Marilyn at the Movies — Self (archive footage)
• 2004Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess — Self (archive footage)
• 2002Making 'The Misfits' — Self (archive footage)
• 2001George Stevens and His Place In The Sun — Self (archive footage)
• 2000Sir John Mills' Moving Memories — Self (archive footage)
• 1997The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender — Self (archive footage)
• 1990Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths — Self (archive footage)
• 1987Eve and Marilyn — Self (archive photo)
• 1987Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star — Self (archive footage)
• 1983Montgomery Clift — Self (archive footage)
• 1973The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks — Self (archive footage)
• 1965William Faulkner's Mississippi — Self - Narrator
• The Merv Griffin Show — Self
• The David Susskind Show — Self
• 1957Operation Raintree — Self
• What's My Line? — Self - Mystery Guest
• The Ed Sullivan Show — Self