Montgomery Clift

[keroppi]

Allow me to spread the Monty love!

Montgomery Clift (1920-1966) was one of the first actors to showcase Method acting on the big screen and had since influenced many young actors. He was highly revered by James Dean and was considered by the great Marlon Brando to be his touchstone, and had been nominated for the Academy Awards 4 times. As a person, he was an enigmatic, tortured soul but let's just enjoy his acting and beauty, shall we?

His list of more popular movies are :
The Search (1948)
A Place in the Sun (1951) - I this movie so much
From Here to Eternity (1953)
I Confess (1953)
The Misfits (1961)

Now on to the pictures...

Credit : corbis & americanlegends.com

 

[keroppi]

With his best buddy, the ravishing Elizabeth Taylor

Credit : corbis, hollywoodcanteen.net

 

[keroppi]

Credit : montyclift.com/shrine

 

[Josephine]

a place in the sun

 

[keroppi]

^ Yeah, and those close-ups are revolutionary! Thank God for George Stevens.

 

[keroppi]

Some random pictures from his early movies

credit : mptv.net

 

[keroppi]

Some cute pictures with Elizabeth Taylor again

credit : mptv.net

 

[manzana]

He's my all time favorite actor
I love "Suddenly, Last Summer"

Recalling his arrival in Hollywood: "I told them I wanted to choose my scripts and my directors myself. 'But sweetheart,' they said, 'you're going to make a lot of mistakes.' And I told them, 'You don't understand; I want to be free to do so.'"

"Good dialogue simply isn't enough to explain all the infinite gradations of a character. It's behavior -- it's what's going on behind the lines."

"I don't want to be labeled as either a pansy or a heterosexual. Labeling is so self-limiting. We are what we do, not what we say we are."

 

[keroppi]

Lovely quotes manzana I haven't seen Suddenly, Last Summer yet...reviews were pretty hard on him

 

[Laska]

 

[Laska]

Corbis.com

He is soooo handsome!

 

[thefrancofille]

I LOVED From Here to Eternity. Oh my! He died so young.

 

[pinkballoons]

He is so cute, and I think it is so sweet he and Elizabeth Taylor were such close friends <3

 

[nel16]

Attempt at reviving this thread:





source: Simply Classics

 

[Laska]

^Gorgeous pic, nel, thank you!
I love Monty....it's s wonderful seeing pics of him with Liz Taylor...you can tell that they had such a strong bond and were the closest of friends. I had a Liz Taylor book, where it said that Monty was a perfectionist and would drive everyone crazy with his attention to detail on set, and that Liz was always there to calm him and support him.

 

[Laska]

www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/008870.html
Montgomery Clift called Elizabeth Taylor (his best friend, his soulmate) "Bessie Mae":

You know how it is when you love somebody terribly but you can't describe why? That's how I love Bessie Mae.​

Excerpt from Patricia Bosworth's Montgomery Clift:
Kevin McCarthy on the tragic car accident that ruined Clift's face and almost killed him. They had all been at a party at Liz Taylor's, up on a hill. Then it was time to go. Kevin got in his car, Monty got in his car - behind Kevin's - and they took off down the drive.

Suddenly I looked in my rearview mirror and I saw that Monty's car was coming much too close to my car. I got the idea he was going to play one of his practical jokes - he was going to give my car a little nudge. He never did bump my car, but I had the feeling he might, so I put my foot on the gas and went a little faster. Monty's car seemed to be almost on top of me. I wondered if he was having a blackout. I got frightened and spurted ahead so he wouldn't bump me. We both made the first turn but the next one was treacherous. We were careening now, swerving, and screeching through the darkness. Behind me I saw Monty's carlights weave from one side of the road to the other and then I heard a terrible crash. A cloud of dust appeared in my rearview mirror. I stopped and ran back. Monty's car was crumpled like an accordion against a telephone pole. The motor was running like hell. I could smell gas. I managed to reach in the window and turn off the ignition, but it was so dark I couldn't see inside the car. I didn't know where Monty was. He seemed to have disappeared.
I ran and drove my car back and shone the headlights into Monty's car. Then I saw him curled under the dahsboard. He'd been pushed there by the force of the crash. His face was torn away - a bloody pulp. I thought he was dead.
I drove back to Elizabeth's shaking like a leaf and pounded on the door. "There's been a terrible accident!" I yelled, "I don't know whether Monty's dead or alive - get an ambulance quick!" Mike Wilding and I both tried to keep Elizabeth from coming down to the car with us but she fought us off like a tiger. "No! No! I'm going to Monty!" she screamed, and she raced down the hill.
She was like Mother Courage. Monty's car was so crushed you couldn't open the front door, so Liz got through the back door and crawled over the seat. Then she crouched down and cradled Monty's head in her lap. He gave a little moan. Then he started to choke. He pantomimed weakly to his neck. Some of his teeth had been knocked out and his two front teeth were lodged in his throat. I'll never forget what Liz did. She stuck her fingers down his throat and she pulled those teeth. Otherwise he would have choked to death.


​

 

[Laska]

www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/008870.html (this is a really great tribute to monty with lots of quotes from those who knew him)

 

[keroppi]

Thanks so much nel and Laska

About the accident, it was really tragic and really changed his already vulnerable life. I've read that people think if he had died, he would've been immortalized like James Dean. I haven't seen his movies after the accident, although I really want to see The Misfits.

 

[nel16]

^ The Misfits is actually what introduced me to Monty Even though it was post-accident I was immediately hooked and pulled in by that tortured, often sweet vulnerability he projected.

And I loved his scenes with Marilyn Monroe, who he really bonded with off-screen. From what I know MM was not happy making that film but whenever you see pictures of her with him on-set she looked so happy. Marilyn told him he was "the only person I've met who's more screwed up than me."

On the set:

Source: Corbis and Magnum Photos

 

[Laska]

nel16.....those pictures are great! Thank you so much for posting them :flower