Montgomery Clift

MONTGOMERY CLIFT d1966. American film actor who along with Marlon Brando became one of the most sought-after leading men in Hollywood during the 1950s. During the highly succesful early part of his career, he was nominated for four academy awards ; The Search (1949) / A Place In The Sun (1951) / From Here To Eternity (1953) and Judgement at Nuremberg (1961). Whilst filming Raintree County (1956), he suffered the serious car accident that would change his life, after leaving a dinner engagement at friend Elizabeth Taylor's house in Beverly Hills. The accident interrupted his career for two months and the resultant plastic surgery disfigured him, affecting his confidence and good looks. He never physically or emotionally recovered from the accident. His post-accident career has been referred to as the "longest suicide in Hollywood history" by famed acting teacher Robert Lewis, because of his alleged subsequent abuse of painkillers and alcohol. He began to behave erratically in public which embarrassed his friends and as a result became virtually unemployable during the 1960s. Whilst co-starring in The Misfits (1961), Marilyn Monroe famously described him as "the only person I know in worse shape than me ....". He died from the effects of drug addiction aged just 45 in 1966