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Montgomery Clift
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…
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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
Movies and shows, newest first
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2024
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2022
Rat Pack
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2018
Making Montgomery Clift
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2017
The Fabulous Allan Carr
Movie Self (archive)
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2015
Listen to Me Marlon
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2014
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
Movie Self - Actor (archive footage)
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2012
Starring Sigmund Freud
Movie (archive footage)
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2011
Marilyn at the Movies
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2004
Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2002
Edith Head: The Paramount Years
Movie (archive footage)
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2002
Making 'The Misfits'
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2001
George Stevens and His Place In The Sun
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2000
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1997
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1994
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
Movie Dr. Cukrowicz (archive footage)
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1994
Gay! Gay! Hollywood
Movie
More credits
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1990
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
Movie (archive footage)
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1988
Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies
Movie (archive footage) (uncredited)
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1987
Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1987
Eve and Marilyn
Movie Self (archive photo)
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1985
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
Movie (archive footage)
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1983
Montgomery Clift
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1973
The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1966
The Defector
Movie Professor James Bower
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1965
William Faulkner's Mississippi
Movie Self - Narrator
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1962
Freud: The Secret Passion
Movie Sigmund Freud
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1962
The Merv Griffin Show
TV show Self
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1961
Judgment at Nuremberg
Movie Rudolph Petersen
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1961
The Misfits
Movie Perce Howland
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1960
Wild River
Movie Chuck Glover
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1959
Suddenly, Last Summer
Movie Dr. Cukrowicz
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1959
Lonelyhearts
Movie Adam White
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1959
The David Susskind Show
TV show Self
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1958
The Young Lions
Movie Noah Ackerman
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1957
Raintree County
Movie John Wickliff Shawnessy
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1957
Operation Raintree
Movie Self
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1953
From Here to Eternity
Movie Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt
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1953
Indiscretion of an American Wife
Movie Giovanni Doria
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1953
I Confess
Movie Fr. Michael William Logan
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1951
A Place in the Sun
Movie George Eastman
