Montgomery Clift

IMDB Bio
Monty was born just after his twin sister Roberta and eighteen months after his brother Brooks. Their father William made a lot of money in banking but was quite poor during the depression. Their mother Ethel "Sunny" 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 thirteen Monty appeared on Broadway ("Fly Away Home"), remaining in New York theater for over ten years before coming to Hollywood. While working in New York in the early 1940's he met wealthy former Broadway star Libby Holman who developed an intense decade-plus obsession over the young actor. It was ironic his relationship with the bisexual middle-aged Holman would only cause him further anguish over his sexuality. She would also influence his decisions to decline lead roles in "Sunset Bolevard" (originally written specifically for him) and "High Noon." By that time he made the move to Hollywood in 1948 he was a thoroughly accomplished actor, notable for the intensity with which he researched and approached his roles. By the early 1950's he was exclusively homosexual, though he maintained a number of close friendships with theater women (heavily promoted by studio publicists). His film debut was Red River (1948) with John Wayne quickly followed by his early personal success The Search (1948) (Oscar nominations for this, A Place in the Sun (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)). By 1950 he was troubled with allergies and colitis (the army had rejected him in WWII 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 Raintree County (1957) he ran his car 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 never-ending guilt over his homosexuality. With his Hollywood career in an irreversible slide, Monty returned to New York and tried to slowly develop a somewhat more sensible lifestyle in his brownstone. He was set to play in Taylor's Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), when his companion Lorenzo James found him lying nude on top of his bed, dead from what the autopsy called "occlusive coronary artery disease." His death was called the longest suicide in history by famed acting teacher, Bobby Lewis.