Welcome back! Like you, I never get tired of THT and I hope you will enjoy today's choice.
I went old school again, because let's face it, there were some HOT men back in the day and there is no denying that. Just like today's pick. His dark hair and hazel eyes draw you in and watching him in the movies mesmerizes you.
Today for THT, I chose MONTGOMERY CLIFT!
Montgomery was born October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska to William Brooks Clift and Ethel Fogg Anderson. Montgomery had a twin sister named Roberta and a brother named William Brooks Clift Jr. Montgomery was named after the physician who delivered him, Dr. Edward Montgomery.
He was home schooled and attended private schools in USA and Europe until his teens. Then he attended public schools. He was educated in French, German, and Italian.
Montgomery got his break at the age of 15 on Broadway and performed there for ten years before he got his big break in Hollywood. In the Broadway play,
There Shall Be No Night, he played the role of the son for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
His first film role was opposite John Wayne in the 1948 film
Red River. Montgomery would go on to make such films as
The Search, The Heiress starring Olivia De Havilland and
A Place In The Sun starring Elizabeth Taylor who would become one of his dearest friends.
A role that Montgomery Clift is most notable for is playing Robert E. Lee Prewitt in th 1953 classic
From Here To Eternity. They say that in this movie, when Montgomery acted out his death scene, he did it so realistically that people on the set cried. Elizabeth Taylor was quoted at saying Montgomery Clift could have been the biggest star if he hadn't been so picky. At one point, there were so many movie offers sent to him, that friends had to squeeze past the stacks to go up the stairs. And who can forget the famous beach scene kiss between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. This movie is golden!
On the evening of May 12, 1956, Montgomery Clift was injured in a car accident when he crashed into a telephone pole after leaving the home of Elizabeth Taylor. They were filming the movie
The Raintree together and she hosted a dinner party. Montgomery suffered s broken jaw, broken nose, a fractured sinus, and many sever facial lacerations. The Studio worried the film would not do well, but Montgomery spoke up saying it would because people would want to compare his looks before and after the accident. He was right.
Montgomery Clift would do many films and be nominated for Academy Awards four times in his career. But Montgomery suffered all his life from colitis and the pain from the car accident caused him to get hooked on pain killers and alcohol. By the end of the 1960's Montgomery Clift was no longer filming.
On July 22, 1966, Montgomery Clift passed away in his townhouse in New York. He was 45.
