Edward Montgomery Clift was an American actor who was born on October 17, 1920. He was a four-time Academy Award contender who was recognized for portraying ‘moody, sensitive young men,’ according to The New York Times.
He is best known for his roles in Howard Hawks’ Red River (1948), William Wyler’s The Heiress (1949), George Stevens’s A Place in the Sun (1951), Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953), Fred Zinnemann’s From Here to Eternity (1953), Edward Dmytryk’s The Young Lions (1958), Stanley Kramer’s Nuremberg (1961), and John Huston’s The Misfits (1961).
Clift, along with Marlon Brando and James Dean, was one of the first method actors in Hollywood, having been asked to train with Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio. He also made an unusual step by not signing a contract when he initially arrived in Hollywood, instead of waiting until his first two films were successful before doing so.
This was referred to as a ‘power disparity’ that will ‘shape the star–studio relationship for the next 40 years.’ In 2018, his nephew produced a documentary titled Making Montgomery Clift, which debunked several of the actor’s falsehoods.
On July 22, 1966, Clift spent the majority of the sweltering summer day in his bedroom at 217 East 61st Street in New York City. Lorenzo James, his special nurse, and had not spoken much all day.
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