#Repost @lgbt_history with @repostapp ・・・ Montgomery “Monty” Clift (October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966), c. 1953. Monty Clift, who was born ninety-six years ago today, was an American stage and film actor who changed the way actors approached their craft and the way film studios approached their actors. Clift, who began acting at fifteen, was among Hollywood’s first generation of method actors, along with Marlon Brando and James Dean. And, according to biographer Anne Helen Petersen, when Clift “first arrived in Hollywood, he didn’t sign a contract, waiting until after the success of his first two films to negotiate a three-picture deal...that allowed him total discretion over projects...If Paramount wanted him, they’d have to give him what he wanted—a power differential that would go on to structure the star-studio relationship for the next 40 years.” Clift earned four Academy Award nominations during his career, three for Best Actor (“The Search” (1948), “A Place in the Sun” (1951), and “From Here to Eternity” (1953)) and one for Best Supporting Actor (“Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961)). As with other queer actors of the era, Clift’s sexuality was a well-kept, but not entirely unknown, secret at the time; while many close to him state that Clift was gay, others maintain he was bisexual. In May 1956, Clift was seriously injured in a car accident; he suffered a broken jaw and nose, a fractured sinus, and facial lacerations, all of which required extensive plastic surgery. After the accident, Clift became addicted to alcohol and painkillers, beginning what has been referred to as “the longest suicide in Hollywood history.” In his final years, Clift’s behavior was erratic and destructive; Marilyn Monroe famously described him as “the only person I know who is in even worse shape than I am.” Monty Clift died of a heart attack on July 22, 1966; he was forty-five. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #QueerHistoryMatters #HavePrideInHistory #MontyClift
