Monty: A Biography of Montgomery Clift

"Classically handsome, extraordinarily gifted, a legend before his death who created the mold for James Dean and Marlon Brando--Montgomery Clift will never be forgotten by anyone who saw him on the screen. Women literally screamed for him; critics acclaimed him--yet he died, at the age of 45, a haunted, broken man. What happened? Why did so promising a life end so tragically? Here, through years of research and hundreds of interviews with Clift's family, friends, lovers, associates and confidants, illustrated with sixty photographs, many never before published, is the first definitive in-depth biography to break through the public and private façade of Montgomery Clift--a 1950s rebel on screen and off. Here are the famous films, from Red River to From Here to Eternity to The Misfits, as well as the real stories behind them: the lacerating fights with John Huston on Freud; the intense relationship with Elizabeth Taylor begun during the filming of A Place in the Sun; the man-to-man showdown with John Wayne in Red River; the deep friendships and provocative confrontations with such people as Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Alfred Hitchcock. Elia Kazan, William Wyler, Olivia de Havilland, James Jones, Howard Hawks, and Katharine Hepburn. Here, too, is the private Monty, a life heretofore hinted at in rumors and whispers, but never before revealed in true depth: the frank story of his battles with alcohol and drugs; his complex relationships with friends and family; his sexual encounters with men and women; his psychological disturbances and bizarre behavior; the car accident that changed his life. From his peripatetic childhood in the close care of his mother to his early Broadway successes to his meteoric rise and subsequent fall before the eyes of the world, this is a riveting, life-size portrait of Montgomery Clift the actor and the man--a fascinating voyage into the spotlighted world of the movie star, and the dark realms of the human psyche. "--Dust jacket.