montgomery clift biography patricia bosworth

Brooks has saved everything that had to do with Monty-photograph albums, costumes from almost every movie, old letters-even one of the first cryptic notes Monty scribbled to his mother as a little boy, which stated: I love you.

My greatest debt is to Monty’s older brother, Brooks. I talked to his agents, his lawyer, hi doctor, his barber, his former secretary I spent one afternoon wandering through the rooms of his elegant brownstone.īasically, I went back to primary sources. I tried to talk to every director, every actor, and many of the playwrights Monty worked with.

WHEN I FIRST BEGAN researching this biography in 1973, I knew my focus would be a double one: I wanted to show how Montgomery Clift evolved into one of the definitive actors of the 1950s, but I also wanted to explore the inner life and tragic strivings of a man who remained an enigmatic figure even to his closest friends.

GET FANTASTIC DEALS ON BESTSELLING EBOOKSįor my husband, MEL ARRIGHI, without whom this book could not have been written Contents He continued to make films, but the loss of his beauty and subsequent addictions finally brought the curtain down on his career. Stunning and heartrending, Montgomery Clift is a remarkable tribute to one of Hollywood’s most gifted-and tormented-actors. Then his face was destroyed after a traumatic car crash outside Taylor’s house. He developed passionate friendships with Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor in spite of his closeted homosexuality. She traces a poignant trajectory: Clift’s childhood was dominated by a controlling, class-obsessed mother who never left him alone. In this affecting biography, Patricia Bosworth explores the complex inner life and desires of the renowned actor. Elegant, moody, and strikingly handsome, he became one of the most definitive actors of the 1950s, the first of Hollywood’s “loner heroes,” a group that includes Marlon Brando and James Dean. “The definitive work on the gifted, haunted actor” ( Los Angeles Times) and “the best film star biography in years” ( Newsweek). From the moment he leapt to stardom with the films Red River and A Place in the Sun, Montgomery Clift was acclaimed by critics and loved by fans.

Montgomery clift biography patricia bosworth