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Monty: A Biography of Montgomery Clift
Very Interesting Book
303 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 23, 2013
Best of the Monty bios. The most sensational male star of the 50s -- does anyone under 50 know him today? When he turned down a part, it went to Brando who took 2ds. Red River, A Place in the Sun, The Heiress, I Confess, From Here to Eternity -- and then he fell apart. Drugs & Drink. Monty, who appeared on Bwy with the Lunts and Tallulah, seemed to be the US Olivier. He was dead, age 45. This followed a drunken, disfiguring car crash; some called it the longest suicide on record.
What happened ? The patrician Clift became a huge sex symbol in the bland Eisenhower 50s. He couldn't live up to this image for his same-sex double life fried his brain. Elizabeth Taylor adored him; singer-with-a-past Libby Holman protected him. Needy drama coach Mira Rostova, who died recently, age 99, insisted on control. She was smitten.
Author LaGuardia, who later died of AIDS, has insights into Monty's furies that others (with media pals behind 'em) lack, and the writing is top-notch. "Men and women loved him for his masculine grace and looks," he writes. "Bobby-soxers screeched when his sensitive face loomed in movie theaters." Moguls bent to his demands. "He achieved power in Hollywood passively, without deviousness." His collapse and death is the darkest American Tragedy.
What happened ? The patrician Clift became a huge sex symbol in the bland Eisenhower 50s. He couldn't live up to this image for his same-sex double life fried his brain. Elizabeth Taylor adored him; singer-with-a-past Libby Holman protected him. Needy drama coach Mira Rostova, who died recently, age 99, insisted on control. She was smitten.
Author LaGuardia, who later died of AIDS, has insights into Monty's furies that others (with media pals behind 'em) lack, and the writing is top-notch. "Men and women loved him for his masculine grace and looks," he writes. "Bobby-soxers screeched when his sensitive face loomed in movie theaters." Moguls bent to his demands. "He achieved power in Hollywood passively, without deviousness." His collapse and death is the darkest American Tragedy.
May 16, 2020
If you are a Montgomery Clift fan and idolize and adore him as much as I do this is a distressing and very difficult book to read. I first read it many years ago and it depressed me then as it has depressed me now.
While he was born with a stunningly beautiful face and a talent so brilliant that could not be taught, it had to be innate, he was a man with a tortured soul. He was sensitive and complicated as many intense and luminous people are. He was haunted by ghosts unseen.
The author was sometimes contradictory and attempted to add a bit of pseudo-psychology of his own, but most of what is contained in this biography is well known from movie magazines and newspaper reports of the day.
It is a heart breaking account of a strikingly beautiful and brilliantly talented man. Died July 1966 – age 45.
*While ‘beautiful’ is not a word often used to describe male looks, I use it with no apology because it is what he was, beautiful.*
While he was born with a stunningly beautiful face and a talent so brilliant that could not be taught, it had to be innate, he was a man with a tortured soul. He was sensitive and complicated as many intense and luminous people are. He was haunted by ghosts unseen.
The author was sometimes contradictory and attempted to add a bit of pseudo-psychology of his own, but most of what is contained in this biography is well known from movie magazines and newspaper reports of the day.
It is a heart breaking account of a strikingly beautiful and brilliantly talented man. Died July 1966 – age 45.
*While ‘beautiful’ is not a word often used to describe male looks, I use it with no apology because it is what he was, beautiful.*
August 12, 2016
A few purple phrases, plus a lot of sweeping opinions which are stated as fact make this book not as good as Patricia Bosworth's biography. But there is a lot of interesting information (LaGuardia interviewed many of the important people in Clift's life) and it's worth it for the chapter about the filming of John Huston's Freud. This movie seemed to cause the entire cast and crew to have some form of mental breakdown as John Huston fulfilled a lifelong dream to tell the story of Freud's psychological realizations even though Huston hadn't read much Freud and found the subject of sexual repression distasteful! The complete breakdown of order and reason on the set is quite something to read about. It's just a shame that this bizarre movie effectively ended Montgomery Clift's career.
October 6, 2018
In both proportion and depth, Laguardia’s bio of Clift exceeds Bosworth’s.
September 6, 2019
Robert LaGuardia has written a fine book on the talented and self destructive Montgomery Clift. He
only has 17 film credits in appearances on the screen dating from 1947 to 1966. Yet most are some
of the best films that Hollywood ever made. For myself I only dislike two of them, Indiscretion Of
An American Wife and The Defector.
Clift was born in 1920 to a wealthy family who when the crash of 1929 while they didn't lose their
shirts, living was strained a bit. Young Clift was pushed to the stage by his mother and became a
child performer on Broadway making his debut in the Cole Porter musical Jubilee. He worked with
a lot of famous performers like Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne and Fredric March.
He managed to avoid World War 2 service in a truly nasty way with a bout of amoebic dysentery
acquired in Mexico on a trip there. Montezuma's revenge and then some. Of course he could have
gotten out by saying he was gay, but in those years NOBODY declared that.
Post war director Howard Hawks signed Clift for a new big budget western Red River with John Wayne where Clift would play Wayne's adopted son. It was shot in 1946, but a copyright suit
held up release for two years. In the meantime Clift did The Search, a story about post war refugee
kids. It was a sleeper hit and earned Clift a first Oscar nomination. Red River then came out and
cemented his reputation.
More film hits came along. He appeared opposite Olivia DeHavilland in The Heiress where she won
for Best Actress in 1949. He did a minor film about the Berlin Airlift called The Big Lift. It's pretty
good and Clift put a lot of depth into the character more than was there in the story. In 1951 he
co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor for the 1st of three films in A Place In The Sun. That netted him
a second Oscar nomination and a best friend in show business in Taylor.
He did I Confess for Alfred Hitchcock playing a priest. Good, but not first rate Hitchcock. He then
did Indiscretions Of An American Wife with Jennifer Jones which was shot in a hurry and was mediocre. Then it was his best career role and a third Oscar nod for From Here To Eternity as
Robert E.Lee Pruitt. Sadly he and Burt Lancaster split the vote and the Oscar for 1953 went to
William Holden for Stalag 17.
He was off the screen for three years doing a lot of partying and carousing. Always with the fear
he'd be outed. Elizabeth Taylor got him as her leading man for big budget Raintree County a
truly beautiful film set during the Civil War. During the filming he was involved in a serious car
crash and Clift was nearly killed. A lot of corrective surgery restored his face, but as Elizabeth
Taylor said, the delicacy of features was gone. The film was delayed but finished.
Clift did a bunch of films over the next few years. The Young Lions an epic World War 2 story co-starring him with Marlon Brando and Dean Martin, Lonelyhearts where he plays an advise to the
lovelorn columnist, a third film with Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn Tennessee Williams
Suddenly Last Summer, a personal favorite of mine The Wild River which is set in Depression era
Tennessee and Clift works for the new Tennessee Valley Authority. Finally The Misfits the legendary last film of both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe.
A fourth Oscar nomination, this time as a Supporting Actor in Judgment At Nuremberg where he
plays a survivor of Nazi brutality In 1963 he had one last good film with a biographical film of
Sigmund Freud entitle Freud. I like it though the account of what it took to get Clift through the
movie by director John Huston is frightening. Clift was pretty dissipated by then.
In 1966 he made a last film, a truly mediocre spy film called The Defector. He didn't like it and
neither did the public after his death. Clift died in the fall of 1966 at the age of 45, the victim of a
lot of substance abuse and a desire probably not to go on living.
LaGuardia is a good writer and wrote a good tale. But I don't think he could have appreciated what
life in the closet can do to someone. Who knows how Monty Clift would do today in a more open
society? He deserved to truly enjoy life more.
only has 17 film credits in appearances on the screen dating from 1947 to 1966. Yet most are some
of the best films that Hollywood ever made. For myself I only dislike two of them, Indiscretion Of
An American Wife and The Defector.
Clift was born in 1920 to a wealthy family who when the crash of 1929 while they didn't lose their
shirts, living was strained a bit. Young Clift was pushed to the stage by his mother and became a
child performer on Broadway making his debut in the Cole Porter musical Jubilee. He worked with
a lot of famous performers like Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne and Fredric March.
He managed to avoid World War 2 service in a truly nasty way with a bout of amoebic dysentery
acquired in Mexico on a trip there. Montezuma's revenge and then some. Of course he could have
gotten out by saying he was gay, but in those years NOBODY declared that.
Post war director Howard Hawks signed Clift for a new big budget western Red River with John Wayne where Clift would play Wayne's adopted son. It was shot in 1946, but a copyright suit
held up release for two years. In the meantime Clift did The Search, a story about post war refugee
kids. It was a sleeper hit and earned Clift a first Oscar nomination. Red River then came out and
cemented his reputation.
More film hits came along. He appeared opposite Olivia DeHavilland in The Heiress where she won
for Best Actress in 1949. He did a minor film about the Berlin Airlift called The Big Lift. It's pretty
good and Clift put a lot of depth into the character more than was there in the story. In 1951 he
co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor for the 1st of three films in A Place In The Sun. That netted him
a second Oscar nomination and a best friend in show business in Taylor.
He did I Confess for Alfred Hitchcock playing a priest. Good, but not first rate Hitchcock. He then
did Indiscretions Of An American Wife with Jennifer Jones which was shot in a hurry and was mediocre. Then it was his best career role and a third Oscar nod for From Here To Eternity as
Robert E.Lee Pruitt. Sadly he and Burt Lancaster split the vote and the Oscar for 1953 went to
William Holden for Stalag 17.
He was off the screen for three years doing a lot of partying and carousing. Always with the fear
he'd be outed. Elizabeth Taylor got him as her leading man for big budget Raintree County a
truly beautiful film set during the Civil War. During the filming he was involved in a serious car
crash and Clift was nearly killed. A lot of corrective surgery restored his face, but as Elizabeth
Taylor said, the delicacy of features was gone. The film was delayed but finished.
Clift did a bunch of films over the next few years. The Young Lions an epic World War 2 story co-starring him with Marlon Brando and Dean Martin, Lonelyhearts where he plays an advise to the
lovelorn columnist, a third film with Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn Tennessee Williams
Suddenly Last Summer, a personal favorite of mine The Wild River which is set in Depression era
Tennessee and Clift works for the new Tennessee Valley Authority. Finally The Misfits the legendary last film of both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe.
A fourth Oscar nomination, this time as a Supporting Actor in Judgment At Nuremberg where he
plays a survivor of Nazi brutality In 1963 he had one last good film with a biographical film of
Sigmund Freud entitle Freud. I like it though the account of what it took to get Clift through the
movie by director John Huston is frightening. Clift was pretty dissipated by then.
In 1966 he made a last film, a truly mediocre spy film called The Defector. He didn't like it and
neither did the public after his death. Clift died in the fall of 1966 at the age of 45, the victim of a
lot of substance abuse and a desire probably not to go on living.
LaGuardia is a good writer and wrote a good tale. But I don't think he could have appreciated what
life in the closet can do to someone. Who knows how Monty Clift would do today in a more open
society? He deserved to truly enjoy life more.
August 8, 2012
I had an old used copy of this book on my shelf for years. Monty, for some reason, is not as frequently written about as some of his contemporaries, so I was happy to find a book on him. Turns out some of the reticence in discussing him might have to do with the depressing subject matter. Far from the glamor of his screen persona, Monty's real life was riddled with complex psychological issues worsened by the drug and alcohol abuse that would ultimately contribute to his premature death. Nonetheless, LaGuardia's book is very interesting. My only concern with it is that the reader only gets one interpretation of Monty's numerous and complicated "issues." It seems many other potential angles are ignored, and it risks fitting Monty's life into a single formula for convenience's sake.
October 21, 2014
I learned so much as a result of reading about Montgomery Clift. He is one of my mom's favorite actors. I like him as well. I came across his bio by way of a recommendation list that was in the back of a bio I was reading on Elizabeth Taylor. Such a talented actor who enjoyed such successful heights, only to crash land to a tragic end. When I see him in films in the future, I will have a renewed and even higher respect for his beautiful art that he shared so eagerly with the world. So glad to be able to witness those moments forever captured on film.
August 8, 2014
It captures Monty very well. It doesn't feel sensational or worshipful. Tells the story of his life with excellent insight, thought, and empathy. I quite liked it.
February 2, 2021
Sad biography of an overall sad life. Being closeted in the late forties and fifties basically condemned the tormented Montgomery Clift to a life of loneliness. I came to the conclusion that he truly suffered from a mental illness all his life, which led him, ultimately, to the onset of alcoholism and addiction to pills. Today, his psychiatrist would be sued by his family.
My Wicked Stepmother, (long dead) would make me sit and watch “Dialing For Dollars” with her when I was a kid in the late sixties, early seventies. I hated her for it then, and what films she unknowingly exposed me to! “A Place In The Sun,” “Suddenly, Last Summer,” “The Children’s Hour,” “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.”.....not exactly PG for a bright 10 year old....themes of same sex love conflict, accused as lesbian Shirley McClain hanging herself, and good ‘ole cannibalism! I’ve sent many therapists on European vacations in my long and messed up life since then! But now I find myself returning to and loving these films that you pay Amazon Prime and $3.99 for to watch! They were, and TV was, FREE then! They are, for me, the film equivalent to comfort food.
My Wicked Stepmother, (long dead) would make me sit and watch “Dialing For Dollars” with her when I was a kid in the late sixties, early seventies. I hated her for it then, and what films she unknowingly exposed me to! “A Place In The Sun,” “Suddenly, Last Summer,” “The Children’s Hour,” “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.”.....not exactly PG for a bright 10 year old....themes of same sex love conflict, accused as lesbian Shirley McClain hanging herself, and good ‘ole cannibalism! I’ve sent many therapists on European vacations in my long and messed up life since then! But now I find myself returning to and loving these films that you pay Amazon Prime and $3.99 for to watch! They were, and TV was, FREE then! They are, for me, the film equivalent to comfort food.
October 24, 2024
(3.5/5)
I didn't have it in me to make it all the way through this, but got like maybe 80/90% through. In any case, especially by the end, it was pretty obvious where Monty's life was spiraling towards... A really fascinating look at one of my all-time favorite actors. Clearly a tortured soul who left us far too soon, but even the slim body of work he left us is so precious. Truly unimaginable to me what it must have been like to have an identity like his during times of such rampant conservatism as 1950s America. If you can stomach this though, I found it to be a rather excellent look at this enigmatic man. Sometimes the biographer could get a bit polemic regarding certain things, but overall he did a great job compiling all the relevant information. Monty is still sorely missed, but thankfully his imprint on acting/film will never really die out.
I didn't have it in me to make it all the way through this, but got like maybe 80/90% through. In any case, especially by the end, it was pretty obvious where Monty's life was spiraling towards... A really fascinating look at one of my all-time favorite actors. Clearly a tortured soul who left us far too soon, but even the slim body of work he left us is so precious. Truly unimaginable to me what it must have been like to have an identity like his during times of such rampant conservatism as 1950s America. If you can stomach this though, I found it to be a rather excellent look at this enigmatic man. Sometimes the biographer could get a bit polemic regarding certain things, but overall he did a great job compiling all the relevant information. Monty is still sorely missed, but thankfully his imprint on acting/film will never really die out.
March 12, 2026
Montgomery Clift was a fascinating actor who reached such career heights that he could have become more legendary than Brando or Dean. Instead, at his professional peak, he had a tragic disfiguring accident and lurched toward alcoholism and drugs and died prematurely, aged 45. Clift’s life is the quintessential Hollywood tragedy. Consequently many biographies have been written about his rise and decline and ‘Monty: a biography of Montgomery Clift’ by Robert LaGuardia is one of the best. Originally published in 1977, this version tells the Monty Clift story comprehensively and adroitly. Although this is not a sentimental book it provokes a highly emotional response from the reader. The author provides a sympathetic and honest retelling of Monty Clint’s tragic downfall which neither omits nor sensationalises because, the author knows, that the facts are sufficiently shocking.
July 16, 2022
I saw a documentary recently on Montgomery Clift and this book was mentioned. The documentary, done by one of Clift's nephews, was very critical of LaGuardia's book, which prompted me to want to read it. It's an interesting look at Clift's short life. I had no idea Clift was only 45 when he died. If you believe LaGuardia's take, Clift really did commit suicide over a number of years of his life. He was mentally and physically a wreck and seemed to be unhappy throughout a large part of his short life. He never seemed to be able to come to terms with his looks (before or after his accident) and he never seemed comfortable with his rise to fame. LaGuardia does a good job of getting quotes from people who knew and worked with Clift. His book is certainly a page-turner.
June 15, 2024
What a curious person Edward Montgomery Clift turned out to be. Perhaps his most noteworthy aspect was his will, ironclad and unyielding, towards the work he was called to do. He was as unmotivated by money as an earth traveler could be, yet he was working for money when he delivered his post-swan-song film. I wonder what he’s up to now, on the other side of the veil? Is he making a movie that would blow your mind, cozied up to writers one and all or is he floating in nonexistence without a care in the world? Is he anxious and afraid, forgetful and fearful or ready to enjoy you for who you are? Rest in peace, Monty.
May 2, 2023
I've been haunted by Monty since I saw him in A Place in the Sun when I was 13. Even then I knew: Beautiful tortured talent. Would have been something to know him...when he was sober. Hope he found his place in the sun somewhere. The best parts of this book are the tidbits about his adventures in his teens and 20s, like going to burlesque clubs in Newark in the 1930s-40s and being a young gay man, as much as one could be during that time. LaGuardia's language is often hilariously dated, but the story fascinating and, unfortunately, still timely.
August 22, 2020
"Montgomery Clift" is a name I've heard all my life but I was born too late to be a fan when he was alive. So much of this story, therefore, was new to me. It is a sad story about a troubled man, told competently, but with catty editorializing by the author. Enough of the book was free of that for me to keep reading and enjoying, but it was still rattling.
Overall, reading this book is like reading a train wreck. You don't stop turning pages, even knowing the trauma ahead.
Overall, reading this book is like reading a train wreck. You don't stop turning pages, even knowing the trauma ahead.
September 8, 2021
Good book if you're a fan. Not as badly overwritten as Kitty Kelley's stuff so its enjoyable.
March 16, 2025
Sympathetic to Clift, and very detailed, it’s a sadly irresponsible book and not well-written.
April 6, 2015
A rather pedestrian biography of Montgomery Clift. Certainly he was a tormented man, deeply involved in alcoholism and drug abuse. This was most likely brought on by his closeted homosexuality as well as other factors. Of course being closeted was necessary in the 40s and 50s in order to get work in Hollywood, although an actor's sexual preferences was usually known within the Hollywood community itself.
The book would have been better if there had been more information about the making of some of his best films, but it just focused on his erratic behavior on the set and not much else. There was some information about his close friendship with Elizabeth Taylor (albeit gaps of a few years at a time during the friendship), and comparisons to him to James Dean and Marlon Brando. I'm going to be reading a couple other biographies of Clift-- this was my first one -- and hope to find the other books have a more balanced content between Clift's life and his art, as this excellent actor deserved much better.
**#33 of 100 books I pledged to read/review in 2015**
The book would have been better if there had been more information about the making of some of his best films, but it just focused on his erratic behavior on the set and not much else. There was some information about his close friendship with Elizabeth Taylor (albeit gaps of a few years at a time during the friendship), and comparisons to him to James Dean and Marlon Brando. I'm going to be reading a couple other biographies of Clift-- this was my first one -- and hope to find the other books have a more balanced content between Clift's life and his art, as this excellent actor deserved much better.
**#33 of 100 books I pledged to read/review in 2015**
June 8, 2023
Sympathetic, straight forward biography of Monty Not much detailed insight in his films, this is more focused on Clift's personal life and overall career.
Its a sad story, Clift seems to have been a fragile (4-F during WW II), troubled man, and the added burdens of ill-health and closeted homosexuality were too much for him. A heavy drinker his entire life, he added perscription drugs to the mix after the 1956 accident. Sleeping pills before bed, uppers upon awakening, and pain-killers mxed with vodka in-between. Rounding it all off, were quack pyschiatrists, back-stabbing agents, and financial grifters who took advantage of him.
Friends tried to intervene, but to no avail. After the success of From Here to Eternity , he took almost 3 years off and did little but enjoy himself and do a play. Later, after Freud, he was unemployable for 4 years, and also did little but socialize and drink. Like I said, a sad life.
Its a sad story, Clift seems to have been a fragile (4-F during WW II), troubled man, and the added burdens of ill-health and closeted homosexuality were too much for him. A heavy drinker his entire life, he added perscription drugs to the mix after the 1956 accident. Sleeping pills before bed, uppers upon awakening, and pain-killers mxed with vodka in-between. Rounding it all off, were quack pyschiatrists, back-stabbing agents, and financial grifters who took advantage of him.
Friends tried to intervene, but to no avail. After the success of From Here to Eternity , he took almost 3 years off and did little but enjoy himself and do a play. Later, after Freud, he was unemployable for 4 years, and also did little but socialize and drink. Like I said, a sad life.
Read
September 23, 2010I thought this was a pretty good biography. Went into his homosexuality and his disfigurement after his car accident and how that affected his movie career. I remember watching The Misfits again with totally different eyes.
August 2, 2009
Sad. Monty was a tormented person. No peace.
Read
August 4, 2011A complex, intense read.
October 14, 2022
I read this when I was 9 or 10. I remember the description of him dressing up as a girl when he was young, that he had a twin sister, and how upsetting his death was to my mum.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews