Montgomery Clift: A Biography (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: New York, Elizabeth Taylor, Bill Clift (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Because of Bosworth's artistry, her ability to choose the right details, and her own immersion in the subject...[this book] is an amazing excursion into a life." -New York Times Book Review "It stands as the definitive work on the gifted, haunted actor." -Los Angeles Times "Here it is - the real thing - inside Montgomery CLift. I've known other actors as well, but none with such a harrowing tale. I kept wondering, could Patricia Bosworth have been there? Everywhere? The book is that vivid and intimate." -Elia Kazan

Product Description

An intimate and compelling portrait of an enigmatic, haunted, and gifted American actor, told in an intimate and vivid way. From his disturbing childhood to his early days in Hollywood to his tragic and untimely death, Montgomery Clift's story represents one of the true film legends. Photographs.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 438 pages
• Publisher: Limelight Editions (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879101350
• ISBN-13: 978-0879101350
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #508,227 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful But Tragic Star, November 7, 2002

By	Angelaustin (Elkhart, IN United States) - See all my reviews

If ever anyone fit the idea of a beautiful but tragic star, it was Montgomery Clift. Talented yet insecure, generous yet selfish, caring yet self-centered, secretive yet outgoing, Clift was a bundle of contradictions. His private agony over his apparent bisexuality is depicted so well, one can feel his pain. Conflicted all his life, he yearned to marry and have a family, yet when given the chance to do so, he was never able to bring himself to commit to anyone. He seems to have loved women and adored their company, yet even when having intimate affairs with them, he was still compelled to seek out men for sex. It was a secret that ate at him all his life. While his childhood was far from ideal, it still doesn't explain all the torture and pain. And while he had many friends and relationships, all of them were compartmentalized in his mind and often his life, so that no one ever really knew him fully. If ever there was a story to illustrate the point that fame and fortune do not equal happiness, it is the story of Clift. The author did very thorough research, interviewing both family and friends of Clift. One wonders what might have been had he been given the proper phsychiatric care. Illuminating but ultimatly sad, this biography will probably give fans of Monty the best glimpses into his tortured soul and life they are ever likely to find.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MONTGOMERY CLIFT...the saddest star, September 4, 2000

By	"sciknm" (Chestertown, MD United States) - See all my reviews

when i purchased this book i was beyond excited, already being a fan of clift's, but after reading it the way i look at Montgomery Clift will never be the same. this book was insightful, truthful and most of all SAD. i have never cried after reading a book but i did after reading this one. he lived such a tragic life and this book in no way hides or covers that up. i always saw clift as an attractive and extremely well-gifted actor and he is all of those things but i also see him as as a man who hid and faught with a lot of pain and heartache(drugs, homosexuality, his looks, women, and his career). patricia bosworth has done an excellent job telling the story of his life and she also did a great job touching mine.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Monty: Going Over The Clift, September 12, 2006

By	Stephanie DePue (Carolina Beach, NC USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Montgomery Clift was certainly a troubled darling of the later 1940's and early 1950s,an actor who starred in "A Place in the Sun," "From Here to Eternity," "Suddenly Last Summer,"and "Raintree County." He played gentle and sensitive, empathetic, suffering, almost androgynous. He was extremely handsome before the serious automobile accident that nearly killed him; he got to play with Hollywood's best (and its worst), and he surely followed the adage "live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse."

This biography, by the former actress, and experienced, well-connected journalist Patricia Bosworth is more than fair. She has done a great deal of research: Clift was secretive about his life and kept his friends in compartments. She found a lot of people, and got them talking. Furthermore, she tackles his life with understanding and sympathy.

Clift was born to an overpowering, suffocating woman who was a demented snob: she allowed her clouded descent from two of the South's finer families to ruin her own, and her children's lives. His weak father was bankrupted by the Depression of the 1930s, giving Monty, the beautiful teenager, the chance to escape Mom and head for the New York stage. He was an immediate hit, taken up by such esteemed actors as Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, and taking up,, in turn, with the older torch singer Libby Holman, and many others, male and female: he seems to have been a true bisexual. He went to Hollywood, and was again an immediate hit, worldwide. But he continued to live around the corner from, and have to fight his mother for, breathing room. He did not handle either his fame, or his family problems well, and drifted into drink, drugs, and unpleasant perversions. In the late 50's, he left Elizabeth Taylor's California house stoned, and had the car accident that devastated his face, and his nerves. Despite the interventions of Taylor and other devoted friends, he was broke and considered unemployable when he died young, but not particularly prematurely, if you consider his life. He is buried, oddly enough, in Brooklyn, New York, in the famous Green-wood Cemetery.

Bosworth is quite deft in describing the interiors of Clift's life, and his inner circles. One man reminisces about his first meeting with Clift,"' ....he stared at me with those strange unblinking eyes of his. It was as if he was stripping me bare psychologically.'"

She quotes a friend about Clift's relationship with his mother,"'He may have said he hated her, but Sunny remained the most important person in his life, and he was maddened by this. They still had a very close, almost conspiratorial relationship. Early on she had confided in him all of her secrets--now they were two-faced with each other. Sunny was always tender and affectionate when they were together; when speaking about him to other people she was often unduly harsh.'"

And another friend,"' It didn't matter what sex you were. If Monty really liked you -- man or woman you ultimately went to bed with him. If he liked you, he couldn't keep his hands off you-- touching --caressing-- hugging-- he was very physical, and very, very affectionate. And of course he was always passing out with you and then you were undressing him and putting him to bed and finally you were ending up in bed with him too.'"

Montgomery Clift was always compelling in his performances. So is his life, as recounted here by Bosworth, though you are watching him go over the cliff.