Monty

The brooding fellow above is one Montgomery Clift born this day 1920, in Omaha, Nebraska. Another star of the silver screen makes it to hero status, and I still am not sure how I feel about this. I really don't watch that much TV, so I don't know how I keep finding actors as heroes. His mother, in some fit of great parenting, decided to home school Montgomery and his siblings raising them as if they were old world aristocrats. Moving on past this attempt at a classical education, Montgomery debuted on Broadway at the age of 13. He starred there for 10 years, before moving to Hollywood, and making his big screen debut in Red River opposite John Fucking Wayne. Apparently, Clift and Wayne did not get along. Clift was, at the least, bisexual, and was having an affair on the set with a fellow (male) actor. This did not set well with the Duke, and a few years later, Clift turned down a role in Rio Bravo because he did not want to work with Wayne again. Old time Hollywood trivia seems to hold a serious fascination for me, and I thought I would share that tid bit with you. After Red River, Clift went on to garner 3 Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a five year period. Not bad for a boy from fucking Omaha, Nebraska. Sadly though Clift's life was about to take a major turn for the worse. On May 12, 1956 he crashed his car into a telephone pole, and suffered severe facial injuries. For a man who's living was, in many respects, made on his looks this was a disaster. The pain from the accident led to Clift relying on alcohol and pills, and he embarked on what was called "the longest suicide in Hollywood history." By the time he did The Misfits (1961) with Marylin Monroe, and Clark Gable, that a doctor was on call twenty-four hours a day to take care of him and Monroe. A sad decline for a true artistic genius, and one that was extremely (by all accounts) horrible to watch. He last nomination for an Oscar came in 1962's Judgment at Nurmberg, he was a wreck that could hardly remember his lines, but those few that he did remember must have impressed someone, you don't generally get nominated for Oscars if you are total shit. In July, 1966 Clift was at home with his personal assistant who asked him if he wanted to watch The Misfits that was on TV that night, Clift replied "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Those would be the last words he ever spoke in the drama that was his life. He was found dead the next day of a heart attack. But, for all those brooding, darkly sensitive roles that made people think of him as a star of stars, Montgomery Clift (October 17th, 1920-July 12th, 1966 at the age of 45), you are my hero of the day.