Montgomery Clift Subject of New Play by Patricia Bosworth
By Robert Simonson
04 Apr 2005
Tragic method actor Montgomery Clift will be the subject of a new one-person show being fashioned by Patricia Bosworth from her 1978 biography of the much-admired performer, Variety reported.
Director Larry Moss is collaborating on the project. "We're looking for the right actor to play Monty," Moss told the trade. He expects to workshop the bioplay in 2006.
Along with Marlon Brando and James Dean, Clift is regarded at the epitome of the moody Method approach to acting that took film by storm in the late '40s early '50s. With dark hair and dark eyes, he possessed a hesitant delivery and fragile handsomeness. He was respected for bringing an intensity and vulnerability to his portrayals.
After a stage career (including roles in the original productions of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, Lillian Hellman's The Searching Wind and There Shall Be No Night opposite the Lunts), he made his screen debut in 1948 with "The Search" and "Red River," earning an Oscar nomination for the first film. Then came "The Heiress" in 1949 and, perhaps his best known credit, 1951's "A Place in the Sun"—an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy"—opposite Elizabeth Taylor. "From Here to Eternity" solidified his reputation and fame.
Clift's career as an unorthodox romantic leading man ended with an automobile accident in 1957 which disfigured his good looks. Surgery left him with a stranger, character-actor's face. This, in addition to his lifelong struggles with alcohol and drug addiction, and a certain mental and emotional instability derived in part from a conflicted attitude about his own bisexuality, hampered his career. He went on to appear with some success in supporting roles in "Suddenly Last Summer," " The Misfits," "Judgment at Nuremberg" and "Freud." He died of a heart attack in 1966 at the age of 45.
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