Totty of the Day

"I’ve never known anyone who liked being in front of a camera as much as Monty. He was the same way in front of a mirror – never ashamed; he enjoyed looking at his reflection. He was like a woman in this regard. He could stare for minutes on end at his image unselfconscious – totally relaxed." - playwright Bill Gunn

"Look, I'm not odd. I'm just trying to be an actor; not a movie star, an actor."

"Labelling is so self-limiting. We are what we do, not what we say we are."

"I learned that most writers don’t need interviews to write about me. They seem to have their stories all written out beforehand."

We have a centenary to celebrate today, dear reader - the utterly gorgeous, tormented, closet gay Montgomery Clift, star of such great movies as A Place in the Sun, From Here to Eternity, I Confess, The Heiress, Red River, The Young Lions and Suddenly, Last Summer, one of Elizabeth Taylor's closest friends, and among the most photogenic Hollywood stars ever.

In his tribute to the man, Guardian columnist Philip French observed:

His seismographically delicate face and eyes conveyed his inner struggles and torment.

Clift was selective over his roles. Some think overly so. He turned down the parts played by William Holden (Sunset Boulevard), Gary Cooper (High Noon), Richard Davalos (East of Eden), Anthony Perkins (Friendly Persuasion), Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront), Richard Burton (Prince of Players), Dean Martin (Rio Bravo) and Oskar Werner (Fahrenheit 451).

Later, as a result of heavy consumption of drink and prescription drugs due to guilt over his homosexuality, and after a disfiguring 1957 car crash, he became erratic and unreliable. But he is heart-breaking as the reckless, alcoholic, mother-fixated rodeo performer in John Huston's The Misfits, in the title role of Huston's Freud, and as the concentration-camp victim in Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg, made when he was seriously unwell.

He died a deeply unhappy man in New York City. Asked the previous evening by his partner-secretary whether he wanted to watch The Misfits on TV, he replied: "Absolutely NOT!" and went to bed. He was found dead the next morning in a locked bedroom aged 45.

Such a very sad loss. Another great talent who departed too soon.

Edward Montgomery Clift (17th October 1920 – 23rd July 1966)