"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
"Monty belonged on the stage. There are certain actors who walk out in front of an audience and they belong there. You believed him the instant he spoke a line." - director Herman Shumlin
"He could never carry a tune, but, my God, did he believe in the lyrics!" - best friend and icon Nancy Walker
"The essential Clift character tended to be a loner, outside the mainstream, isolated - intense but always struggling against conformity, and within that framework Monty's range was extraordinary; his characters were by turn extroverted, withdrawn, articulate, or monosyllabic, assertive, passive." - biographer Patricia Bosworth
"That’s the worst part about acting. Your body doesn’t know you’re acting. It sweats and makes adrenalin just as though your emotions were real."
"I don't want to be labeled as either a pansy or a heterosexual. Labeling is so self-limiting. We are what we do, not what we say we are."
Montgomery Clift (17th October 1920 – 23rd July 1966)
Afterthought:
If I were writing a biography of Montgomery Clift, I'd entitle it, "The Full Monty."
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt he was "filled" in his time... Jx
DeleteMonty came across quite a few engorgements in his time.
DeleteAnd took them with relish, no doubt. Jx
Delete