"If you are lucky enough to be a success, by all means enjoy the applause and the adulation of the public. But never, never believe it."
Robert Montgomery (21st May 1904 – 27th September 1981)
Facts about Mr Montgomery:
- When Billy Haines - read my blog about him - refused to hide his homosexuality and marry a woman (and was fired from MGM), it was Robert Montgomery who landed all the romantic leading roles that were originally meant for Mr Haines.
- He was Norma Shearer's chosen co-star in three movies, and he also starred alongside Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Marion Davies, Carole Lombard, Greta Garbo, Rosalind Russell and many other of the greatest Hollywood stars.
- Mr Montgomery was (to his discredit) a star witness in the McCarthy trials, and subsequently worked as "style consultant" to (Republican) President Eisenhower.
- He was widely considered to be one of the best dressed men in Hollywood and for years did not carry a wallet because it ruined the drape of his suits.
- His (perhaps more famously remembered) daughter was Elizabeth Montgomery ("Samantha" in Bewitched).
I always found Mr. Montgomery unsufferably prissy as a leading man, and that was before I learned of his politics! The only film of his I like is when he went completely against type and used his smarminess to excellent effect as a psychotic killer in Night Must Fall.
ReplyDeleteWhen he and Bette did the ill-fated comedy June Bride, they clashed worse than she did with JC. He later described her comedy technique as "elephantine"!
By all accounts an unlikeable man, but heavens! Wasn't he pretty? Jx
DeleteNever found him physically appealing. His Metro cohorts and interchangeable leading men, Franchot Tone and Robert Young, well, that's another story...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, darling -- you've been shouted out in a SSUWAT post!
ReplyDeletehttp://stirredstraightup.blogspot.com/2013/05/high-tone.html
(Do the kids still "shout out"?)
Daaahling! Moi? Down with the kids?
Delete"There was a time I was out there. I was hip. I was dangerous. The zeitgeist blew from me!" - Eddie Monsoon.
Jx