Montgomery Clift - Post-accident Career

Post-accident Career

Clift never physically or emotionally recovered from his car accident, as his handsome facial looks were gone forever. His post-accident career has been referred to as the "longest suicide in Hollywood history" by famed acting teacher Robert Lewis because of his alleged, subsequent abuse of painkillers and alcohol. He began to behave erratically in public, which embarrassed his friends, including Kevin McCarthy and Jack Larson. Neverless, Clift continued to work over the next ten years. His next three films were Lonelyhearts (1958), The Young Lions (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Clift next starred with Lee Remick in Elia Kazan's Wild River in 1960. In 1958, he turned down what became Dean Martin's role as "Dude" in Rio Bravo, which would have reunited him with his co-stars from Red River, John Wayne and Walter Brennan.

Clift then co-starred in John Huston's The Misfits (1961), which was both Marilyn Monroe's and Clark Gable's last film. Monroe, who was also having emotional and substance abuse problems at the time, famously described Clift in a 1961 interview as: "The only person I know who is in even worse shape than I am." By the time Clift was making John Huston's Freud: The Secret Passion (1962), his self-destructive lifestyle was affecting his health. Universal sued him for his frequent absences that caused the film to go over budget. The case was later settled out of court. The film's success at the box office brought numerous awards for screenwriting and directing, but none for Clift, himself. In mid 1961, several months after the initial release of The Misfits, Clift appeared on TV discussion program The Hy Gardner Show, where he spoke at length about the release of his current film; he also talked publicly for the first time about his 1956 car accident and its after effects, as well as his film career, and treatment by the press. During the interview, Gardner mentions that it is the "first and last appearance on a television interview program for Montgomery Clift."

Clift's last Oscar nomination was for best supporting actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), a 12-minute supporting part. He played a mentally retarded man who had been a victim of the Nazi sterilization program testifying at the Nuremberg trials. The film's director, Stanley Kramer, later wrote in his memoirs that Clift -- by this stage a wreck -- struggled to remember his lines even for this one scene: