self-esteem, and partly to get away from an oppressive atmosphere at home. Of all the men she’d known so far, the one Elizabeth was most serious about was Monty Clift, an intense, brooding, and startlingly good-looking actor who in the 1940s was the forerunner of a new breed of giants who’d ultimately dominate the industry and change the art of movie acting. Monty pioneered a style that was edgy, intense, mutely eloquent, and bristling with a sense of barely contained violence, and in his wake would come Marlon Brando, James Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino. Professionally Monty seemed like a god to Elizabeth, and personally he was the kind of sensitive man she’d been looking for without even realizing it.
Discussing their relationship in 1997, she said, simply, “I loved him,” quickly adding, “but I knew from A Place in the Sun that he was gay—probably even more than he did. And I helped him with it. Which is extraordinary because I was only about sixteen, and I didn’t really know anything about it. I turned seventeen during the filming of that movie.” The charismatic twenty-nine-year-old Monty was described in January 1999 by his close friend Jack Larson, a Hollywood contemporary who played Superman’s friend Jimmy Olsen in the popular TV series, and who for many years was the companion of the late James Bridges, director of Urban Cowboy and The China Syndrome . Interviewed in his vintage Frank Lloyd Wright house perched on a cliffside in Brentwood while he petted and attempted to train his romping, high-spirited, eighteen-month-old dog Dewey, Larson asked rhetorically, “What was Monty like when he first knew Elizabeth? Exuberant. But he was in no sense effeminate. He wasn’t worried about being gay. He was bisexual. Monty had an affair for years with Libby Holman [the Broadway torch singer, accused husband-killer, and Camel cigarette heiress].” When asked if Monty was bisexual with Elizabeth, Larson replied, “No, he liked older women. He had a relationship with Myrna Loy. Elizabeth was in love with him and a wonderful friend to him—always. He loved her and called her Bessie.”
Another friend of Monty’s, Frank Taylor, who produced Monty’s 1961 film The Misfits , insisted in a 1999 interview in Key West, “Monty was gay, not bisexual. He was obviously very much in love with his best friend, Kevin McCarthy, something that’s always been denied. They weren’t lovers, but Monty wanted him very much. Monty also loved Kevin’s lovely wife, Augusta Dabney, but as family. Kevin and Augusta had children together and later divorced, and she married [actor] William Prince. During location filming of The Misfits in Dayton, Nevada, Monty became close to John Huston’s stepmother Nan Huston, but I never saw any sign of bisexuality. Nan was in her seventies, and had been married to Walter Huston, John’s father.”
Even before Elizabeth and Monty started filming A Place in the Sun , Paramount was determined to build the two beautiful young stars into a romantic legend, ordering the reluctant Monty to escort Elizabeth to the world premiere of his latest film, The Heiress , in which he costarred with Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland. Monty was so terrified of the prospect of his studio-enforced date that he made his drama coach, the dour Mira Rostova, tag along as a chaperone. Hoping to impress Monty, Elizabeth went to Helen Rose for something “sexy and sophisticated,” and Helen gave her a strapless net gown and a snowy fur cape. When Monty came to pick her up that night, Sara greeted him at the door and was so overwhelmed by Hollywood’s hottest property that she began gushing.
“Sorry about mother,” Elizabeth said later in the limo. “She can be a real pain in the ass.” Press agent Harvey Zim, who accompanied them along with Rostova, later explained, “She looked ravishing, and she was so foul-mouthed and unconcerned about going to this premiere that everybody else
Discussing their relationship in 1997, she said, simply, “I loved him,” quickly adding, “but I knew from A Place in the Sun that he was gay—probably even more than he did. And I helped him with it. Which is extraordinary because I was only about sixteen, and I didn’t really know anything about it. I turned seventeen during the filming of that movie.” The charismatic twenty-nine-year-old Monty was described in January 1999 by his close friend Jack Larson, a Hollywood contemporary who played Superman’s friend Jimmy Olsen in the popular TV series, and who for many years was the companion of the late James Bridges, director of Urban Cowboy and The China Syndrome . Interviewed in his vintage Frank Lloyd Wright house perched on a cliffside in Brentwood while he petted and attempted to train his romping, high-spirited, eighteen-month-old dog Dewey, Larson asked rhetorically, “What was Monty like when he first knew Elizabeth? Exuberant. But he was in no sense effeminate. He wasn’t worried about being gay. He was bisexual. Monty had an affair for years with Libby Holman [the Broadway torch singer, accused husband-killer, and Camel cigarette heiress].” When asked if Monty was bisexual with Elizabeth, Larson replied, “No, he liked older women. He had a relationship with Myrna Loy. Elizabeth was in love with him and a wonderful friend to him—always. He loved her and called her Bessie.”
Another friend of Monty’s, Frank Taylor, who produced Monty’s 1961 film The Misfits , insisted in a 1999 interview in Key West, “Monty was gay, not bisexual. He was obviously very much in love with his best friend, Kevin McCarthy, something that’s always been denied. They weren’t lovers, but Monty wanted him very much. Monty also loved Kevin’s lovely wife, Augusta Dabney, but as family. Kevin and Augusta had children together and later divorced, and she married [actor] William Prince. During location filming of The Misfits in Dayton, Nevada, Monty became close to John Huston’s stepmother Nan Huston, but I never saw any sign of bisexuality. Nan was in her seventies, and had been married to Walter Huston, John’s father.”
Even before Elizabeth and Monty started filming A Place in the Sun , Paramount was determined to build the two beautiful young stars into a romantic legend, ordering the reluctant Monty to escort Elizabeth to the world premiere of his latest film, The Heiress , in which he costarred with Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland. Monty was so terrified of the prospect of his studio-enforced date that he made his drama coach, the dour Mira Rostova, tag along as a chaperone. Hoping to impress Monty, Elizabeth went to Helen Rose for something “sexy and sophisticated,” and Helen gave her a strapless net gown and a snowy fur cape. When Monty came to pick her up that night, Sara greeted him at the door and was so overwhelmed by Hollywood’s hottest property that she began gushing.
“Sorry about mother,” Elizabeth said later in the limo. “She can be a real pain in the ass.” Press agent Harvey Zim, who accompanied them along with Rostova, later explained, “She looked ravishing, and she was so foul-mouthed and unconcerned about going to this premiere that everybody else
Similar Books
