Moody, boyishly handsome and elegantly charming (on and off screen) romantic lead. Along with Marlon Brando, Clift was the first of America's new breed of brooding, non-conformist young stars of the late 1940s and 50s whose naturalistic acting style and independence from Hollywood studio-stardom shaped the next crop of actors including James Dean. Clift began acting at the age of 12, first in amateur and stock productions and by 14 was a promising young Broadway talent, appearing in 13 productions during the 1940s including "There Shall Be No Night" opposite Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, "The Skin of Our Teeth" with Tallulah Bankhead, the 1944 revival of "Our Town" and Tennessee Williams's "You Touched Me" (1945).
Courted by Hollywood because of his growing theatrical reputation and matinee-idol good looks, he shot his first film, Howard Hawks' western, "Red River" opposite John Wayne in 1946. Due to a law suit by Howard Hughes which delayed release, however, his debut film became Fred Zinnemann's "The Search" (1948).
With his expressive, pale grey eyes (in an otherwise deadpan but classically beautiful face) and his air of vulnerability and sexual ambivalence, Clift excelled at playing sensitive loners and idealists and gave his characters a jittery, contemporary psychological edge rarely seen in Hollywood. He embarked on an impressive career of 17 films and four Academy Award nominations over the next 18 years until his death.
In 1948 he signed a unique three-film contract with Paramount that gave him script approval, promised he would only work in films directed by Billy Wilder, George Stevens or Norman Krasna, and gave him freedom to work at another studio. He followed with strong, Oscar-nominated performances in Stevens' "A Place in the Sun" (1951) and Fred Zinnemann's "From Here to Eternity" (1953).
During the filming of "Raintree County" (1957), Clift was involved in a near-fatal car accident which disfigured his almost too-beautiful face, leaving it half-paralyzed and him in almost continual pain and dependent on drugs. Although he made several strong films, including his fourth Oscar-nominated role in Stanley Kramer's "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961; a 7-minute performance--for which he took no salary--in which he played a feeble-minded Jew sterilized by the Nazis) and his life and career never fully recovered. His concentration as an actor was gone, his angst over his gay sexuality only increased, his features thickened and his drinking became a problem on the set. Cast in "Reflections of a Golden Eye", once again opposite his long-time friend, Elizabeth Taylor, Clift died of a heart attack at 45 before the film began shooting.