Montgomery Clift's performances where always interesting. Complex, subtle, and at times lonely and disconnected. One of the most under rated major actors of all time. But one who is today spoken of with awe and great respect by young and established actors of the present.

I will give Monty five stars for my personal favorites. "From Here to Eternity" and "Red River" which has been touted many times as the best Western ever made. Red River certainly brought out the most intense performance from John Wayne.

Best actor ever folks. EVER. Its all in the eyes.

His sensitivity to many of his roles like Place In The Sun and From Here To Eternity deserve notice. ~

Great actor. Especially good in Red River, as John Wayne's somewhat adopted son. I agree he seems to be somewhat underrated.

Very much underrated.

Montgomery Clift was the same, boring person in every movie he ever made.

Most overrated actor in hx.
Anybody can brood.

Think 'Emperor's New Clothes'.

Loved him in Judgement at Nuremburg.

One of the most complex and confused actors of all time- but also one of the most gifted. Brilliant in 'The Search' and interesting playing an 'introverted cowboy' in 'Red River'. Shallow and somewhat lackluster in 'The Heiress'. Brilliant in 'A Place in the Sun' and again 'In From Here To Eternity'. Loved him in the 1960 film directed by Elia Kazan 'Wild River' Burned out, but again great in 'The Misfits' and 'Judgement at Nuremburg'. Haunting, melancholy, he brought a passive intensity to the screen for a man- that had never been seen before. That was the fascination- and in the end what destroyed him, along with his hidden homosexuality.

Before James Dean, even before Brando, there was Clift. A brilliant, groundbreaking actor, his life and career were tragically abbreviated by his own insecurities and personal demons. Still, he's left us a formidable collection of classic films, including A Place in the Sun (perhaps his best, most intense performance) and From Here to Eternity among others.

Monty was brilliant one of the most talented and gifted actors of the 20th century. His brilliant performance in A Place in the Sun- both rivoting and senstive tells all. In retro a tortured and senstive man, who was ions before his time.

Montgomery Clift also turned down Sunset Boulevard. When it came time to film the end of A Place in the Sun, director, George Stevens wanted him to play it as a man going to pieces, but Clift did it his way. He and Burt Lancaster cancelled each other out for the Oscar, for From Here to Eternity. And Frank Sinatra was always the first to give Clift the credit for his acting in that oscar-winning movie. Here's irony for you: Clift was the first choice of director, Billy Wilder, for Sunset Boulevard. He turned it down, and in stepped Bill Holden, who revived his career, and was now taken seriously as an actor. Then in 1953, Holden defeated Clift for the oscar, in another movie directed by Billy Wilder. Whether Clift was Wilder's first choice for Stalag 17, as I've read, is hard to imagine!

Why Monty is not #1 on this list is beyond me. As others have stated, he put method acting on the map and was the first big star to make male sensitivity ok on the big screen. Perhaps many are unfamiliar with his work, but after studying film for years, I still rate The Misfits, Suddenly Last Summer, and A Place in the Sun among the best films ever. Monty could add allure to even mediocre scripts like Lonelyhearts and Raintree County. A tortured soul who couldn't admit his homosexuality, he is the best screen actor of all time.

Montgomery Clift is one of the most underrated actors of all time. I think he died too soon. If he were alive today, he would be right up there with Pacino and Deniro. If truth be known, if he hadn't been here before, I doubt that Pacino or Deniro would be as good as they are.

One of the first Method Actors, and noteworthy in that. Was truly modern in that he portrayed characters rather than took roles. Very fine job in "A Place in the Sun," and "The Misfits." "The Search" was another decent performance and he was riveting in his small part in "Judgement at Nuremberg." Also good in "Miss Lonelyhearts." However, I thought he was miscast in "From Here to Eternity" and "Red River." "Raintree County" was a disaster and his performances in both "Suddenly Last Summer" and "The Young Lions" were just OK. Too bad this guy had his face smashed in during that 1956 auto accident: disfigured the poor guy, hurt his confidence as an actor and getting strung out on the painkillers didn't help matters much. Clift is more influential as an actor than impressive.

Montgomery Clift is a great actor and one of the best of his generation and is very underrated while a great actor like James Dean is overrated but deserving. Clift played in 17 films from an 18 year period from 1948-1966. When you think of actors that potrayed confused, dark, rebellios youths and young adults many don't realize or give credit to Clift and Robert Mitchem for doing it before Marlon Brando, and James Dean. Many people don't know the reason why Clift hasn't been in a lot of films is because he would turn down script after script thrown at him including On the Waterfront, and East of Eden. He also was thrown movie offers when he was doing Broadway. He was a challenging actor and would say the scripts were crap. His first film released was the Search which he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for playing a G.I. from world war 2 who wants to adopt a czech orphan in germany but the boy reunites with his mother who's searching for him and reunite at the end and then in his second film and first performance he had the guts to challenge the Duke John Wayne in Howard Hawk's Red River. He plays an orphaned cowboy and becomes Waynes adopted son and they are trying to bring cattle to Texas he takes over the cattle form Waynes demand on everybody and at the end they duke it out and split it. Alfred Hitchcock's I, Confess he play a Jesuit priest who's put on the stand to tell the truth about a murder incident. One of his best films and my favorite was his performance in George Steven's 1951 classic A place in the sun with Elisabeth Taylor this was the first of their few films together and they click together. He is torn between an old lover Shelly Winter's who's poor and is pregnant and the young woman of his dreams Taylor and murder's Winter's to get Taylor. From Here to Eternity he should have gotten the Oscar for playing the tough Army Boxer who wasn't afraid of noone though Sinatra got it (he made him look better) and was nominated for Judgement at Neurmberg. Another great film I like was The Young Lions who he co-stars opposite (literally) with Marlon Brando and plays a Jewish American fighting in the war to Brando's nazi man. They both gave solid equal performances, but you can tell their's rivalry between bothy. If you want to see the first young Brando and Dean, and for that matter Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Nicholson, DeNiro, Pacino, etc then watch his films especially A Place in the Sun, Red River, the Search, I Confess, Suddenly, Last Summer, From Here to Eternity, Judgement at Neuremberg, Raintree County and the Young Lions. You will find an actor in such few films very challenging, serious, and dominant.

I don't see what everyone got so excited over. He was mediocre at best. Mr. Sinatra outshined him by far in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.

I'm probably missing something here, because Montgomery Clift certainly has many admirers, but I've always found his performances rather depressing (!)

As confused and troubled in his personal life as he was talented as a performer, Montgomery Clift was one of the most intense and compelling actors ever to grace the stage or screen. He could convey volumes with his eyes and facial expressions alone. And though he apparently much preferred the stage to making movies, as a life-long movie buff, I am very grateful for the films he did make. These films contain some of the best and most amazing performances to ever come out of Hollywood. Many actors deserve 5 stars, but none more than Monty!