View source for Montgomery Clift

'''Montgomery Clift''', actor (1920-1966)

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==Edward Montgomery Clift==
Montgomery Clift was born 17 Oct 1920, several hours after his twin sister Roberta "Sister", in Omaha, Douglas County, [[Nebraska]] &mdash; the son of [[#William Brooks Clift|William Brooks "Bill" Clift]] and his wife [[#Ethel Blair|Ethel Blair]].  Montgomery's father was at that time the vice-president of Omaha National Bank.  William and Ethel also had one other child, an older son Brooks Clift born 18 months earlier.

An interesting sidenote is that Montgomery's niece Suzanne Clift, daughter of his brother Brooks, when she was 21, pled guilty to manslaughter in the 1 Oct 1962, murder of her boyfriend, Piero Brentani, a Swiss-Italian electronics engineer.  She shot him in the head and castrated him, according to the recent report in ''The Boston Globe'' in 2000.

Montgomery Clift died of a heart attack in his New York City townhouse 23 Jul 1966.

===Secondary sources for 1===
*[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/121539/Montgomery-Clift "Montgomery Clift"], Encyclopedia Britannica
*''Montgomery Clift'', by Patricia Bosworth (1978)

==William Brooks Clift==
William Brooks Clift was born 18 Dec 1886 in Chattanooga, Hamilton County, [[Tennessee]], the son of [[#Moses Haney Clift|Moses Haney Clift]] by his wife [[#Florence Virginia Parrot|Florence Virginia Parrot]].  Bill was the youngest child of six siblings.  He went to Cornell University in 1908 and served four years in the infantry, possibly while going to college.  He married [[#Ethel Blair|Ethel Blair]] by 1917, when he was a bond salesman for National City Company of Chicago.  He had blue eyes, and dark brown hair.

They had a son Brooks Clift and then William was nominated for the vice-presidency of the Omaha National Bank and the family moved to Omaha, Nebraska where their twins Montogomery and Rebecca were born in 1920.

===Primary Sources for 2===
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=1900usfedcen%2c&rank=0&=%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c&gsfn=Moses&gsln=Clift&sx=&gs1co=1%2cAll+Countries&gs1pl=1%2c+&year=&yearend=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=3&recid=65299067&recoff=1+3 1900 Census of Chattanooga Ward 6, Hamilton County, Tennessee]
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&rank=0&gsfn=William&gsln=Clift&sx=&f7=&f9=&f10=&f18__n=&f20=&rg_81004011__date=&rs_81004011__date=0&f23=&f17=&f16=&rg_f19__date=&rs_f19__date=0&_8000C002=&f21=&_80008002=&f22=&_80018002=&gskw=&prox=1&db=1910uscenindex&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=69&recid=78972088&recoff=14+16&fsk=CIAAHswDwiio&bsk=&pgoff= 1910 Census of Chattanooga Ward 6, Hamilton County, Tennessee]

==Ethel Blair==
A remarkable story is related by Patricia Bosworth in her biography of Montgomery Clift about his mother's birth.  According to her report, she was told that Ethel "Sunny" had been born from the union of Woodbury "Woody" Blair and Maria "Bobbie" Anderson.  Maria had formed an attachment to Woodbury, but Maria's mother Elizabeth disapproved of the relationship.  Maria and Woodbury continued meeting without her mother's approval and eventually married secretly.  When her mother learned about the marriage, she either had it annuled, or forced Maria to do so.  She then kept Maria a virtual prisoner, sometimes guarded by her sister Sophie.

Maria however had already became pregnant.  When it came time for the child's birth, they moved in the Summer of 1888 to Philadelphia, [[Pennsylvania]] where she gave birth on 29 Sep 1888.  The birth certificate, according to Patricia Bosworth, records her parents as "Sophie and Frank Adams".  Her mother forced Maria to agree to give the child up for adoption.  Sophia Anderson, Maria's sister is reported to have told Sunny decades later, that Woodbury Blair was never told of his wife's pregnancy or the birth of their child.  The doctor who delivered the child, Edward E Montgomery, kept her for a year, and finally she was adopted by the Charles Fogg family of Germantown.  

When Sunny was 18, she went to Cornell on a scholarship.  It was then that Dr. Montgomery told her this story of her birth.  The Blair family never accepted this story, at least they had not by the time of Patrica's book in 1978, calling it "hogwash" according to her report.  The Anderson family did accept the story, at least some of them.

Sunny never met her mother, although she apparently wrote letters that were never answered. Recent research indicates that her mother Maria lived until at least 1925, while Sunny's grandmother Elizabeth had died in 1905.  This leaves on the table, the odd question of why her mother, who outlived her own mother by 20 years, did not contact Sunny.  Something about the story passed down, doesn't quite ring true.  If she was being "held prisoner" this certainly ended by 1905.

===Primary sources for 3===
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&rank=0&db=1900usfedcen%2c&=%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c&gsfn=Charles&gsln=Fogg&sx=&gs1co=1%2cAll+Countries&gs1pl=1%2c+&year=&yearend=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=93&recid=60816542&recoff=1+2&fsk=CIAAHbIBe-43-9e&bsk=&pgoff= 1900 Census of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania]
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=1910USCenIndex%2c&rank=0&=%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c&gsfn=Ethel&gsln=Fogg&sx=&gs1co=1%2cAll+Countries&gs1pl=1%2c+&year=&yearend=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=20&recid=73507095&recoff=1+2 1910 Census of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania]

===Secondary sources for 3===
*''Montgomery Clift'', by Patricia Bosworth (1978)
*[http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/pedigree.aspx?pid=24837836&st=1 "Ethel Fogg"] on OneWorldTree

==Moses Haney Clift==
Col. Moses Haney Clift was born 25 Aug 1836 in [[Tennessee]].  He served as a Confederate soldier in the U.S. Civil War.  Shortly afterward moving from Nashvill to Chattanooga.  Moses married firstly to Charlotte Attaline "Attie" Cook on 16 Sep 1866 in Monroe County, Tennessee.  They had four children.  He married secondly to Florence Virginia Parrot (a native of Catersville, Georgia) on 28 Jun 1883 in Hamilton County, Tennessee.  They had four children as well.

Moses became a lawyer and eventually president of the Supreme Court of Tennessee.

===Primary sources for 4===
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=1870usfedcen%2c&rank=0&=%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c&gsfn=Moses&gsln=Clift&sx=&gs1co=1%2cAll+Countries&gs1pl=1%2c+&year=&yearend=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=1&recid=35489330&recoff=1+3 1870 Census of Chattanooga Ward 4, Hamilton County, Tennessee]

===Secondary sources for 4===
*[http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/pedigree.aspx?pid=16380264&st=1 "Moses Haney Clift"] on OneWorldTree

==Florence Virginia Parrot==

==Woodbury Blair==
Woodbury Blair was born 1 Sep 1852 at St Louis, Missouri, but six months after his birth, his parents relocated back in Maryland.  He became a lawyer.  Although obstensibly a bachelor, a story related by Patricia Bosworth in her biography of Montgomery Clift, states that Woodbury did marry at least once.  His wife, albeit by an elopement, and shortly thereafter annuled was Maria "Bobbie" Anderson.  By this union, they had one child Ethel who was given up at birth and adopted by the Fogg family, although Woodbury never knew this child existed.  His wife, or ex-wife, was kept in confinement by her own mother until the child's birth.

The Blair family, according to Patricia's report never accepted this story as true.

On 6 Jul 1907, Woodbury married to Emily Wallach.  Woodbury Blair died in 1933.

===Primary sources for 6===
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=1870usfedcen%2c&rank=0&=%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c&gsfn=Woodbury&gsln=Blair&sx=&gs1co=1%2cAll+Countries&gs1pl=1%2c+&year=&yearend=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=0&recid=13906959&recoff=1+2 1870 Census of Sandy Spring PO, District 5, Montgomery County, Maryland] showing Woodbury at age 18 living with his parents.
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=1880usfedcen%2c&rank=0&=%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c&gsfn=Woodbury&gsln=Blair&sx=&gs1co=1%2cAll+Countries&gs1pl=1%2c+&year=&yearend=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=0&recid=45351496&recoff=1+2 1880 Census of Washington, Washington County, District of Columbia] showing Woodbury at age 28 living with his parents
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=1900usfedcen%2c&rank=0&=%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c&gsfn=Woodbury&gsln=Blair&sx=&gs1co=1%2cAll+Countries&gs1pl=1%2c+&year=&yearend=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=0&recid=6535557&recoff=1+2 1900 Census of Washington, Washington County, District of Columbia] showing Woodbury at age 49 living with his sister, brother-in-law, and brother and servants
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&rank=0&gsfn=Emily&gsln=Blair&sx=y&f8=&f9=&f10=&f20=&rg_fa5__date=&rs_fa5__date=0&f16__n=&rg_f19__date=&rs_f19__date=0&f18=&fa20=&f21=&fa18=&f22=&fa14=&gskw=&prox=1&db=1920usfedcen&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=14&recid=10671462&recoff=1+2 1920 Census of Washington, Washington County, District of Columbia] showing "Woodfurdy" at age 65 with his wife Emily age 60 and several servants

===Secondary sources for 6===
*[http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/BookView.aspx?dbid=26294&iid=dvm_LocHist010948-01220-0&sid=&gskw=Woodbury+Blair&cr=1 ''Washington past and present: A history''], Vol IV, page 632 : "Woodbury Blair, eldest of the three sons of Montgomery and Mary Elizabeth (Woodbury) Blair, was born at St Louis, Missouri 1 Sep 1852....On 6 Jul 1907, Woodbury Blair was married to Emily N. Wallach, daughter of Richard Wallach, a former Mayor of Washington.  They have no chidren."
*[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=bgmi&so=2&rank=0&=%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c%2c&gsfn=Woodbury&gsln=Blair&sx=&gs1co=1%2cAll+Countries&gs1pl=1%2c+&year=&yearend=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&db=&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-b the BGMI] cites:
**Encyclopedia of American Biography. New Series. Volume 3. New York: American Historical Society, . Use the Index to locate biographies. (EncAB-A 3) Biography contains portrait.
**The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Volume 25. New York: James T. White & Co., 1936. Use the Index to locate biographies. (NatCAB 25)

==Maria Latham Anderson==
==William Clift==
Col. William Clift owned 45,000 acres in Soddy County, [[Tennessee]].  The land, rich in iron ore and timber made him a millionaire by the time he was thirty, according to the biography of Montgomery Clift by Patricia Bosworth.  William served on the Union side in the U.S. Civil War.

[[Category:California]]
[[Category:Nebraska]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Tennessee]]
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