Montgomery Clift

On 12 May 1956 during the filming of the 1957 ''Raintree County'', staring opposite [[Elizabeth Taylor]] and [[Eva Marie Saint]], Montgomery had a serious car accident which permanently damaged his looks.  He had been at a party thrown by Elizabeth Taylor and her second husband Michael Wilding.  Also there was [[Rock Hudson]] and [[Phyllis Gates]], and others.  Upon leaving, he followed Kevin McCarthy down the hill as Monty was unsure of his ability to negotiate it alone.  For some reason, he lost control of his car, rolled it down a hill and smashed it into a pole, his face was left "a pulpy mess", evidently from being crushed by the steering wheel.  Elizabeth is reported to have ran down the hill, climbed over the back seat (as the front doors wouldn't open) and cradled his head in her hands until he was taken to the hospital.  She rode in the back of the ambulance.  The doctors did their best to reconstruct his features as they were.  It took several weeks for him to recover, but he insisted on finishing the movie.  Watching the film today, you can notice the odd changes in his appearance in certain scenes that were spliced together.  One side of his profile was virtually paralyzed by the accident, and his face appears puffy, and his upper lip and nose have changed.  He continued to work, but his appeal had now changed. With no longer the same type of sex appeal he once had, his drinking and drug use became, if possible, more pronounced.