Can you name this pioneering Hollywood heartthrob?

Born into a life of privilege, Montgomery Clift was one of a pioneering group of actors who challenged the old studio system and its antiquated ideas about masculinity. Like Marlon Brando and James Dean, Clift portrayed a new kind of leading man—sensitive, complex, rebellious—that stood in contrast to post-war Hollywood norms. Playing against John Wayne in his first film, 'Red River' (1948), gave audiences a clear impression of this meeting of old and new. Unusually handsome, Clift rocketed to heartthrob status and became a favorite of gossip magazines, who often had him linked to his co-star Elizabeth Taylor. (In fact, it was discovered much later, Clift was gay.) Clift and Taylor were genuinely close, and it was on his way home from a party at her Beverly Hills home in 1956 that he wrapped his car around a telephone pole in an accident that changed the trajectory of the young star's life. After months of grueling rehab and facial surgeries, Clift went back to work with a rebuilt face and an addiction to painkillers. Already a severe alcoholic, Clift began a decline after the accident that has been called "the longest suicide in history." After filming 'The Misfits' together, Marilyn Monroe described him as "the only person I know who is in worse shape than I am." Ten years after the accident, Clift died of a heart attack at age 45.

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