Editing Montgomery Clift (section)

===Car crash===

On the evening of May 12, 1956, while filming ''[[Raintree County (film)|Raintree County]]'', Clift was involved in a serious car crash after leaving a dinner party in Beverly Hills, California, hosted by Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, [[Michael Wilding (actor)|Michael Wilding]].<ref>LaGuardia, p. 150</ref> Clift had veered off one of the twisting hairpin turns and smashed into a telephone pole and the surrounding cliffside. Alerted by friend Kevin McCarthy, who witnessed the collision, Taylor found Clift under the shattered dashboard, conscious but with his face bleeding and swelling rapidly.<ref>LaGuardia, p. 152</ref> She pulled out a hanging tooth that was cutting into his tongue before accompanying him into the ambulance.<ref>{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Elizabeth |date=1967 |title=Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir |location=New York, N.Y. |publisher=Avon Books |page=72 }}</ref>

He suffered a concussion, broken jaw, broken nose, fractured sinuses, fractured cheekbones, and several facial lacerations that required [[plastic surgery]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cmgww.com/stars/clift/about/biography2.htm |title=Montgomery Clift Official Site |publisher=Cmgww.com |date=July 23, 1966 |access-date=May 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528012814/http://www.cmgww.com/stars/clift/about/biography2.htm |archive-date=May 28, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>LaGuardia, pp. 153–6</ref> In a filmed interview years later in 1963, Clift described his injuries in detail, including how his broken nose could be snapped back into place.

After a two-month recovery period, Clift returned to the set to finish the film. Despite the studio's concerns over profits, Clift correctly predicted the film would do well, if only because moviegoers would flock to see the difference in his facial appearance before and after the crash.<ref>LaGuardia, p. 165</ref>

Although the results of Clift's plastic surgeries were remarkable for the time in leaving no visible scars, the differences in his facial appearance were noticeable, particularly the left side of his face, which was nearly immobile.

Continued pain from his injuries led him to rely on alcohol and pills for relief, as he had done after an earlier bout with dysentery left him with chronic intestinal problems. As a result, Clift's health and physical appearance deteriorated.