Montgomery Clift's Filmography

 I just was reviewing Clift's filmography and noticed the following:

Clift made very few movies.  

From 1948-1966 (excluding his 12 minute role in J at N) he made only 16 films. That's in 19 years.  From 1948-1953, he appeared in 8 films,  was off the screen from 1954-1956, then released another 8 films in his remaining 10 years.  By comparison, Jimmy Stewart did 28 films from 1948-1966, and stars like Kirk Douglas or Glenn Ford were averaging almost 2 films per year.

Clift was Choosey and only did high quality films

Of the 16 films, only his last one, The Defector was low quality. In his previous 15 films (again excluding his cameo in Nuremberg)  he worked with 13 directors,  all of whom except one, had been nominated for Director Guild or Academy Awards.  We're talking 2 films with Fred Zimmerman, 2 with Dmytrk, 2 with John Huston, and 1 each with De Sica,  Hitchcock, Kazan, Stevens, and Seaton.  Its an amazing record. 

His co-stars are just as impressive.  John Wayne, Oliva De Havilland, Elizabeth Taylor (3 films),  Burt Lancaster,  Deborah Kerr, Brando,  Ann Baxter, Jennifer Jones, Clark Gable,  Marilyn Monroe, Myrna Loy,  Sussanah York and Lee Remick.  Probably the only movies where Clift had to carry the movie were  The Search, The Big Lift, and The Defector.  

Clift Loved B&W

Of the 16 films,  13 were in B&W.  The color films were:  The Defector, Raintree County, and Wild River.

Clift took a lot of time off

Precise dates are hard to pin down, but Clift spent large amounts of downtime between films.  Generally, he did one movie a year.  From 1946 to 1966 that would be 21 films but he actually only did 16.  He took 1951 off, and did two films in 1952.  After From Here to Eternity in the spring of 1953, Clift didn't return to work until early 1956.  That's a two year gap at the height of his career.  In 1960, he did two films (Misfits and Wild River). Later, after his problems on Freud in 1961, he was unemployed for 4 years,  doing no films in 1962-1965.