--- title: Liz Taylor, Montgomery Clift: Rare Photos, 'A Place in the Sun,' 1950 description: Photos of Montgomery Clift and his co-star and soul mate, Elizabeth Taylor, on the set of the 1951 classic, 'A Place in the Sun.' canonical: https://time.com/3881208/liz-taylor-montgomery-clift-rare-photos-a-place-in-the-sun-1950/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-15T23:13:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:35.559Z og:title: Liz Taylor, Montgomery Clift: Rare Photos, 'A Place in the Sun,' 1950 og:description: Photos of Montgomery Clift and his co-star and soul mate, Elizabeth Taylor, on the set of the 1951 classic, 'A Place in the Sun.' og:url: https://time.com/3881208/liz-taylor-montgomery-clift-rare-photos-a-place-in-the-sun-1950/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa118af2a1089ac8/69868496d0b6f200e2303228/12_111008887.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift 1950 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Liz Taylor, Montgomery Clift: Rare Photos, 'A Place in the Sun,' 1950 twitter:description: Photos of Montgomery Clift and his co-star and soul mate, Elizabeth Taylor, on the set of the 1951 classic, 'A Place in the Sun.' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa118af2a1089ac8/69868496d0b6f200e2303228/12_111008887.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Taylor and Clift: Photos From the Set of 'A Place in the Sun' by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 15, 2014 11:13 PM UTC  Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950. Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 15, 2014 11:13 PM UTC In the rife, overstuffed annals of Hollywood, few real-life love stories can match that of Liz Taylor and [Montgomery Clift](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery%5FClift). That Clift was gay made little difference in the intensity and duration of the two stars’ adoration of one another: here, after all, were two talented, passionate artists who met at a young age—she was in her teens; he was in his late twenties—and immediately discovered that they were, for lack of a better phrase, soul mates. By the time they shared the screen together for the first time, in the classic murder-romance-melodrama, [_A Place in the Sun_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043924/) (1951), both were bona fide box-office draws: Taylor had been onscreen since she was 10, and Clift—a soulful, introverted Method actor who influenced countless others who came after him—had already garnered the first of his four career Oscar nominations. (He never won an Academy Award, although most movie aficionados feel he deserved at least one, for his unforgettable turn as the tortured Robert E. Lee Prewitt in _From Here to Eternity_.) Their unique bond—so evident in these pictures made on the Paramount lot during filming of _A Place in the Sun_, and never published in LIFE—was occasionally deepened even further by disasters visited upon them both through the years. For example, in 1956 Taylor likely saved Clift’s life when, after he crashed his car leaving a party at her home, she raced to the wreck and literally pulled broken teeth—on which he had begun to choke—from his shattered mouth. (The Clash famously referenced that awful scene, which changed the course of Clift’s career and set him on a winding path of booze-and-painkiller-fueled decay, in the song “The Right Profile” from _London Calling_: “I see a car smashed at night. / Cut the applause and dim the light. / Monty’s face is broken on a wheel. / Is he alive? Can he still feel?”) [\[Buy the LIFE book, _Remembering Liz_\]](http://subscription-assets.timeinc.com/prod/assets/themes/magazines/default/template-resources/html/THEOX/splits/li-remembering-liz.html) In its May 28, 1951, issue, meanwhile, LIFE magazine wrote of _A Place in the Sun_: --- > “” --- The film went on to win six Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay, and is now hailed as a (flawed) classic. Clift and Taylor would star again in another 1950s film, the Civil War-era drama, _Raintree County_—the movie they were making when Clift almost died in the car wreck outside Taylor’s home—and would remain deeply attached to one another until Clift’s death, at the too-young age of 45, in New York City in 1966. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor (17 years old) and Montgomery Clift pose together during a break while filming A Place in the Sun. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Contact sheets from LIFE photographer Peter Stackpole's shoot on a Paramount lot with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift goof around while filming A Place in the Sun. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Contact sheet from LIFE photographer Peter Stackpole's shoot with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor at Paramount Studios, 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Contact sheet from LIFE photographer Peter Stackpole's shoot with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Contact sheet from LIFE photographer Peter Stackpole's shoot with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3881208/liz-taylor-montgomery-clift-rare-photos-a-place-in-the-sun-1950/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3881208/liz-taylor-montgomery-clift-rare-photos-a-place-in-the-sun-1950/"},"headline":"Taylor and Clift: Photos From the Set of 'A Place in the Sun'","datePublished":"2014-10-15T23:13:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:35.559Z","description":"LIFE.com presents pictures, none of which ran in LIFE magazine, of Montgomery Clift and his co-star and soul mate, Elizabeth Taylor, on the set of the 1951 classic, \"A Place in the Sun.\"","url":"https://time.com/3881208/liz-taylor-montgomery-clift-rare-photos-a-place-in-the-sun-1950/","keywords":["movies","Hollywood","photography","Actors","Actor","actress","Icons","black and white photography","Peter Stackpole"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa118af2a1089ac8/69868496d0b6f200e2303228/12_111008887.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa118af2a1089ac8/69868496d0b6f200e2303228/12_111008887.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift 1950","caption":"Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, Hollywood, 1950.","creditText":"Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3881208/liz-taylor-montgomery-clift-rare-photos-a-place-in-the-sun-1950/","name":"Taylor and Clift: Photos From the Set of 'A Place in the Sun'"}}]}] ```