A nice remembrance of Montgomery Clift, who was, for a short time, considered by many of his peers to be the greatest American actor alive. https://crookedmarquee.com/the-tragedy-and-triumph-of-montgomery-clift/

There's a very touching anecdote in Patricia Bosworth's biography of Clift about a meeting between the two after they both hit it big. To set the scene a bit... Brando and Clift did not care for each other very much. They were rivals.

After one of their early meetings, Clift said that Brando was "too clownish and a slob" and Brando said Clift behaves "like he's got a Mixmaster up his ass"

But they respected each other, and each other's gifts (unlike James Dean). Anyway... after the accident, as Clift's addictions spiraled further out of control, Brando came to visit him, unannounced.

He wanted Clift to clean up and go sober, and, as Bosworth put it, "stop this shit." He needed Clift to do this not only for himself, *but for Brando*. Great artists needed competition. Olivier needed Gielgud, Burton needed Scofield. And Clift and Brando needed each other.

"In a way," Brando said, "I hate you. I've always hated you because I want to be better than you, but you're better than me—you're my touchstone, my challenge, and I want you and I to go on challenging each other."

Brando later told Maureen Stapleton that he'd begged Monty to go to AA and offered to go with him if he was scared, but Clift sat there drinking double vodkas and saying "I'm all right, Marlon. I'll be all right."

Of course, he wasn't alright, & he only deteriorated from there

But I love the idea of the two greatest actors of their generation, with no love lost between them, meeting because one of them needs the other one to stop destroying himself. Incredible.