{"id":23124,"date":"2025-12-16T02:37:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T02:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=23124"},"modified":"2025-12-16T02:37:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T02:37:37","slug":"blood-panic-seconds-from-death-elizabeth-taylor-barehandedly-saves-montgomery-clift-after-a-gruesome-car-crash-outside-her-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=23124","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBlood, Panic, Seconds From Death\u201d: Elizabeth Taylor Barehandedly Saves Montgomery Clift After a Gruesome Car Crash Outside Her Party."},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone was stunned by the gruesome scene of the accident, but Elizabeth Taylor’s “barehanded” action saved Hollywood’s most handsome actor. As Montgomery Clift was leaving Elizabeth Taylor’s party, he was involved in a horrific car accident nearby. While paparazzi and other guests stood frozen in fear at Montgomery’s bloodied face, Elizabeth\u2014in her expensive evening gown\u2014without hesitation rushed to the wrecked car. She reached into his blood-soaked throat to remove the broken teeth that were causing him to choke, saving him from certain death right before everyone’s eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barehanded Heroism: The Night Elizabeth Taylor Saved Montgomery Clift’s Life<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In the annals of Hollywood lore, few moments are as dramatic or as truly heroic as the night in May 1956 when screen goddess Elizabeth Taylor\u2014dressed in a glamorous evening gown\u2014risked everything to save the life of her closest friend, actor Montgomery Clift. At the time, Taylor and Clift were considered the most beautiful screen couple in the world, having established their iconic chemistry in the role of the doomed lovers in <\/span>A Place in the Sun<\/span><\/i> (1951). They were currently filming their second epic together, <\/span>Raintree County<\/span><\/i> (1957).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Horrific Accident<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The incident occurred after Clift had been a guest at a dinner party at Taylor’s Beverly Hills home (which she shared with then-husband, Michael Wilding). As Clift drove away, heading down the steep, winding hill from her property, he tragically lost control of his car and crashed directly into a telephone pole. Actor Kevin McCarthy, who was driving just ahead of Clift, witnessed the crash and rushed back to Taylor’s house to raise the alarm. While guests and paparazzi were stunned and frozen by the sight of the demolished car and the horrific injuries Clift had sustained\u2014a broken jaw, fractured sinus, and severe facial lacerations\u2014Taylor reacted instantly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The “Barehanded” Action<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Ignoring the bloody scene and the gas-leaking wreck, Taylor fought past her husband and McCarthy and raced down to the crumpled car. She crawled through the back door and over the seat to reach Clift, who lay beneath the dashboard. It was Taylor’s quick thinking that proved lifesaving. Clift, barely conscious, began to choke. With blood covering his face, he gestured weakly to his throat. Taylor immediately realized that several of his teeth had been broken off in the impact and were lodged in his throat, threatening to suffocate him. Without a second of hesitation\u2014and with her hands entirely “barehanded”\u2014Taylor reached deep into her friend’s blood-soaked mouth and throat, pulling out the broken teeth one by one. Her action cleared his airway, saving him from certain death right there at the scene. “She stuck her fingers down his throat and she pulled those teeth. Otherwise he would have choked to death. We should all be so lucky to have such a friend,” recalled Kevin McCarthy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Aftermath and Legacy<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Taylor’s heroism didn’t end there. She guarded his mangled body fiercely, using her superstar status to ward off the frenzied photographers who arrived hoping to capture images of the famous actor’s bloodied face. While Clift survived the accident, the facial injuries required extensive plastic surgery and left him partially paralyzed. The physical and psychological trauma marked a turning point, contributing to a severe decline that critics would tragically dub “the longest suicide in Hollywood history.” He finished filming <\/span>Raintree County<\/span><\/i> , but the change in his appearance was painfully evident, forever changing the course of his acting career. Taylor and Clift’s bond, forged in that harrowing moment, remained unbroken until his death in 1966. Her spontaneous, courageous act remains one of the most powerful true-life dramas ever to emerge from Hollywood’s Golden Age.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone was stunned by the gruesome scene of the accident, but Elizabeth Taylor’s “barehanded” action saved Hollywood’s most handsome actor. As Montgomery Clift was leaving Elizabeth Taylor’s party, he was involved in a horrific car accident nearby. While paparazzi and other guests stood frozen in fear at Montgomery’s bloodied face, Elizabeth\u2014in her expensive evening gown\u2014without…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}