10 Actors Who Only Gave Great Performances Because They Got Drunk

5. Montgomery Clift - From Here To Eternity

Before he became a slave to alcohol and prescription drugs (a 'cocktail' mixture of which he would keep in a canteen on-set for later films), Montgomery Clift was a method actor that could control whatever he could use to best play the scene. On From Here To Eternity, Clift prepared to play infantryman Robert E Lee Prewitt by learning how to bugle, how to box and, when one particular scene called for his character to be drunk opposite Burt Lancaster's sergeant, how to be blind drunk. While Lancaster played it sober during this, the movie's standout confessional scene, Clift went for the real thing, and delivered one of the best, most intimate scenes in the film, earning himself his second Oscar nomination for his trouble. It has to be said that Clift, co-star Frank Sinatra and From Here To Eternity author James Jones also went on epic drinking sessions during the shoot, so let's just assume Clift was doing that for 'preparation'.