He gained early acting experience at the Pasadena Community Playhouse.

Among his most celebrated roles was Laurie in Little Women (1933), opposite Katharine Hepburn's Jo March.

After serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, Montgomery moved to Great Britain and made films there.

Young had divorced film actor Michael Wilding the year before she wed Montgomery.

Douglass Montgomery died of spinal cancer in Norwalk, Connecticut, at age 56, on July 23, 1966.