Cary Grant

Actor

  • Born: January 18, 1904
  • Birthplace: Bristol, Gloucestershire, England
  • Died: November 29, 1986
  • Place of death: Davenport, Iowa

British-born American actor

Grant had one of the most successful careers of all film actors, with roles in more than seventy films. He was a symbol of style, sophistication, and grace and has remained for many the epitome of Hollywood stardom.

Area of achievement Film

Early Life

Cary Grant was born Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, England, the son of Elias Leach, a tailor presser at a clothing factory, and Elsie Maria Kingdon Leach. The couple’s first son, John, had died in 1900, two days before his first birthday. As a result, young Grant was spoiled more than most working-class children. Elsie’s smothering affection made up in part for the frequent absences of her philandering husband. In the little time he spent with his father, Grant frequently accompanied him to music halls, where he first saw, in 1909, his lifelong idol, Charlie Chaplin. Elias eventually left Bristol for Southampton, eighty miles away, setting up house with his mistress, with whom he had a son. An even more devastating loss for young Grant occurred in 1914 when he came home from school to be told that his beloved mother had died of a heart attack. Grant biographers have agreed that this loss was the most profound event of his life, made even more unsettling when he learned in 1934 that his mother was not dead but in a mental institution.

Longing to follow Chaplin into show business, Grant joined the touring troupe of young acrobats led by Bob Lomas in 1917 and traveled the British music-hall circuit for the next two years. In 1920, Lomas, who used the stage name Pender, was invited to bring his act to New York’s Globe Theater. Grant soon left Lomas to perform in a Broadway revue for nine months, followed by a year in vaudeville houses throughout the eastern and midwestern United States. Between jobs back in New York, he worked as a male escort and sold ties that were hand painted by his roommate, George Orry-Kelly, later a famous costume designer. Grant performed as a so-called straight man for vaudeville comedians and had similar short-term duties until 1927, when he was cast in the musical Golden Dawn. Though the show was a flop, the exposure got him an agent and a role in Boom Boom opposite Jeanette MacDonald. Paramount Studios then gave Grant a screen test at its offices in Queens but decided his neck was too thick, his face too pudgy, and his legs too bowed. In 1931, however, praise from New York Daily News columnist Ed Sullivan for Grant’s performance in the World War I play The Last Flight earned him a part in Singapore Sue, a ten-minute Paramount short. Deciding he had done enough stage work, Grant arrived in Hollywood in January, 1932.

Life’s Work

Needing someone to challenge Gary Cooper as the studio’s top male star, Paramount signed Grant. Because Paramount wanted the new star to have a more American-sounding name, Grant suggested Cary Lockwood, his character from The Last Flight. Paramount executive B. P. Schulberg did not like the name Lockwood, so the actor selected Grant from a list of possible names.

Grant had mostly insubstantial roles in mediocre films during his Paramount period. Exceptions included the role of Josef von Sternberg in Blonde Venus (1932), opposite Marlene Dietrich, and two Mae West vehicles, She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I’m No Angel (1933). Though the Western films were immensely popular, Grant served primarily as the star romantic foil.

On the set of Hot Saturday (1932), Grant became friends with Randolph Scott, and the two actors lived with each other on and off during the following decade. Their close relationship led to rumors about Grant’s sexual orientation. While many biographers have avoided discussing Grant as gay or bisexual, some, namely Marc Eliot, have not hesitated to portray Grant as primarily gay during the 1920’s and 1930’s. His relationship with Scott did not keep Grant from apparently falling in love with Virginia Cherrill in 1932. He married the star of Chaplin’s City Lights (1932) on February 10, 1934. However, their affections for each other soon declined, and they were divorced the following year. Four more wives followed: Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton (1942-1945), actor Betsy Drake (1949-1962), actor Dyan Cannon (1965-1968), and public-relations agent Barbara Harris (1981 until his death in 1986).

Stalled at Paramount, Grant was loaned to RKO studios for the film Sylvia Scarlett (1935). Though the film was unsuccessful at the box office, Grant, in addition to playing a Cockney character much like himself, was introduced to Katharine Hepburn and director George Cukor, both of whom would become frequent collaborators. The experience also helped convince Grant to become a freelance actor, choosing the projects he wanted. As an independent acting in the hit comedy Topper (1937), Grant began to establish the sophisticated, urbane, carefree, reckless persona that made him a screen legend. He refined this image even further in The Awful Truth (1937). Director Leo McCarey based Grant’s character partly on himself and later took credit for creating Grant “the movie star.”

Grant maintained his stardom for decades by working with the top directors: McCarey again, this time in Once upon a Honeymoon (1942) and An Affair to Remember (1957); Howard Hawks in five films, including Bringing up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), and His Girl Friday (1940); Cukor again in Holiday (1938) and The Philadelphia Story (1940); George Stevens in Gunga Din (1939) and The Talk of the Town (1942); Frank Capra in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944); and Stanley Donen, his partner in an independent production company, in four films, most notably Charade (1963). Most influential was director Alfred Hitchcock, who tapped a neurosis beneath Grant’s slick surface with Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). Grant also benefited from costarring with such actors as Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Jean Arthur, Ginger Rogers, Ingrid Bergman, Myrna Loy, Loretta Young, Deborah Kerr, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren with whom he reportedly had an affair Doris Day, and Audrey Hepburn.

His biggest box-office success was the mild Blake Edwards comedy Operation Petticoat (1960). By 1960 he was earning $3 million to $4 million per film. Ironically, Grant received his only Academy Award nominations for two of his lesser films, the sentimental family dramas Penny Serenade (1941) and None but the Lonely Heart (1944). Depicted by his biographers as insecure and suspicious, Grant felt that his colleagues did not give him sufficient respect because the studios resented his independent status. He finally received a special Oscar in 1970 to honor his lifetime of achievement.

In his later years Grant received some notoriety for his use of the drug LSD as part of psychiatric treatment he was receiving. Following his retirement from filmmaking in 1966, Grant served on the board of directors for companies such as Faberge and MGM, and he spent as much time as possible with his daughter, Jennifer, who was born to Cannon in 1966. After several turbulent marriages, he found a degree of peace in his final years with Harris.

Beginning in 1984, Grant toured the United States with clips from his films, answering questions from enthusiastic audiences. While on the road in Davenport, Iowa, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died on November 29, 1986.

Significance

For thirty years Grant was one of the most consistent draws at the box office. Graceful, athletic, and generally considered the best-dressed star ever, Grant was one of those rare film actors equally adept at comedy and drama, romance and adventure. The essence of his distinctive style can be seen in his work with directors Hawks and Hitchcock: the bumbling archaeologist in Bringing up Baby, drawn to Hepburn’s impulsive character despite himself; the fast-talking newspaper editor in His Girl Friday, loving Rosalind Russell and a good story equally; the retired jewel thief in To Catch a Thief, scampering across roofs like a much younger man and trading double entendres with Grace Kelly; and dangling precariously from Mount Rushmore with Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest, arguably his best film.

With the possible exception of Humphrey Bogart, no American film star made more entertaining films than did Grant. When the American Film Institute named the top fifty stars of all time in 1999, Grant placed second to Bogart among male stars. In 2005, Premiere selected him as the greatest all-time film star. Grant himself had difficulty separating the public image of him with the reality. “Everyone wants to be Cary Grant,” he said. “I want to be Cary Grant.”

Bibliography

Buehrer, Beverley Bare. Cary Grant: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. A concise biographical overview with a chronology; a thorough listing of film, stage, radio, and television appearances; excerpts from reviews; an annotated bibliography; and photographs.

Eliot, Marc. Cary Grant: A Biography. New York: Harmony Books, 2004. Well-written analysis of Grant as both public personality and private person. Makes a convincing case for his bisexuality without being lurid. Bibliography, filmography, and photographs.

Higham, Charles, and Roy Moseley. Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989. Gossipy biography that was first to examine Grant’s homosexuality in detail. Includes speculations about his work for the government during World War II. Photographs.

Kael, Pauline. “The Man from Dream City.” The New Yorker, July 14, 1975. Reprinted in For Keeps. New York: Dutton, 1994. Arguably America’s greatest film critic assesses Grant’s life and career in this frequently cited essay.

McCann, Graham. Cary Grant: A Class Apart. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Well-documented biography that focuses on separating the man from the myth. Widely considered the best Grant biography. Photographs, bibliography, filmography, and extensive notes.

Torregrossa, Richard. Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style. New York: Bullfinich, 2006. Considers Grant as fashion icon both on screen and in private and as a major influence on the design of men’s clothing. Profusely illustrated. Foreword by Giorgio Armani.

1901-1940: 1934-1935: Hitchcock Becomes Synonymous with Suspense; 1934-1938: Production Code Gives Birth to Screwball Comedy.