Cary Grant

Cary Grant (January 18, 1904 - November 29, 1986), was an English-American motion picture actor. He was perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man, not only handsome, but witty and charming.

Early life

Born Archibald Alexander Leach in Horfield, Bristol, England, he was an only child and had a confused and unhappy childhood. His mother, Elsie Leach, was removed to a mental institution when Archie Leach was only nine. Grant's father never told him the truth, and he only learned twenty years later that his mother was still alive.

Related Topics:
Horfield - Bristol - England - Mental institution

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That left Archie Leach (Grant) with both a certain insecurity in his relations with women and a secretiveness about his inner life that may explain his bravado and charm. Those traits also come through more directly in many of his performances, in films as different as Suspicion and Notorious, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and tear-jerkers, such as Mr. Lucky.

Related Topics:
Suspicion - Notorious - Alfred Hitchcock

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Grant's unhappy childhood, by his own account, led him to crave applause and attention and to create a new persona that would attract it. After being expelled, in 1918 (from Fairfield School in Bristol) for an incident involving the girls' bathroom, he joined the Bob Pender stage troupe. Grant traveled with the troupe to the United States in 1920 for a two year tour; when the troupe returned to the United Kingdom, Grant stayed — creating over time that unique accent and persona that mixed working and upper class accents as he supported himself as, among other things, a hawker.

Related Topics:
1918 - Bristol - United States - 1920 - United Kingdom - Accent - Persona - Working - Upper class - Hawker

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