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.

Hollywood

After some success in light Broadway comedies, he came to Hollywood in 1931, where he acquired the name "Cary Grant". In 1932 he met fellow actor Randolph Scott on the set of Hot Saturday, the two developed a close friendship, sharing a rented house for twelve years. The beach house they shared was known as "Bachelor Hall" and was frequently visited by women guests. However, rumors ran rampant at the time and continue to this day that Grant and Scott were actually lovers and that the name "Bachelor Hall" was made up by the studio to keep their two valuable stars from being thrust into scandal. Dismissed by most fans as simple gossip and by at least two of his wives as slander, some modern biographers tend to view both men as involved romantically. On June 26, 1942, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States and a some years later married the wealthy socialite Barbara Hutton. Grant became the surrogate father and had a lifelong influence on her son, Lance Reventlow.

Related Topics:
Broadway - Hollywood - 1931 - 1932 - Randolph Scott - June 26 - 1942 - Naturalized citizen - United States - Barbara Hutton - Lance Reventlow

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Grant starred in some of the classic screwball comedies, including The Awful Truth with Irene Dunne, Bringing Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn, His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell and Arsenic and Old Lace with Priscilla Lane. These performances solidifed his appeal, and The Philadelphia Story, with Hepburn, established his best-known screen role: the charming if sometimes unreliable man, formerly married to an intelligent and strong-willed woman who first divorced him, then realized that he was — with all his faults — irresistible. Grant subsequently took that character in a far darker direction in Suspicion, directed by Hitchcock, without somehow losing his charm or his audience's devotion.

Related Topics:
Screwball comedies - The Awful Truth - Irene Dunne - Bringing Up Baby - Katharine Hepburn - His Girl Friday - Rosalind Russell - Arsenic and Old Lace - Priscilla Lane - The Philadelphia Story - Suspicion

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Grant was one of Hollywood's top box-office attractions for several decades. He was a versatile actor, who did demanding physical comedy in movies like Gunga Din with the skills he had learned on the stage. Hitchcock, who was notorious for disliking actors, was very fond of Grant, saying that Grant was "the only actor I ever loved in my whole life". Howard Hawks was just as devoted, saying that Grant was "so far the best that there isn't anybody to be compared to him".

Related Topics:
Gunga Din - Howard Hawks

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In the September, 1959 issue of Look magazine, Grant related how treatment with LSD at a prestigious California clinic -- it was legal at the time -- had finally brought him inner peace after yoga, hypnotism, and mysticism had proved ineffective.

Related Topics:
1959 - Look magazine - LSD - California - Yoga - Hypnotism - Mysticism

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In the mid-1950s Grant formed his own production company, Grantley Productions, and via a distribution deal with Universal produced some of his finest work, which included Operation Petticoat, Indiscreet, That Touch Of Mink (co-starring Doris Day), and Father Goose.

Related Topics:
Grantley Productions - Universal - Operation Petticoat - Indiscreet - That Touch Of Mink - Doris Day - Father Goose

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He starred in the movie To Catch a Thief with Grace Kelly, a Hitchcock movie filmed in Monaco. In one famous scene, Grant was a passenger in a car being driven recklessly around a mountain by Kelly. Kelly later married Prince Rainier of Monaco and became Princess Grace. In 1982, she died tragically while driving on that same mountain.

Related Topics:
To Catch a Thief - Grace Kelly - Monaco - Prince Rainier

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His most successful movie was another Hitchcock film called North by Northwest with Eva Marie Saint. He played an advertising agent who gets mistaken for a spy in a classic story of an average person caught up in things much greater than themselves. The film includes two famous scenes: Martin Landau's character chasing Grant's and Saint's across a life-size recreation of Mount Rushmore, and a scene where Grant's character is chased by a crop duster.

Related Topics:
North by Northwest - Eva Marie Saint - Martin Landau - Mount Rushmore

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Ian Fleming later stated that he partially had Cary Grant in mind when he created his sauve super-spy, James Bond. This played a major role in why Sean Connery was selected for the first movie, because of his uncanny likeness to Grant. Likewise, the later Bond Roger Moore was also selected for being similar to Grant, because of the wry sense of humor and lightheartedness he brought to the role.

Related Topics:
Ian Fleming - James Bond - Sean Connery - Roger Moore

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Although twice nominated for an Academy Award, he never won but was honored in 1970 with a special Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 1981, he received the Kennedy Center Honors.

Related Topics:
Academy Award - 1970 - 1981 - Kennedy Center Honors

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His fourth marriage was to actress Dyan Cannon, July 22, 1965, in Las Vegas, with whom he had his only child, a daughter, Jennifer Grant (who would later become an actress herself). Their marriage was troublesome from the beginning, Cannon, who was 27 at the time to Grant's 61, never seemed to get along once back from their honeymoon in Bristol. Cannon filed for divorce less than two years later, claiming "brutal and inhuman treatment." Their divorce, finalized on May 28, 1967, was bitter and messy.

Related Topics:
Dyan Cannon - July 22 - 1965 - Las Vegas - Jennifer Grant - Bristol - May 28 - 1967

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In the last few years of his life, Grant undertook tours of the USA with his "A Conversation with Cary Grant", in which he would show clips from his films and afterward hold a question-and-answer session with the audience. It was just before one of these performances, in Davenport, Iowa, that Grant suffered a severe stroke (November 29, 1986), and died in the hospital a few hours later at the age of 82. His cremated ashes were given to his family.

Related Topics:
Davenport, Iowa - Stroke - November 29 - 1986

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