Cary Grant

Cary Grant

Film and theater actor
Date of Birth: 18.01.1904
Country: Great Britain

Content:
  1. Childhood and Youth
  2. Early Years in Hollywood
  3. Career and Personal Life

Childhood and Youth

The childhood and youth of Cary Grant are shrouded in mystery. He was born on January 18, 1904, in the English city of Bristol, under the name Archibald Alexander Leach. His parents were poor and hardly took care of him. There is a version that Archibald was an adopted child, as indicated by his untypical tanned skin and dark eyes. In his childhood, everyone mistook him for a Spaniard or Italian. When Archibald turned 10, his mother went insane and was sent to a mental institution. His father told him that his mother had died and brought another woman into the house. Already irritable and nervous, the young man distanced himself even further from his family. The streets became his home. Archibald spent a lot of time with tramps and musicians, hanging around cheap vaudeville theaters. At the age of 16, Archibald Leach joined a troupe of traveling acrobats and went to America. There, a completely different life awaited him.

Cary Grant

Early Years in Hollywood

The Great Depression spared no one except Hollywood. The film business was thriving, which had a logical explanation: people wanted to forget about the horrors of war and economic devastation. They wanted fairy tales, and Hollywood gave them just that. Finding work was easier in California, so Archibald headed there. It took him 10 years to prove that he was capable of something. The problem was not only his complete illiteracy, but also his horrible accent, which was spoken by all the English "lower class." Striving to master the language of high society, he developed an unusual accent that resembled an Australian dialect. As a result, his friends started calling him "Kangaroo." For a long time, Archibald sold neckties and worked as an extra until 1932, when luck smiled upon him. During an actress's audition, Leach played the role of her partner and caught the attention of a producer. The film company "Paramount Pictures" offered him a 5-year contract and gave him a list of the most famous names to choose from. This is how Archibald Leach became Cary Grant. In 1932, the newly minted actor made his debut in the musical "This is the Night." Just a year later, his first success awaited him. The then star Mae West demanded that Grant become her partner in the film "She Done Him Wrong" (1933). The film was a great success, and critics began to talk about Grant's acting abilities for the first time.

Cary Grant

Career and Personal Life

In 1934, Grant appeared on the screen again with West in the film "I'm No Angel." Carey gained weight in Hollywood and soon became a heartthrob. Tall, elegant, with exotic tanned skin and an unusual accent, he looked like a wealthy foreign millionaire, not an amateur actor from a poor English family. So when actress Virginia Cherrill saw him, it was love at first sight. Cherrill was known for her role as the blind flower girl in Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights." Grant courted her for several months, and they married in 1934. However, their marriage lasted only a year. Virginia left him, claiming that he was a psychopath and unbearable. According to the actress, Cary was so jealous that he didn't hesitate to use physical violence. Of course, Grant denied it all. In 1935, after the end of his contract with Paramount Pictures, the actor renegotiated it on unprecedented terms. He was able to participate in projects of other studios and choose his own roles. This independence cost him the fact that the company never advocated for his interests. As a result, Grant never received an Oscar for a specific role in a film. After divorcing Virginia, Cary Grant focused on his work, and his career took off. In 1935, he first appeared on screen with Katharine Hepburn in the film "Sylvia Scarlett." Their duo was loved by audiences and marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration. In 1938, they starred together in the madcap comedy "Bringing Up Baby." The film was phenomenally successful, once again proving Grant's extraordinary talent. The 1940s were even more successful. Grant's role as Dexter Haven in the film "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) brought him fame far beyond America. The film gained immense popularity and remains one of the best love stories of all time. The following years, Grant was nominated for an Oscar two years in a row: first for his role in the psychological drama "Penny Serenade" (1941), then for the film "None but the Lonely Heart" (1942). According to Grant, this was the best role of his career. Grant's collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock also contributed to his popularity. Hitchcock once admitted that he didn't like working with actors except for Grant. He fit well into the director's world, where there was boundless horror, tension, and "icy blondes." The actor starred in four of Hitchcock's films, with "Suspicion" (1941) and "North by Northwest" (1959) receiving the most acclaim.

Cary Grant

Grant's personal life was filled with scandalous stories. In 1942, the actor married Barbara Hutton, an heiress to a vast fortune. Grant vehemently denied rumors that he married for money, but their union caused such a sensation that they were soon dubbed "Cash and Cary." They divorced after three years, and Grant fell into a depression. He started drinking, gradually descending into the depths of recklessness.

Cary Grant

Who knows what would have happened if Grant had not met Betsy Drake - a 23-year-old beauty from an intellectual family. Her father was a writer, and Betsy herself composed radio plays, studied astronomy, and practiced yoga. They married in 1949 and lived together for 12 years. Their union seemed strong, but another affair destroyed their marriage. Interestingly, the actress Sophia Loren, whom Grant pursued, rejected him and chose producer Carlo Ponti instead. Grant was left without a family and the woman he loved.

Cary Grant

In the 1950s, Grant started appearing on screen less frequently. He worked for his own pleasure and spent most of his time with Hitchcock. Jan Fleming even mentioned that it was Grant's character in Hitchcock's films that served as the prototype for James Bond. Fleming even recommended Grant for the lead role in the first Bond film, but he refused due to his advanced age.

Cary Grant

Grant's last major film was the detective film "Charade" (1963), in which he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn. In 1970, he was awarded an honorary Oscar.

Cary Grant was married two more times: to Dyan Cannon, who gave him a daughter named Jennifer, and to Barbara Harris. He married Barbara, who was 46 years younger than him, in 1981. They led a quiet, peaceful life in California until Grant's death. It happened in 1986 during a farewell tour across America. On November 29, during one of the fan meetings, Grant fell ill and was taken to the hospital. That same night, he died from a massive stroke.

The actor always amazed with his wit and sense of humor. When he once heard that all guys wanted to look like Cary Grant, he replied that he also wanted to look like him. And in the end, he succeeded. The actor overcame the failure of Archibald Leach and got everything he wanted from life.

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