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Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904
November 29, 1986), better known by his screen name, Cary Grant, was
an English film actor. With his distinctive Mid-Atlantic accent, he was
perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man, not only
handsome, but also witty and charming. He was named the second Greatest
Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.
****
Birth name: Archibald Alexander Leach
Date of birth: January 18, 1904
Birth location: Bristol, England
Date of death: November 29, 1986
Death location: Davenport, Iowa, USA
****
Biography
Early life and career
Archie Leach was born in Horfield, Bristol,
England. An only child (before he was born his parents had had another
son who died in infancy), Leach had a confused and unhappy childhood.
His mother, Elsie, was placed in a mental institution when he was nine.
His father (who later had a relationship with another woman, with whom
he had a son) never told him the truth, and he only learned in 1935 that
she was still alive, in an institution.
This left Leach with an insecurity in his
relations with women and a secretiveness about his inner life. These
insecurities, by his own admission, led him to crave applause and
attention and to create a new persona that would attract it. After being
expelled from Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol in 1918 (for
investigating 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 England, Grant decided to
stay in the U.S.
Over time, he created a unique accent and
persona that mixed working and upper class accents, while supporting
himself as, among other things, a hawker.
Hollywood stardom
After some success in light Broadway
comedies, he came to Hollywood in 1931, where he acquired the name Cary
Grant.
Grant starred in some of the classic
screwball comedies, including The Awful Truth with Irene Dunne (the
pivotal film in the establishment of Grant's screen persona), Bringing
Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn, His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell
and Arsenic and Old Lace with Priscilla Lane. These performances
solidified his appeal, and The Philadelphia Story, with Hepburn and
James Stewart, presented 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 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. Howard Hawks said that Grant was "so far the
best that there is. There isn't anybody to be compared to him".
Grant was a favorite actor of Alfred
Hitchcock, notorious for disliking actors, who said that Grant was "the
only actor I ever loved in my whole life". Grant appeared in such
Hitchcock classics as Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief and North
by Northwest.
In the mid-1950s, Grant formed his own
production company, Grantley Productions, and produced a number of
movies distributed by Universal, such as Operation Petticoat,
Indiscreet, That Touch Of Mink (co-starring Doris Day), and Father
Goose.
While Grant was nominated for two Academy
Awards in the 1940s, he was denied the Oscar throughout his active
career as he was considered a maverick by virtue of the fact that he was
the first actor to "go independent," effectively bucking the old studio
system, which pretty much completely controlled what an actor could or
could not do. In this way, Grant was able to control every aspect of his
career. The cost was no golden statuette during his active career. Grant
finally received the long overdue honors he so deserved in 1970 with a
special Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 1981, he received the
Kennedy Center Honors.
In the last few years of his life, Grant
undertook tours of the United States with "A Conversation with Cary
Grant", in which he would show clips from his films and answer audience
questions. It was just before one of these performances, in Davenport,
Iowa, on November 29, 1986, that Grant suffered a stroke (November 29,
1986), and died in the hospital a few hours later.
Personal life in Hollywood
Grant's personal life was complicated,
involving five marriages and speculation about his sexuality. (Though in
all of his divorces, especially with Dyan Cannon, none of his soon-to-be
ex-wives brought the subject up.)
In 1932 he met fellow actor Randolph Scott
on the set of Hot Saturday, and the two shared a rented beach house
(known as "Bachelor Hall") on and off for twelve years. Rumors ran
rampant at the time that Grant and Scott were lovers.
Authors Marc Elliot, Charles Higham and Roy
Moseley consider Grant to have been bisexual, with Higham and Moseley
claiming that Grant and Scott were seen kissing in a public carpark
outside a social function both attended in the 1960s. In his book,
Hollywood Gays, Boze Hadleigh cites an interview with homosexual
director George Cukor, who said about the alleged homosexual
relationship between Scott and Grant: "Oh, Cary won't talk about it. At
most, he'll say they did some wonderful pictures together. But Randolph
will admit it to a friend."
According to screenwriter Arthur Laurents,
Grant was "at best bisexual". William J. Mann's book Behind the Screen:
How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 recounts how
photographer Jerome Zerbe spent "three gay months" (his words) in the
movie colony taking many photographs of Grant and Scott, "attesting to
their involvement in the gay scene." Zerbe says that he often stayed
with the two actors, "finding them both warm, charming, and happy." In
addition, Darwin Porter's book, Brando Unzipped (2006) claims that Grant
had a homosexual affair with Marlon Brando.
Many writers seem to have no doubt about
the actor's bisexuality. Although Grant had many gay friends, including
Cukor, William Haines, and Australian artist Orry-Kelly, he never outed
himself. Will Hays, author of the Hays Code which censored "indecent"
references in films, including references to homosexuality, admitted to
keeping a "Doom Book" of actors he considered "unsafe" because of their
personal lives.[1] As gay film director James Whale discovered, being
named on Hays's list could instantly end your career. When Chevy Chase
joked about Grant being gay in a television interview with Tom Snyder in
1980 ("Oh, what a gal!") Grant sued him and won. Grant also complained
to writer/director Peter Bogdanovich about the Chevy Chase incident,
emphatically insisting that he was not gay, and that while he had
nothing against homosexuals, he was simply not one himself (this
exchange is cited at length in the chapter on Grant in Bogdanovich's
2005 book Who the Hell's in It?). Grant thought of the cottage industry
of writers imagining him to be gay as merely a media echo chamber of
falsehood. Also, it should be noted that during the filming of The Pride
and the Passion, Grant and Sophia Loren engaged in a love affair in
which he begged her to marry him. She ultimately decided on Carlo Ponti.
Grant was the first actor to use the word
"gay" (meaning homosexual)[citation needed] on screen, in an ad-lib
during a take for Bringing Up Baby (1938), that was kept in the film.
Its meaning was not fully grasped by censors and so it slipped by the
Hays code. In the scene Grant appears in a pink dressing gown, telling
an incredulous observer, "Because I just went gay, all of the sudden!"
The script initially had Grant saying, "I suppose you think it's odd, my
wearing this. I realise it looks odd. I don't usually ... I mean, I
don't own one of these." However Grant ad-libbed with a line of his own.
Grant's first wife was actress Virginia
Cherrill. They married on February 10, 1934, and divorced just over a
year later on March 26, 1935.
After becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen
in 1942, he married ultra-wealthy socialite Barbara Hutton, becoming a
surrogate father and lifelong influence on her son, Lance Reventlow. The
couple was derisively nicknamed "Cash and Cary". However, when he and
Hutton divorced in 1945, Grant refused to accept a money settlement from
her and they remained friends.
Grant's third wife was actress and writer
Betsy Drake. This was his longest marriage (December 25, 1949 - August
14, 1962). In the early '60s Grant related how treatment with LSD at a
prestigious California clinic legal at the time had finally brought
him inner peace after yoga, hypnotism, and mysticism had proved
ineffective. In a 2004 interview, Drake mocked rumors of Grant's
homosexuality: "I didn't have time to think about his homosexuality,"
she says, "we were too busy fucking."
His fourth marriage, to actress Dyan
Cannon, on July 22, 1965, in Las Vegas, resulted in the birth of his
only child, Jennifer, when he was 62. The marriage was troubled from the
beginning (Grant was 61 and Cannon was 28), and they separated within 18
months, with Cannon claiming that Grant spanked her for disobeying him.
The divorce, finalized on May 28, 1967, was bitter and messy, and the
custody disputes over their daughter went on for years.
Grant married British hotel PR agent
Barbara Harris (47 years his junior), on April 11, 1981, a marriage
which lasted until his death.
Legacy
In November 2004 Grant was named "The
Greatest Movie Star of All Time" by Premiere Magazine. [1]
Ian Fleming stated that he partially had
Cary Grant in mind when he created his suave super-spy, James Bond. Sean
Connery was selected for the first James Bond movie because of his
likeness to Grant. Likewise, the later Bond, Roger Moore, was also
selected for sharing Grant's wry sense of humor.
Quotations
"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant; even I
want to be Cary Grant."
[Following his failed marriage to Barbara
Hutton]: "She thought that she was marrying Cary Grant."
"I probably chose my profession because I
was seeking approval, adulation, admiration and affection."
"I have spent the greater part of my life
fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each,
suspecting each."
Visiting his agent Grant intercepted a
telegram from a journalist writing a profile asking "How Old Cary
Grant?" Grant sent a reply saying "Old Cary Grant fine, how you?".
(Actually not true. But when asked about the telegram by an interviewer,
Cary did say that he wished he had done that.)
The dichotomy between Leach and Grant was
referenced in his films from time to time:
In Arsenic and Old Lace Grant is in a
graveyard, and one of the stones reads "Archie Leach".
In His Girl Friday, he responds to a
pointed comment by saying, "The last man who said that to me was Archie
Leach, just a week before he cut his throat."
His character in Gunga Din was named
"Archie".
In one of his early films, She Done Him
Wrong, Grant engages in this memorable dialogue with the film's sexy
star, Mae West:
Mae: I always did like a man in a uniform.
That one fits you grand. Why don't you come up sometime 'n see me? I'm
home every evening.
Cary: Yeah, but I'm busy every evening.
Mae: Busy? So, what are you tryin' to do,
insult me?
Cary: Why no, no, not at all. I'm just
busy, that's all...
Mae: You ain't kiddin' me any. You know, I
met your kind before. Why don't you come up sometime, huh?
Cary: Well, I...
Mae: Don't be afraid. I won't tell...Come
up. I'll tell your fortune ... Aw, you can be had.
Trivia
This article's trivia section is too large.
Please help by removing unencyclopedic
content or integrating content from the trivia section into other
appropriate areas of the article.
While still under the name Archie Leach he
performed on the stage at The Muny in St. Louis, Mo. (America's oldest
and largest outdoor theater), in such shows as Donald Marshall in Irene
(1931); Baron Metternich in Music in May (1931); Don Fernando in Nina
Rosa (1931); Roberto Ferguson in Rio Rita (1931); George in Street
Singer (1931); Athos in Three Musketeers (1931); Max Grunewald in
Wonderful Night (1931);
In the film A Fish Called Wanda, the
character played by John Cleese is named Archibald Leach, Cary Grant's
real name [2]. Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, just a few
kilometres from Grant's birthplace, Bristol.
Although many Cary Grant impressions
include the quotation, "Judy, Judy, Judy", Grant never actually said
that phrase in any of his movies. In Only Angels Have Wings, his
character says "Oh, Judy," and "Come on, Judy," but that's as close as
it gets.
Grant replaced James Stewart as the hapless
ad man Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest. Years earlier, Stewart
replaced Grant as Rupert Cadell in Rope, in which another character
makes reference to Grant's film with Ingrid Bergman, Notorious
Politically, Grant was a Republican, and he
introduced First Lady Betty Ford to the audience at the Republican
National Convention in 1976
Christopher Reeve said he based his
portrayal of Clark Kent on Grant's 1938 performance as the awkward
bespectacled scientist in Bringing Up Baby. Grant's performance in that
film had in turn been inspired by Harold Lloyd.
Some of his younger fans told him that he
looked just like the comic book superhero Captain Marvel. (However,
cartoonist C. C. Beck in fact based the superhero's appearance on fellow
actor Fred MacMurray.)
The voice and appearance of Captain Scarlet
(the title character of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation science
fiction TV series) is based on Cary Grant's, though he is actually
voiced by Francis Matthews.
The character of James Bond was loosely
modeled on Grant, and he was even offered the part in 1962's Dr. No, but
declined, believing that at 58 he was too old for the part.
Wu Ming's novel 54 features Cary Grant and
Archie Leach as two of the main characters. Many aspects of their
two-headed persona are explored as the plot unfolds.
Tony Curtis used Grant's voice style in
Some Like it Hot. At one point in the film, Jack Lemmon says that nobody
talks like that. The film was set in the 1920s United States, so he was
probably right.
In the 2004 film Touch of Pink, Cary Grant
(played by Kyle MacLachlan) acts as the "Spirit Guide" and invisible
friend of main character Alim.
Grant's height was 6'1" (1.85 m).
Filmography
This Is the Night (1932)
Sinners in the Sun (1932)
Singapore Sue (1932) (short subject)
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
Devil and the Deep (1932)
Blonde Venus (1932)
Hot Saturday (1932)
Madame Butterfly (1932)
Hollywood on Parade (1932) (short subject)
She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Woman Accused (1933)
Hollywood on Parade No. 9 (1933) (short
subject)
The Eagle and the Hawk (1933)
Gambling Ship (1933)
I'm No Angel (1933)
Alice in Wonderland (1933)
Thirty Day Princess (1934)
Born to Be Bad (1934)
Kiss and Make Up (1934)
Ladies Should Listen (1934)
Enter Madame (1935)
Wings in the Dark (1935)
The Last Outpost (1935)
Pirate Party on Catalina Isle (1935) (short
subject)
Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (1936)
Big Brown Eyes (1936)
Suzy (1936)
Wedding Present (1936)
When You're in Love (1937)
Topper (1937)
The Toast of New York (1937)
The Awful Truth (1937)
Bringing up Baby (1938)
Holiday (1938)
Gunga Din (1939)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
In Name Only (1939)
His Girl Friday (1940)
My Favorite Wife (1940)
The Howards of Virginia (1940)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Penny Serenade (1941)
Suspicion (1941)
The Talk of the Town (1942)
Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
Mr. Lucky (1943)
Destination Tokyo (1943)
Once Upon a Time (1944)
Road to Victory (1944) (short subject)
None But the Lonely Heart (1944)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Without Reservations (1946) (Cameo)
Night and Day (1946)
Notorious (1946)
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)
I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
Crisis (1950)
People Will Talk (1951)
Room for One More (1952)
Monkey Business (1952)
Dream Wife (1953)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
The Pride and the Passion (1957)
Kiss Them for Me (1957)
Indiscreet (1958)
Houseboat (1958)
North by Northwest (1959)
Operation Petticoat (1959)
The Grass Is Greener (1960)
That Touch of Mink (1962)
Charade (1963)
Father Goose (1964)
A Tribute to the Will Rogers Memorial
Hospital (1965) (short subject)
Walk, Don't Run (1966)
Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970)
(documentary)
References
1 Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet:
Homosexuality in the Movies [revised edition] Harrow & Row, 1987. p.47
****
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