Summary

Cary Grant (born January 18, 1904 in Bristol, died November 29, 1986 in Davenport) is an English-American film actor, stage actor, vaudeville artist and entrepreneur. An icon of popular culture, a movie star. One of the greatest legends in the history of American cinema and the "Golden Era of Hollywood" period. In 1942 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1999 American Film Institute listed him as the 2nd greatest actor of all time (The 50 Greatest American Screen Legends).

Grant began his stage career in 1910 when he joined the troupe "The Penders," with whom he initially performed nationally. In the early 1920s they toured the United States, where Grant decided to settle permanently. For several years he performed successfully as a vaudeville performer, and in 1927 he made his Broadway debut in the musical Golden Dawn. Five years later, he made his first appearance on the big screen, starring in the comedy This is the Night. During the 1930s and 1940s, Grant was one of the leading actors in the romantic comedy and screwball comedy genre, thanks to his performances in The Naked Truth (1937), Predatory Baby (1938) The Girl Friday (1940) and The Philadelphia Story (1940). Later in his career, he chose films of a more nostalgic and serious nature. Thanks to his collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock in the 1940s and 1950s, he appeared in such films as Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), The Thief in the Hotel (1955) and North, Northwest (1959). Especially in the first two productions he had the opportunity to present a more dark and ambiguously moral type of hero. In 1966, he retired from filmmaking and went into business. During his career, Grant was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 1970 he was honored with an Academy Award for lifetime achievement.

Other important films in Grant's body of work include: I Am Not an Angel (1933), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Their Child (1941), I Was a War Bride (1949), The Monkey Cure (1952), Indiscretion (1958) and Charade (1963). He appeared in 72 feature film productions.

Family and youth

Archibald Alexander Leach was born on 18 January 1904 at 15 Hughenden Road, a street located in the northern suburb of Horfield, a district of the English city of Bristol. He was the second child of Elias James Leach (1877-1973). His father worked as an ironer for a tailor in a clothing factory, and his mother, who came from a family of carpenters, was a seamstress. His older brother John William Elias Leach (1899-1900) died as a result of tuberculosis of the nervous system. He had an unhappy childhood. His father was an alcoholic and his mother suffered from clinical depression. With her help he learned to dance and took piano lessons at age 4. She occasionally took her son to the movies where he enjoyed performances by such artists as Broncho Billy Anderson, Charlie Chaplin, Chester Conklin, Ford Sterling, Mack Swain and Roscoe Arbuckle. When he was 4½ years old he was sent to Bishop Road Primary School.

The actor's biographer Graham McCann recalled that Maureen Donaldson, Grant's lover in the 1970s, claimed in her book that his mother was "incapable of showing or receiving affection." Another biographer Geoffrey Wansell believed that Elsie blamed herself heavily for the death of her older brother and could never forgive herself. Grant outright admitted that his complicated relationship with his mother had a direct impact on his later interactions with women. As a result of the loss of her child, Elsie was very overprotective of her younger son, fearing that she might lose him as well.

When Grant was nine years old, Elias James Leach placed his mother in Glenside Hospital's psychiatric ward, initially explaining to his son that she had left for a "long vacation" and later, at the urging of two cousins, that she had died of a heart attack. After this event, they moved to the grandmother's house in Bristol. A year later, her father remarried and started a new family. Shortly before his death in 1935, when the son was 31, he admitted to Grant that he had lied and stated that Elsie Maria Leach was alive and in a mental institution. Grant, shortly after learning of the woman's whereabouts, made efforts to get her out of the hospital in June 1935. He visited his mother in England in October 1938, having finished shooting Gunga Din (1939).

Due to parental alienation, Grant had difficulty socializing during his youth and was nervous. He enjoyed the theater, especially the pantomimes staged at Christmas, which he attended with his father. In the summer of 1910, he became friends with a troupe of acrobatic dancers called "The Penders" or "Bob Pender Stage Troupe". He became a stilt walker and joined the touring troupe. During two weeks of performances at Berlin's Wintergarten theater in 1914, he was spotted by Broadway producer Jesse Lasky. In his first year with the troupe, he starred in the pantomime Hansel and the Magic Bean at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane.

In 1915, he received a scholarship to attend Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol. His father spent his last savings on a school uniform. Because of his appearance and acrobatic talent he became a highly regarded person among his classmates. He actively participated in the college's sporting activities, developed a reputation for being a troublemaker, often refused to do his homework and was not keen on most subjects. He spent his evenings working backstage at Bristol theaters, and in 1917, when he was 13, he was responsible for the lighting at magician David Devant's performances at the Bristol Hippodrome. He appeared at the theater at every opportunity. To think as little as possible of his unhappy youthful life, in the summer of 1917 he volunteered to work as a messenger and guide at the military port of Southampton. The time spent there cemented his desire to travel; wanting to leave Bristol, he tried his hand as a ship's boy but was refused on the grounds that he was too young.

On March 13, 1918, Grant was expelled from Fairfield Grammar School. Several reasons were given, including being in the ladies' room and helping to steal from two classmates in the nearby town of Almondsbury. Three days after the incident, he joined Pender's troupe. Grant's father - upon learning of this - signed a three-year contract between his son and Pender, providing for a weekly salary with board and room, as well as dance lessons and other activities of his profession until he came of age. The contract included a clause for possible raises based on performance.

The 1920s and 1930s.

For performing with Pender's troupe, Grant was paid 10 shillings a week. The troupe began touring the country, and he used his developed abilities in pantomime to expand his acting skills. On July 21, 1920, the troupe traveled on the passenger ship RMS Olympic for performances around the United States. Richard Schickel claimed that Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were aboard the same ship, returning from their honeymoon. Fairbanks, nicknamed the "King of Hollywood," became a major inspiration for Grant. Arriving on the scene, the group performed for nine months, twelve times a week in the largest theater in the world, the New York Hippodrome, with a capacity of just under six thousand. Their musical Good Times was a success.

On the wave of Good Times' good reception, Grant began touring as a vaudeville artist, performing in Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Saint Louis, among other places. He decided to stay with several other members of the group in the United States while the rest returned to England. He admired the Marx Brothers' performances, and Zeppo was his idol. In July 1922, he performed with seven friends under the name "Knockabout Comedians" at the Palace Theatre on Broadway. During the summer, he formed a group called "The Walking Stanleys," which included several former members of Pender's troupe. At the end of the year they performed in the musical Better Times presented at the New York Hippodrome.

After meeting at one of the parties of George C. Tilyou, the owner of the racetrack at Steeplechase Park on the Coney Island peninsula in Brooklyn, Grant was hired to advertise the track. He appeared on stilts wearing a light brown jacket and carrying a billboard. For the next two years he toured the United States, performing with The Walking Stanleys. In 1924 he visited Los Angeles for the first time, which made a big impression on him. When the group broke up, Grant returned to New York, performing at the National Vaudeville Artists Club located on West 46th Street. During performances, he performed acrobatics, juggling, various comic tricks, and for a brief period, riding a monocycle under the pseudonym "Rubber Legs". This work was particularly demanding, but it gave Grant a chance to hone his comedic techniques and develop his skills, benefiting his future work.

Alongside Jean Dalrymple, Grant became a leading vaudeville artist and decided to form the "Jack Janis Company", with which he began touring in May 1926. At the time, he was often mistakenly thought to be Australian, resulting in the nicknames "Boomerang" or "Kangaroo". As a result of the change of environment, Grant's accent changed, causing him to be referred to as "transatlantic" or "mid-Atlantic".

In 1927 he was cast as an Australian in Reggie Hammerstein's musical Golden Dawn, earning $75 a week. Although the show was not well received, it was staged 184 times, and several critics began to recognize Grant's talent, writing of him as "a pleasant young man" or "a skilled young newcomer." The following year he joined the William Morris Agency and was cast again in a youthful role in the musical Polly, directed by Hammerstein, which proved to be an unsuccessful production. One critic wrote that Grant "has a strong, masculine manner, but unfortunately cannot bring out the beauty in musicals." The pressure of the show's failure began to build and he was eventually removed from the show after six weeks of receiving negative reviews. Despite this, the future actor's contract was attempted by Florenz Ziegfeld, but Hammerstein sold it back to the Shubert brothers. Jacob J. Shubert cast Grant alongside Jeanette MacDonald in the French comedy Boom-Boom, which premiered on January 28, 1929 and was staged at the Casino Theatre on Broadway. MacDonald later admitted that he was "absolutely terrible in the role," but displayed a great deal of charm that drew people in and helped successfully keep the show from failing. The play was staged 72 times, and Grant earned $350 a week. After finishing, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, and then to Chicago, Illinois.

To improve his mood, he purchased a sporty Packard model in 1927. While in England, he visited his half-brother Eric, who kept the whereabouts of the actor's mother a secret. Upon returning to New York, he played the role of Max Grunewald in Shubert's production of A Wonderful Night. The show premiered on October 31 at the Majestic Theatre, two days after the Wall Street crash. There were a total of 125 performances, which ran until February 1930. The play received mixed reviews; one critic described it as "a mixture of John Barrymore and slyness," while another admitted that Grant brought "a whiff of Broadway wizardry" to his role. After the premieres of plays featuring him, Grant began to gain recognition, but he still found it difficult to relate to women. "In all my years in the theater, on tour and in New York, I was surrounded by many attractive women, but I was never able to fully connect with them," he recalled.

During the 1930 season

Grant's performance in Nikki's play was favorably reviewed by Ed Sullivan in the pages of The New York Daily News, who insisted that "the young boy from England has a big future in movies." Favorable reviews caused him to take part in the test shooting of the Paramount Publix studio, as a result of which he played the role of a sailor in the short film Singapore Sue (directed by Casey Robinson). According to Graham McCann's biopic, Grant played the role "without conviction." Thanks to Robinson, he had the opportunity to meet Paramount Pictures co-founder Jesse Lasky and the studio's CEO B.P. Schulberg. After a successful casting, directed by Marion Gering, Schulberg signed a five-year contract with Grant on December 7, 1931, guaranteeing him earnings of $450 a week. The producer demanded that the artist change his name to "something that would sound typically American like Gary Cooper." Ultimately, the choice fell on Cary Grant.

Grant set out to create an image that McCann called "the epitome of male glamour" and made Douglas Fairbanks his first role model. The biographer noted that Grant's Hollywood career took off immediately because of his "genuine charm," which set him apart from other promising actors of the time, making it "extremely easy to find people who were willing to support his budding career."

He debuted with the role of Stephen in the pre-Code era comedy This is the Night (directed by Frank Tuttle) alongside Lila Damita and Thelma Todd. Grant disliked his portrayal and threatened to leave Hollywood, but to his surprise, one Variety critic praised the actor's performance, describing it as "fractious." In 1932, he played a rich playboy in the melodrama Blond Venus (dir. Josef von Sternberg) alongside Marlene Dietrich. William Rothman described Grant's performance as "an image of a distinctive kind of nonmacho masculinity that enabled him to embody a man capable of being a romantic hero." The actor himself admitted that during production he often came into conflict with the director, with whom he debated in German.

He repeated the playboy role in several later films - in The Pains and Shadows of Love (1932, dir. Dorothy Arzner) alongside Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney, The Satan of Jealousy (1932, dir. Marion Gering) with Charles Laughton, Gary Cooper, and Tallulah Bankhead, Hot Saturday (1932, dir. William A. Seiter) with Nancy Carroll and Randolph Scott, and Madame Butterfly (1932, dir. Marion Gering) alongside Sidney. According to biographer Marc Eliot, these productions did not make Grant a star, but they were enough to establish him as "one of Hollywood's fastest rising actors."

In 1933, he came to critical attention with his performances in the romantic comedies Lady Lou (dir. Lowell Sherman) and I Am Not an Angel (dir. Wesley Ruggles). The screenplay for Lady Lou was based on the 1928 play Diamond Lil, and the picture itself received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, losing the competition to Cavalcade (dir. Frank Lloyd). In both films, Grant starred alongside Mae West, who in later years admitted that she discovered his talent. Pauline Kael recalled that the actor initially did not look confident in his role as the Salvation Army superior in Lady Lou, which only added more charm to the role. Sherman's film was a hit in the United States, earning two million dollars in box-office revenue there. While working on I Am Not an Angel, Grant's salary increased from $450 to $750 per week. The film was an even bigger success than Lady Lou, saving Paramount from bankruptcy. After a series of unsuccessful productions, including the drama Born to Be Bad (1934, directed by Lowell Sherman) with Loretta Young, produced for 20th Century Fox, the romantic comedy Kiss and Make Up (1934, directed by Harlan Thompson), the adventure-romance Wings in the Dark (1935, directed by James Flood) and press revelations about the actor's marital problems, his position with Paramount representatives weakened significantly.

The actor's prospects improved when he was loaned to RKO Pictures in mid-1935. Producer Pandro S. Berman decided to hire Grant because, by his own admission: "I saw that he was doing things that were excellent and . His first film for RKO was the comedy-drama Sylvia Scarlett (directed by George Cukor), where he teamed up with Hepburn (the pair would collaborate on film productions three times in later years). Despite its commercial failure, the film won critical acclaim, and the actor himself considered it a breakthrough in his career.

When his contract with Paramount after completing Wedding Present (dir. Richard Wallace) in 1936 came to an end, Grant decided not to renew it after the studio refused to allow him to freely choose his roles. Thus, he became the first actor in Hollywood to work on his own, without any contract. This allowed him to count on profits of $300,000 per film. The first production in which he appeared as an independent actor was a romantic comedy The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (directed by Alfred Zeisler). The film was shot in England. Zeisler's picture proved to be a financial flop, prompting Grant to reconsider his earlier decision. The box office success and critical acclaim for the drama Suzy (1936, directed by George Fitzmaurice), where he played the role of a French aviator alongside Jean Harlow and Franchot Tone, led the actor to sign a joint contract with RKO and Columbia Pictures studios, which included a clause allowing Grant to choose the roles that suited him. The actor's contract with the latter studio tied the parties to four films over two years, guaranteeing Grant earnings of $50,000 for the first two and $75,000 for each subsequent one.

The 1930s and 1940s.

In 1937 he made his first film for Columbia - a musical When You're in Love (directed by Harry Lachman, Robert Riskin), in which he starred alongside the opera singer Grace Moore. It received rave reviews, and Mae Tinée of The Chicago Daily Tribune praised the actor's performance, writing that it was "the best thing he has done in a long time". After the commercial failure of the biographical The Power of Gold (directed by Rowland V. Lee), Grant was loaned to Hal Roach's studio, where he starred in the screwball comedy The Invisible Marriage (directed by Norman Z. McLeod) made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. McLeod's film turned out to be the highest grossing comedy in the actor's career to date. "Variety" wrote that both Grant and Constance Bennett deftly perform the tasks assigned to them.

Biographer Jerry Vermilye admitted that the success of The Invisible Marriage was a "logical springboard" for Grant to get the lead role in the screwball comedy The Naked Truth (directed by Leo McCarey). On the set, he had his first opportunity to work with Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy. Although McCarey allegedly disliked Grant - who mocked him by playing up his mannerisms in the film - he was able to appreciate the actor's comedic talent during the shoot and often encouraged him to use the skills he had developed in vaudeville. The film was a commercial success and received positive reviews from critics. The Naked Truth helped establish Grant as a Hollywood star and also made him a leading actor in the screwball comedy genre. Benjamin Schwarz admitted years later in "The Atlantic" that The Naked Truth was for Grant "the beginning of the most spectacular streak of a single actor in the history of American cinema".

In 1938, he starred alongside Hepburn in the screwball comedy The Predatory Baby (directed by Howard Hawks), which was full of bickering and verbal skirmishes between the on-screen couple and featured the use of live leopards, among other things. Grant, who was initially unsure how to play his role, was advised by Hawks to imagine Harold Lloyd's style. During the shoot, the actor was given more freedom in the comedy scenes compared to Hepburn, for whom these were her beginnings in the genre. The actor was not comfortable with the leopard on set. As a joke, Hepburn placed a stuffed leopard in the air duct outlet of his dressing room. As she recalled in her biography, Grant "ran out like lightning" at the sight of it. Despite more than 350,000 in losses for RKO, the film received rave reviews.

That same year the two appeared together again, starring in the romantic comedy Vacation (directed by George Cukor), a remake of the 1930 film. The production was a financial failure, so much so that Hepburn came to be referred to in the press as "box office poison". The series of commercial failures did not shake Grant's position, whose recognition was greater than before. Jerry Vermilye felt that in 1939 his roles began to be more dramatic, though still with humorous overtones. In the adventure-historical Gunga Din (dir. George Stevens), set on a military base in India, he played the role of British Army Sergeant Archibald Cutter, playing alongside Douglas Fairbanks Jr. In subsequent productions he originated the roles of pilot Geoff Carter in the adventure melodrama Only Angels Have Wings (directed by Howard Hawks) with Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth, and wealthy landowner Alec Walker in In Name Only (directed by John Cromwell) with Carole Lombard and Kay Francis.

In 1940 Grant starred in the screwball comedy Girl Friday (directed by Howard Hawks), playing a gruff newspaper publisher who learns that his ex-wife and journalist (Rosalind Russell), is to marry an insurance specialist. The film received rave reviews and was praised for, among other things, the strong chemistry and "verbal athleticism" between the two main characters. My Nicest Wife (directed by Garson Kanin), on which Grant again collaborated with Dunne, was described by Life magazine as a "first-rate comedy". Kanin's production was the second highest grossing film for RKO, grossing $500,000.

On September 9, the drama The Howards of Virginia (directed by Frank Lloyd), where Grant starred alongside Martha Scott, was released. Bosley Crowther, in a review published in "The New York Times", admitted that it is "one of the best historical pictures made so far". The actor's last film made in 1940 was a romantic comedy A Philadelphia Tale (directed by George Cukor) based on a play by Philip Barry, where he starred for the fourth and last time together with Hepburn. On the screen they were partnered by James Stewart. Grant played the role of Dexter Haven, the ex-husband of Tracy Samantha Lord (Hepburn). "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that "there are not enough words to appreciate this picture," adding: "Grant's "beautifully modest and restrained performance won acclaim. The actor himself thought his performance so good that he was disappointed when he didn't receive an Academy Award nomination for it, which he jokingly commented: "I've got to grind my teeth first before the Academy will take me seriously," referring to the sympathy of Academy members at the time for actors playing the roles of tramps and oppressed heroes. Grant donated his entire fee for the production ($175,000) to a military charity and the Red Cross. This had to do with an event in which five members of his family were killed while fighting in Europe during World War II. The Philadelphia story proved to be a box office hit, grossing over two million dollars.

For his portrayal of Roger Adams in the melodrama Their Child with Irene Dunne (1941, dir. George Stevens), Grant received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Leading Actor, losing the competition to Gary Cooper, who won the statuette for his role as soldier Alvin York in the biographical film Sergeant York (1941, dir. Howard Hawks). Geoffrey Wansell believed that the film Their Child made a big emotional impression on the actor because at the time he began talking to his wife Barbara Hutton about having offspring.

The same year, Grant began working with Alfred Hitchcock, appearing with Joan Fontaine in the psychological thriller Suspicion, based on the 1932 novel Before the Facts by Francis Ills. The actor was not happy with his collaboration with Fontaine, whom he considered too temperamental and unprofessional. While working on the film, the director instigated all sorts of conflicts between the lead actors, hoping to create enough tension on screen. He later admitted that the ending of the film, where the main character is sent to prison instead of committing suicide, was "a complete mistake because of that story with Cary Grant. If you don't have a cynical ending, the story becomes too simple."

In 1942, he participated in a three-week tour of the United States as part of a group supporting the war effort. Grant visited wounded soldiers in the hospital and often performed with comedian Bert Lahr as part of the tour. In May, he took part in the ten-minute propaganda project Road to Victory with Bing Crosby, Charles Ruggles and Frank Sinatra. His next production was the comedy-drama Voices of the City (directed by George Stevens), where he played the role of political activist Leopold Dilg, accused of arson and murder. Hiding in a house with characters played by Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman, he plans to guarantee his freedom. In Once Upon a Honeymoon (directed by Leo McCarey) he created the character of war correspondent Patrick O'Toole alongside Ginger Rogers and Walter Slezak. The following year, he starred in the comedy-drama Mr. Lucky (directed by H.C. Potter), playing Joe Adams, a con man and gambler. The commercial success of the wartime production of Target: Tokyo (dir. Delmer Daves) - which was completed within two months - led a "Newsweek" reviewer to consider it one of the best performances of Grant's career.

In 1944, he appeared with Peter Lorre, Priscilla Lane and Raymond Massey in Frank Capra's black comedy Arsenic and Old Lace, playing the role of maniac Mortimer Brewster belonging to a bizarre family with two murderous aunts and an uncle claiming to be President Teddy Roosevelt. The actor recalled in later years that it was difficult for him to deal with the macabre subject matter of the film, which made him consider his participation in it to be the worst performance of his career. He donated his entire $100,000 salary to a foundation supporting victims of war. For his role of Ernie Mott in the melodrama Nothing But a Lonely Heart (directed by Clifford Odets), he received his second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Leading Actor. Grant lost the competition with Bing Crosby, awarded for the role of Chuck O'Malley's father in the melodrama Going My Way (1944, directed by Leo McCarey).

In 1946, he appeared as a guest star in the war comedy Without Reservations (dir. Mervyn LeRoy) where the main roles were played by Claudette Colbert and John Wayne. In the same year, he played Cole Porter, an American composer and creator of musicals staged, among others, on Broadway, in the biographical picture Day and Night (dir. Michael Curtiz). The production proved problematic with some scenes requiring multiple doubles, which frustrated the cast and crew. The actor disliked the film, but Porter and his wife Linda gave positive feedback.

His next film was the psychological-spy noir thriller The Notorious, directed by Hitchcock. Grant created the character of T.R. Devlin, an FBI agent who contracts Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), the daughter of a former intelligence agent, to infiltrate a Brazilian organization of escaped World War II Nazis. While working on the film, Hitchcock placed great emphasis on close-up or semi-close-up camera shots of the actors' faces. A scene in which the characters, played by Bergman and Grant, act out a kiss that lasts less than two and a half minutes has gone down in film history. Wansell wrote that Grant's performance "highlights how much his exceptional acting qualities have developed since The Naked Truth."

In 1947, he starred in - positively received by critics for its slapstick qualities and good screen chemistry with Myrna Loy - the film The Bachelor Knight (dir. Irving Reis), which achieved one of the year's best box-office results. The Bishop's Wife (dir. Henry Koster), in which Grant played a messenger from heaven tasked with improving the relationship between a bishop (played by David Niven) and his wife (Loretta Young), also received positive reviews and was met with satisfactory theater attendance. It was nominated in five categories for Academy Awards, and Life described it as an "intelligently written and skillfully acted" picture. In 1948, Grant teamed up again with Myrna Loy, this time in the comedy Dream Home - Dream Homes (directed by H.C. Potter). Although Potter's film resulted in a loss for RKO, Commonweal's Philip T. Hartung agreed that the role of the "frustrated advertising man," was one of the best of Grant's career. The actor ended the year in fourth place on the list of the most profitable stars in the box-office.

In 1949 Grant appeared alongside Ann Sheridan in the comedy I Was a War Bride (directed by Howard Hawks), where in several scenes he appeared dressed as a woman, wearing a skirt and a wig. A month after shooting began, the actor fell ill with infectious hepatitis, which caused him to lose weight significantly. Hawks' film grossed four and a half million dollars, becoming the highest grossing production of the 20th Century Fox studio. It was often compared to other films of the director in the genre of screwball comedy from the late 1930s. At the time, Grant was one of the best-paid actors in Hollywood, earning $ 300,000 for participation in the film.

The 1950s and 1960s.

The early 1950s saw a decline in interest in productions starring Grant. His roles in the thriller The Crisis (1950, dir. Richard Brooks) and the comedy-drama People Will Talk (1951, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz) were received by critics and audiences without much enthusiasm. Crisis director Richard Brooks believed that putting Grant in such a serious film was "a recipe for disaster." After twenty years, the actor began to feel fatigue and weariness with being Cary Grant, with his success, wealth, and recognition, noting: "Playing myself, the real me, is the hardest thing in the world."

In 1952, he appeared in the family comedy-drama Room for One More (dir. Norman Taurog), playing the role of George Rose, who together with his wife, Anna (Betsy Drake), adopts two children from an orphanage. While making the unconventional screwball comedy The Monkey Cure, starring Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe, Grant reunited with director Howard Hawks on set. He found Monroe, who partnered him, "shy, quiet and sad." Although one Motion Picture Herald critic enthusiastically praised Grant's acting, writing that it was the best performance of his career, the film itself received mixed reviews. According to Bosley Crowther, the picture was a mix of crazy, fast-paced and uninhibited farce, and if it's done right, it can be wildly entertaining, but it can also be boring.

Grant had hoped that starring in the romantic comedy The Wife of My Dreams (1953, directed by Sidney Sheldon) alongside Deborah Kerr would save his career, but the film was poorly received by audiences and critics alike and proved a financial failure. During the production, he again struggled with hepatitis. The actor rejected participation in Roman Holiday (dir. William Wyler), believing that he was too old to play together with the debuting British Audrey Hepburn. Despite being considered for the lead role in the musical drama The Birth of a Star (dir. George Cukor), he concluded that his career was over and retired from the film industry.

In 1955, persuaded by Hitchcock, he was cast in the romantic thriller The Thief in the Hotel, based on the novel by David F. Dodge. Dodge's novel. The actor played the role of retired thief John Robbie living on the French Riviera. Cooperation with Grace Kelly went so well that Grant recalled it as one of the most pleasant moments in his career, emphasizing her professionalism. He later admitted that Kelly was "probably the best actress I ever worked with." Although the film itself received mixed reviews, critics emphasized Grant's gentle and lovely screen presence.

Grant was one of the first actors not to renew his contract, leaving the studio system that controlled almost all aspects of artists' lives. He made his own decisions about his film roles, often including the directors and actors who played alongside him, and negotiated a share of the revenue, which was rare in those days. He received $700,000 from a ten percent share of the revenue from the sale of the successful The Thief in the Hotel, while Hitchcock, directing and producing, earned less than $50,000.

In 1957, he starred alongside Deborah Kerr in An Unforgettable Romance (directed by Leo McCarey), playing a foreign playboy who over time becomes the object of affection of Terry McKay (Kerr). Richard Schickel rated the film in terms of one of the best romantic pictures of the time, noting, however, Grant's not entirely successful attempt to banish the film's "overflowing sentimentality." That same year he co-starred with Sophia Loren in the wartime Pride and Passion (directed by Stanley Kramer). He also expressed interest in starring in Bridge on the River Kwai (dir. David Lean), but was forced to decline due to work on Pride and Passion. He admitted he did not play the role of Commander Shears (played by William Holden) because he was undecided. The filming of Pride and Passion took place in Spain and proved problematic - Frank Sinatra, cast in one of the leading roles, irritated the crew with his behavior, and Grant again struggled with hepatitis. Kramer's film received negative reviews from critics, with the director himself calling it a disaster. Grant's courting of Loren on the set proved fruitless, adding to his anger when Paramount cast the two actors again in the romantic comedy The House on the Boat (directed by Melville Shavelson). The sexual tension between the two during production was so great that producers found it nearly impossible to complete the film.

In 1958, he again starred alongside Ingrid Bergman in the romantic comedy Indiscretion (directed by Stanley Donen), developing a close friendship with her and gaining respect for her acting skills. According to Schickel, Indiscretion was probably the best romantic comedy of the era, and Grant himself counted it among his favorite productions. His portrayal of Philip Adams earned him his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. He ended the year as the highest-grossing actor in the box-office.

In 1959, Grant starred in Hitchcock's spy-sensation thriller North, Northwest, which was critically acclaimed. At its premiere at New York's Radio City Music Hall, the film received a collective standing ovation and applause. The plot centered on an advertising agency executive (Grant) who is pursued by a group of spies who mistakenly take him for a government agency insider. The lead female role was played by Eva Marie Saint. During the making of the film, the actor gave Hitchcock a lot of advice and showed great ignorance to all his comments. "The whole trick is to disregard what Hitchcock says. Anyway, I know what's on his mind, and I do exactly the opposite." In the film, Grant wore one of the most iconic suits in film history - a bespoke wool grey suit made by tailors on Savile Row. For his role he was honored with the Italian David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor.

He ended 1959 with an appearance in the war comedy Operation Halka (directed by Blake Edwards) alongside Tony Curtis. One Variety reviewer considered his comic portrayal a classic example of how to make an audience in a movie theater laugh without having to say a line. Edwards' film was a box office success, becoming Grant's most profitable production in the U.S. box-office, grossing nine million dollars. The actor received his second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical.

In 1960 he starred with Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum in the comedy The Praise of Others (directed by Stanley Donen), which was shot at Osterley Park and Shepperton Studios in England. Graham McCann noted Grant's enjoyment of "mocking the over-sophisticated tastes and mannerisms of his aristocratic hero". The role earned him his third Golden Globe nomination. Donen's film was seen as the worst of the actor's career since 1953's The Wife of My Dreams.

In 1962, he co-starred with Doris Day in the comedy A Breath of Luxury (directed by Delbert Mann), for which he received his fourth Golden Globe nomination. Mann's picture was the second highest grossing film of his career. Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman considered Grant for the role of James Bond in Doctor No (1962, dir. Terence Young), but turned it down when it turned out that the actor could only play in one part of the series.

In 1963, Grant starred in his final, characteristically gentle and romantic role in Charade (dir. Stanley Donen) alongside Audrey Hepburn. The film combined elements of thriller, comedy and romance. According to the actor, the experience of working with a British woman was something wonderful. He believed that the closeness of their relationship was clearly visible on screen. As Hepburn recalled, Grant had concerns about the age difference during the making of the film and thought that he would be criticized for dating someone much younger than himself. Chris Barsanti wrote: "It's clever coquetry that makes the film such inventive entertainment. Grant and Hepburn play off each other like the professionals they are." Charade was positively received by critics. It was often called "the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock didn't make". Grant was nominated for a British BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor.

A year later, he changed his cinematic image in the wartime romantic comedy Father Virgil (directed by Ralph Nelson), playing the role of Walter Eckland - a gray-haired American, a resident of one of the islands in the Pacific, who on the orders of Commander Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard) looks out for incoming Japanese aircraft. Nelson's picture was a commercial success, earning more than $210,000 in revenue after its first week of screenings, beating Charade's score from last year.

The last film in Grant's career was the comedy Go, Don't Run (1966, directed by Charles Walters), which was shot in Tokyo. On screen, he was partnered by Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar. The weekly magazine Newsweek wrote: "While Grant's personal presence is indispensable, the character he plays is almost entirely superfluous. Perhaps the conclusion is that a man in his 50s and 60s no longer has a place in a romantic comedy unless he's the catalyst. Otherwise, the chemistry is wrong for everyone."

The actor announced his retirement for the second time. He was again persuaded to change his mind by Hitchcock, who offered him a role in the political-spy thriller Torn Curtain (1966). Grant was not persuaded, definitively ending his acting career.

The 1970s and 1980s.

Cary Grant retired from filmmaking at age 62 after the birth of his daughter Jennifer so that he could fully focus on raising her and provide a sense of permanence and stability. He showed increasing disillusionment with cinema in the 1960s, rarely finding a script that suited him. "I could have left or stayed and played the roles of grandfather or vanity, but I discovered more important things in life." He was of the opinion that after Charade, the "golden age of Hollywood" was over. He showed little desire to return to the profession and continued to respond to invitations and mentions related to the "big opportunity."

On April 7, 1970, at the Academy Awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, he was presented with a lifetime achievement Oscar by close friend Frank Sinatra. That same year, he appeared in the documentary Elvis: This Is How It Is, which is a record of Elvis Presley's concerts in Las Vegas. When he faced some negative reviews for his films in the 1970s, he resold them to television in 1975 for a sum of two million dollars. That same year he attended, accompanied by Queen Elizabeth II, a gala dinner staged by President Gerald Ford at the White House. On March 7, 1979, he was a guest at the ceremony honoring Hitchcock by the American Film Institute with the AFI Life Achievement Award. Also in 1979, he was invited to attend a royal charity gala at the London Palladium.

Gary Morecambe and Martin Sterling believed that Grant's absence from films after 1966 was "not the reaction of a man irreversibly removed from the film industry, but of a man who had to choose between a decision and eating a piece of humble pie and proclaiming himself again to a cinema audience." In the 1970s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer tried to make a remake of The People of the Hotel (1932), hoping that Grant would break his retirement and accept the offer. Hitchcock had long planned to make a film based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, where he saw Grant in the lead role. Warren Beatty unsuccessfully urged him to accept an offer to appear in the fantasy comedy Heaven Can Wait (1978, directed by Buck Henry, Beatty). Morecambe and Sterling claimed that Grant had shown interest in appearing in Love Overtime (1973, directed by Melvin Frank), the courtroom drama The Verdict (1982, directed by Sidney Lumet), and the 1983 adaptation of the novel Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Grant worried about the deaths of his close friends, including Howard Hughes in 1976, Barbara Hutton and Louis Mountbatten in 1979, Alfred Hitchcock in 1980, Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman in 1982, and David Niven in 1983. The sudden death of Kelly, with whom he had remained close friends since the making of The Thief in the Hotel, was a particularly painful experience for him. He visited Monaco three or four times during his retirement, expressing his support for her by joining the board of the duchess's foundation. In the last years of his life, he toured the United States as part of A Conversation with Cary Grant, where he presented excerpts from his films and answered questions from the audience. He observed the presence of both older viewers and students who were experiencing his work for the first time.

Death

On the afternoon of November 29, 1986, Grant was at the Adler Theatre in Davenport, Iowa, preparing for his next appearance in A Conversation with Cary Grant. Photographer Basil Williams, who was present, recalled that the actor looked normal, but seemed tired and stumbled in the audience. Grant's close friend Roderick Mann maintained that when he met the actor at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood a few days ago, the actor was in good health. Williams' account indicated that half an hour before the performance, Grant was rehearsing during which "something looked wrong" and the actor disappeared backstage. He was transported in the presence of his wife Barbara Harris to the Blackhawk Hotel. A doctor was called to the scene and diagnosed Grant with a massive stroke with a blood pressure reading of 210

After his death, The New York Times wrote: "Cary Grant was never supposed to die. He was to last forever and function as a model of charm, elegance and youth." The actor's corpse was taken to California, where it was cremated and his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean. In keeping with his wishes, there were no funeral ceremonies. Screenwriter Roderick Mann acknowledged that Grant "was a private person who did not want the nonsense of a funeral." Most of his estate, estimated at $60-80 million, went to his wife Barbara and daughter Jennifer. The actor bequeathed some of his savings to charitable foundations.

Biographer Martin Sterling described Grant as "one of the sharpest businessmen who ever worked in Hollywood." A long-standing friendship with American businessman Howard Hughes, which began in the 1930s, saw the actor rotate in Hollywood's most esteemed circles and attend lavish parties. Morecambe and Sterling pointed out that Hughes played an important role in the development of Grant's business interests. According to them, by 1939 the actor was already "an astute operator with a variety of commercial interests." Randolph Scott, a friend of Grant's, encouraged him to invest his money in stocks, so that by the late 1930s the actor's fortune had grown significantly. In the 1940s, Grant, along with his second wife Barbara Hutton, invested heavily in real estate in the Acapulco area, at a time when it was little more than a fishing village. The actor partnered with Red Skelton, Richard Widmark and Roy Rogers to purchase a hotel in Acapulco. In the conduct of business, Grant was characterized by a sharp mind, so much so that friend David Niven said of him: "Before computers came into general use, Cary already had one in his brain."

Collaboration with Fabergé

After retiring from film, Grant became more active in business. He accepted a position on the board of directors at Fabergé. He actively attended meetings and traveled around the world in support of the company's activities. His salary was modest compared to what he received as an actor. He earned 15 thousand dollars a year. George Barrie acknowledged that Grant was instrumental in growing the company to annual revenues of about $50 million in 1968, an eighty percent increase over the inaugural year of 1964. His position guaranteed him the use of a private plane to travel to visit his daughter Jennifer.

In 1975, Grant was named a director of MGM. In 1980, he served on the board of MGM Films and MGM Grand Hotels after the parent company split. He played an active role in promoting the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, which opened in 1973, and in promoting the city in the 1970s. He later joined the boards of Hollywood Park, the Academy of Magical Arts (The Magic Castle in Hollywood) and Western Airlines (acquired by American Delta Air Lines in 1987).

Personality, interests, friendships

Being one of the richest actors in Hollywood, Cary Grant owned homes in Beverly Hills, Malibu and Palm Springs. He paid great attention to personal hygiene. Costume designer Edith Head admitted that Grant always took care of the smallest details related to his appearance, which made her consider him the most fashionable actor she had a chance to work with. Douglas Fairbanks was an important influence on his style of dress. Graham McCann pointed out his "almost obsessive maintenance of a tan", which significantly aged his appearance. The author emphasized that Grant came from a working class background and did not have a good education, as a result of which he spent all his efforts during his career learning etiquette, manners and completing his knowledge in order to be on par with the upper class. His image was carefully refined from his early years in Hollywood, during which he tanned frequently and avoided being photographed while smoking cigarettes. He broke his tobacco habit in the early 1950s through hypnotherapy. Since then, he consistently maintained his health and physical shape. As he admitted: "I did everything in moderation, except making love".

On June 26, 1942, after a five-year wait, Grant became a naturalized citizen of the United States. On April 18, 1947, he received the King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom from King George VI Windsor for his actions on behalf of the British people during the war. On March 12, 1968, he was in a car accident on Long Island, resulting in three broken ribs, bruising, and a seventeen-day hospitalization. He was a baseball fan. He initially supported the New York Giants team and later the Los Angeles Dodgers. Grant archived artifacts from his daughter Jennifer's childhood and adolescence, keeping them in a high-quality, room-sized vault installed in his own home. Jennifer Grant attributed this meticulous collection to the fact that any artifacts from her father's childhood were destroyed in the bombing of Bristol by Luftwaffe forces during World War II (the hostilities claimed the lives of many of the actor's family members). In the spring of 1976, he underwent hernia surgery at the Santa Monica Clinic.

Grant enjoyed socializing with people from all walks of life. According to his daughter Jennifer, such artists as Barbara and Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck and his wife Veronique, Johnny Carson and his wife, Kirk Kerkorian, Merv Griffin and Quincy Jones often visited their house. His closest bond was with Frank Sinatra. Grant was Hitchcock's favorite actor, with whom he maintained cordial relations, and hosted in his mansion in Santa Cruz on ceremonial dinners, where the director served guests with wine from his private vineyard. From the 1960s he was a fan of the comic duo Morecambe and Wise; in 1963 he took his mother to see them perform at the Bristol Hippodrome. He also maintained a friendly relationship with Erik Morecambe until the artist's death in 1984.

For twelve years, Grant lived with his friend, actor Randolph Scott, which gave rise to media discussion of the relationship between the two (a homosexual relationship was suspected). Grant's sexual orientation was disputed by many biographers; some believed him to be homosexual. The actor's daughter, Jennifer, denied that her father was homosexual.

In the late 1950s, Grant briefly experimented with LSD. His third wife Betsy Drake expressed an interest in psychotherapy, and as a result, the actor's knowledge of psychoanalysis grew significantly. Over the course of several years, Grant had more than a hundred sessions with the help of radiologist Mortimer Hartman, which helped him deal with heavy childhood memories and complicated relationships. As he recalled, it made him "actually deeply and truly happy" and changed his attitude toward women. In later years, referring to this subject, he said: "Taking LSD was an utterly stupid thing to do, but I was a degraded bully, harboring every kind of stratagem, defensiveness, hypocrisy and vanity. I needed to get rid of them and clear my mind." The actor struggled with persistent insomnia throughout his life and suffered from depression in his late 30s.

Marriage and family

Cary Grant's first wife was Virginia Cherrill, whom he married on 9 February 1934 at Caxton Hall in London. She accused Grant of being an "obsessive perfectionist" and accused him of being overly controlling and jealous. Their divorce was widely reported in the local press, and Cherrill demanded in court $1,000 a week from the profits made by Grant from Paramount Pictures.

On July 8, 1942, he married Barbara Hutton, one of the richest women in the world thanks to inheriting an estate from his grandfather Frank Winfield Woolworth. The couple was derisively referred to as "Cash and Carry." Wanting to avoid any accusations, in the prenuptial agreement the actor signed a prenup so that no money would be due to him in the event of a divorce. During the last years of their marriage, they lived in the Bel Air neighborhood at 10615 Bellagio Road. They remained "tender friends" after their divorce on August 30, 1945.

On December 25, 1949, Grant married Betsy Drake, with whom he collaborated on two films (1952). It was the actor's longest marriage. Close friends of the actor emphasized that Drake was instrumental in Grant's transformation, helping him deal with his traumatic experiences.

On July 22, 1965, at the Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas, owned by friend Howard Hughes, whom he dated while still married to Drake. On February 26, 1966, Grant's only child was born - a daughter, Jennifer, whom he often jokingly referred to as his "best production." "We live to leave something behind. When I die, my movies won't last long. A person is something else. That's what's important," he recalled. To be able to devote himself fully to her upbringing and provide a sense of stability, he gave up his acting career and retired. On August 22, 1967, Cannon filed for divorce in a Los Angeles court, and the marriage was dissolved on March 21, 1968.

On April 11, 1981, at the age of 77, he married Barbara Harris, 47 years younger, a British public relations agent. The two had met five years earlier at the Royal Lancaster Hotel where Harris was working and he was attending a jewelry conference. They were friends at first and moved to California in 1979. Those close to the actor insisted that Harris was a "very positive influence on him," and Prince Rainier III Grimaldi of Monaco believed that he had "never been happier" than in his final years with her.

Romance

In the late 1960s, Grant had a brief affair with actress Cynthia Bouron. In 1970, the woman filed a paternity suit against Grant in court, publicly claiming that he was the father of her seven-week-old daughter. Bouron also listed the actor's name on the child's birth certificate. The news of Grant becoming a father made headlines in American newspapers. The actor denied being the father of Bouron's daughter. He also refused to pay alimony. The woman eventually decided not to take a blood test. By court decision, Grant's name was removed from the birth certificate of his daughter Bouron. Between 1973 and 1977, the actor met with British photojournalist Maureen Donaldson, and then with Victoria Morgan, who was much younger than himself.

Political views

Cary Grant has been an opponent of the acting community making its political views public. During his career he described himself as a liberal. In 1968 and 1972 he supported Richard Nixon, while in 1976 he voted for Gerald Ford. In 1976, at the invitation of first lady Betty Ford, he gave a speech at the Republican National Convention. In 1980 and 1984, he endorsed Ronald Reagan.

Over the course of his career, Grant has appeared in film, radio and on stage. He appeared in 72 feature films and also participated in radio plays, reprising his film roles, among others.

He was listed among the top ten highest-grossing actors in 1944, 1948-1949 and 1959-1966. Twelve films featuring him were compiled in the top ten summaries of the year in the American box-office. Twenty-eight productions in which Grant took part were nominated for at least one Academy Award, and eight of them won at least one statuette in each category. Thirty-nine films featuring the actor, when adjusted for inflation, surpassed the hundred million dollar mark in domestic ticket revenue.

Eight of his films: Lady Lou (1933), The Naked Truth (1937), Predatory Baby (1938), Gunga Din (1939), Heel Girl (1940), A Philadelphia Story (1940), Infamous (1946), and North, Northwest (1959) were entered into the National Film Registry.

According to director George Cukor, Grant "did not rely on his looks. He wasn't narcissistic; he acted as if he were an ordinary young man. And that made him even more attractive, that young man was funny; that was particularly unexpected and good because we all thought: 'well, if he's a Beau Brummell, he can't be funny or intelligent,' but he proved otherwise." Jennifer Grant claimed that her father did not rely on looks, nor was he a character actor, but was the opposite of the "man of principle" created on screen.

Grant was admired by both men and women; according to film critic Pauline Kael of The New Yorker, most men wanted to look like him and women dreamed of being able to date him. The author pointed out that Grant treated his female set mates differently than most actors of the time, seeing them as subjects with multiple qualities rather than sex objects.

According to David Shipman, Grant seemed to fulfill the requirement that every character he created, whether it was an uncle, best friend or lover, aspired to be more accessible to the audience. According to critics, Grant had the ability to turn a mediocre film into something good. Philip T. Hartung, reviewing Mr. Lucky (1943) on Commonweal, wrote that if "there had been no persuasive personality of Cary Grant's, the whole thing would have dissolved altogether." McCann acknowledged that Hollywood had "found the perfect gentleman with a democratic culture, a combination of tradition and modernity, wealth and virtue and strength, greatness and goodness." C.L.R. James saw Grant as "a new and very important symbol," a very different type of Englishman who differed from the gentlemen of Leslie Howard and Ronald Colman, representing "the freedom, natural grace, simplicity, and directness that characterize such disparate types as James Stewart and Ronald Reagan," symbolizing the growing relationship between Britain and America.

Graham McCann believed that Grant "played the roles of rich, privileged heroes who never seemed to need work to be able to maintain their charming and hedonistic lifestyles. He became a star whose characters were handsome, funny, athletic, winning women's hearts even if they didn't try." Martin Stirling, in his book Cary Grant: In Name Only (2001), pointed out Grant's wide acting range, which he said was far greater than any contemporary artist. Stirling also emphasized that Grant "was always at his physical and verbal best, in situations bordering on farce." Charles Champlin noted that he was "refreshingly capable of creating a hearty fool, a strange idiot, without the slightest fear of endangering his own masculinity. His ability to play against his image of the strong, handsome romantic hero, moreover, is probably unique among celebrities. No one even thinks of mocking his own dignity without losing it at all." Geoffrey Wansell acknowledged that Grant could "with the arch of an eyebrow or the hint of a smile challenge his own image," but he managed to handle "a mixture of irony and romance in a way that few contemporary stars have ever done." Stanley Donen, who worked with the actor on, among other films, Charade (1963), stated that his real "magic" came from his attention to detail and was the result of "an enormous amount of work." The actor himself claimed that the real Grant resembled more the neglected and unshaven fisherman of Father Virgil (1964) than the "well-stitched, charming" character in Charade. He was aloof about his career and the interest in him, saying: "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant - even I would like to be Cary Grant."

Alfred Hitchcock thought Grant was very convincing in playing darker roles, with a quality of mystery and danger. "Cary has a frightening side that no one can put even a finger into," he recalled. Geoffrey Wansell claimed that this darker side affected his personal life, which he tried to protect in order to preserve his image.

Cary Grant is considered one of the greatest actors in film history and an icon and legend of American cinema. Film critic David Thomson and directors Howard Hawks and Stanley Donen considered him "the greatest and most important actor." Alfred Hitchcock described Grant as "the only actor I ever loved in my life". Biographers Gary Morecambe and Martin Sterling admitted that he was "the greatest leading actor Hollywood has ever known". Graham McCann wrote: "No other man seemed so uncompromising and confident ... a quietly funny romantic ... he aged so well and with such style ... in short: he played so well. Cary Grant made men seem like a good idea." According to biographer Richard Schickel, there are "very few stars who can achieve the greatness of Cary Grant, a play of very high and subtle order." The author considers him the greatest actor of all time. Geoffrey Wansell wrote: "For millions of movie fans around the world, Cary Grant will forever embody the glamour and style of Hollywood in its golden age. With his dark hair and even darker eyes, his mischievous smile and innate elegance, he was and will always remain one of the great movie stars. Since his death in 1986, the heat of his screen image has never dimmed for a moment. David Thomson stressed that Grant's intelligence was evident on screen, adding: "No one else looked so good and so intelligent at the same time." According to Charles Higham and Roy Moseley, "no actor, except probably Clark Gable, could match Grant's romantic charm; he had few equals in the art of romantic comedy."

Grant's image was associated with advertising campaigns and products for such companies as Lorillard Tobacco Company (1937) and American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines (1957), among others. Throughout his thirty-year career, he was among the most profitable actors in the American box-office. He was also a character appearing or mentioned in Warner Bros. cartoons (1941, directed by Tex Avery), among others.

On July 16, 1951, he imprinted his hands and feet and placed his signature in the concrete slab of the sidewalk in the driveway of Grauman's Chinese Theatre at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard. On February 8, 1960, in recognition of his contributions to the film industry, Grant received a star on the Hollywood Avenue of the Stars, located at 1610 Vine Street. In 1980, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) held a retrospective of more than 40 films featuring him for two months. Two years later, at a ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Grant was named "man of the year" by the New York Friars Club. In 1984, the theater located at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios was renamed the Cary Grant Theatre.

The character created by John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda (1988, dir. Charles Crichton) is named Archie Leach, after Grant's real name.

In 1987, People magazine named Grant and Greta Garbo "the greatest movie stars". In 1995, based on a poll conducted by "Time Out" magazine with the participation of hundreds of directors, the actor was ranked second, just behind Marlon Brando. In the same year, the British magazine "Empire" ranked him 22nd in the list of "100 most beautiful stars in the history of film". In 1996 "Entertainment Weekly" ranked him 6th in the "100 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time". In October 1997, Grant was ranked #7 in the "100 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time" by the British magazine "Empire". In the American Film Institute's June 1999 ranking of the "greatest actors of all time", Grant was ranked #2, behind only Humphrey Bogart. In November 2005 "Premiere" published his name on the first place of the "50 greatest film stars of all time" ranking.

On December 7, 2001, a memorial was unveiled at Millennium Square in Bristol, the actor's birthplace. On October 15, 2002, the United States Postal Service issued a limited edition 33-cent stamp honoring the actor in conjunction with the Legends of Hollywood edition. The planetoid (9342) Carygrant was named after him.

In the course of his career, Cary Grant was twice nominated for an Academy Award and five times for a Golden Globe. In 1960 he won the Italian David di Donatello for his portrayal of Roger O. Thornhill in North, Northwest (1959). He also received one British BAFTA nomination for his role in Charade (1963). On April 7, 1970, he was honored with an Academy Award for lifetime achievement. On December 26, 1981, he received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for his artistic achievement.

Sources

1. Cary Grant
2. Cary Grant