Cary Grant

Cary Grant was born Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, England, on January 18, 1904. His father, Elias, worked in a garment factory providing a lower middle class way of life which Grant’s mother, Elsie, resented (Flatow, par. 4). Their miserable marriage, with Elise’s criticism and Elias’s excess drinking was the backdrop of Grant’s childhood. One thing they did have in common was a love of movies, which they shared with Grant. His mother would take him to see romantic movies and his father would take him to see westerns and thrillers (Flatow, par. 5).

Everything changed for Grant, when at the age of 9 he came home to find his mother gone. His father told him that she was resting at a resort but she never came back. It wasn’t until 20 years later that Grant would find out that his mother had actually been committed to a mental institution. At that point, he reconnected with her and continued the relationship the rest of her life.

At the age of 14, he began performing with a troupe of acrobats, where he learned tumbling, pantomime, and to use stilts (Beer, par. 4). The skills he learned at this time contributed to his talent for graceful physical comedy, which he utilized later in his movie career. Grant came with the troupe on a U.S. tour. When the tour was over, he decided to stay in the U.S.

He supported him self with jobs on Broadway and touring with Vaudeville acts. When he was 25, he had a screen test with Paramount. They told him his neck was too thick and he was too bowlegged (Flatow, par. 10). This, however, did not discourage him, and a few years later he was given another screen test at Paramount. This time they gave him a five-year contract.

At this point, Archie Leach became Cary Grant. He picked the name Cary as a nod to a character he had played. The name Grant was chosen from a list provided by the studio. It is rumored that the initials CG were a nod to Gary Cooper and Clark Gable.

Prior to his contact with Paramount, Grant had worked hard to lose his working class accent. He developed a distinctive way of speaking, “vaguely British and vaguely American but not quite either” (Flatow, par. 9). The result was a delightful tone that many tried to emulate but few could pull off.

No detail was too small for the studio to scrutinize: Grant was naturally left-handed but had to be right-handed for his movies, no leading man at that time was left-handed (Smith, par. 9). Grant’s transformation to leading man was complete after the part in his hair was changed from left to right also (Beer, par. 5).

Grant did many films during his contract with Paramount but with a few exceptions the movies were unremarkable. When his contract was up, he decided to continue his career as an independent actor. This was a savvy business move that was almost unprecedented at the time. Grant signed contracts with RKO and Columbia that allowed him to choose the projects that he wanted and to work with other studios if he desired (Flatow, par. 14).

Grant’s career really took off in 1937 when he made the movies Topper and The Awful Truth. The Grant persona, the sophisticated, elegant, charmer first appeared in The Awful Truth (Gehring, par. 7). That persona is what Grant was best at playing. He was once quoted as saying, “I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me” (qtd. in Flatow, par. 26).

Grant’s career could be separated into two parts. During the pre-war part of his career a lot of the movies he made were screwball comedies, like Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday. As the U.S. became involved in the war, audiences’ tastes shifted away from the zany plots that marked the screwball comedies (Beer, par. 8). Beginning in this period, the movies that Grant made had a very different tone. He made more thrillers, including four with Alfred Hitchcock. His comedies became romantic comedies, focusing on romance more then over-the-top storylines and physical comedy.

Grant retired at 62. His primary reason was so he could focus on raising his only child, Jennifer. He also began to feel that there was no place in Hollywood any longer for actors like him.

Grant’s personal life was chaotic. He was married three times. His first marriage only last 13 months. Before and after this marriage, he shared a house with actor, Randolph Scott. Rumors surrounded the nature of their relationship, with many people believing they were lovers.

His second marriage was to Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress. Many people believed that he had married her for her money, dubbing them Cash and Cary. This outraged Grant who refused to take any of her money (Flatow, par. 15).

During his third marriage, Grant had a passionate affair with Sophia Loren. Grant, reportedly, continued to pursue Loren even after she made it clear that she was in love with another man.

Grant’s fourth marriage, which produced his daughter, ended in a bitter and public divorce and custody battle.

At the age of 77, Grant entered into his fifth marriage with a woman 46 years younger then himself. This marriage seemed to be the most stable and happy relationship of his life. The couple was married only five years when Grant died of a stroke at the age of 82.

Works Cited and Consulted

Beer, Tom. “Cary Grant.” Biography. Jul. 2003. 104.

Flatow, Sheryl. “Archie Leach’s Greatest Role: Cary Grant.” Biography. Jan. 1999: 98.

Gehring, Wes D. “Bringing Up Cary.” USA Today Magazine. Mar. 2004: 69.

Gehring, Wes D. “The Wonderful ‘Truth.’” USA Today Magazine. May 2007: 71.

O’Connor, Dale. “Biography of Cary Grant.” imdb.com. May 23, 2011. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000026/bio.

Smith, Ian. “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” New Statesman. Jul. 2004: 38-40.