Once told by an interviewer, "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I." Cary Grant was born Archibald Alexander Leach in Horfield, Bristol, England, to Elsie Maria (Kingdon) and Elias James Leach, who worked in a factory. His early years in Bristol would have been an ordinary lower-middle-class childhood, except for one extraordinary event. At age nine, he came home from school one day and was told his mother had gone off to a seaside resort. The real truth, however, was that she had been placed in a mental institution, where she would remain for years, and he was never told about it (he wouldn't see his mother again until he was in his late 20s). He left school at fourteen, lying about his age and forging his father's signature on a letter to join Bob Pender's troupe of knockabout comedians. He learned pantomime as well as acrobatics as he toured with the Pender troupe in the English provinces, picked up a Cockney accent in the music halls in London, and then in July 1920, was one of the eight Pender boys selected to go to the US. Their show on Broadway, "Good Times," ran for 456 performances, giving Grant time to acclimatize. He would stay in America. Mae West wanted Grant for She Done Him Wrong (1933) because she saw his combination of virility, sexuality and the aura and bearing of a gentleman. Grant was young enough to begin the new career of fatherhood when he stopped making movies at age 62. One biographer said Grant was alienated by the new realism in the film industry. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he had invented a man-of-the-world persona and a style--"high comedy with polished words." In To Catch a Thief (1955), he and Grace Kelly were allowed to improvise some of the dialogue. They knew what the director, Alfred Hitchcock, wanted to do with a scene, they rehearsed it, put in some clever double entendres that got past the censors, and then the scene was filmed. His biggest box-office success was another Hitchcock 1950s film, North by Northwest (1959) made with Eva Marie Saint since Kelly was by that time Princess of Monaco.
Movie | Becoming Cary Grant | Self (archive footage) | 2017-05-23 |
Movie | Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn | Self (archive footage) | 2015-08-18 |
Movie | Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words | Self (archive footage) | 2015-08-27 |
Movie | Trumbo | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) | 2015-10-27 |
Movie | And the Oscar Goes To... | Self (archive footage) | 2014-02-01 |
Movie | Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen | (archive footage) | 2012-02-04 |
Movie | Metropolis Refound | Self (archive footage) | 2010-02-13 |
Movie | Smash His Camera | Self (archive footage) | 2010-07-30 |
Movie | North by Northwest: One for the Ages | Self (archive footage) | 2009-11-03 |
Movie | Hippies | Self (archive footage) | 2007-06-12 |
Movie | Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema | Self (archive footage) | 2007-05-23 |
Movie | Gravity | Himself (archive footage) | 2006-01-01 |
Movie | Cary Grant: A Class Apart | Self (archive footage) | 2004-06-01 |
Movie | Before the Fact: Suspicious Hitchcock | Self (archive footage) | 2004-09-07 |
Movie | Complicated Women | Self (archive footage) | 2003-05-06 |
Movie | Edith Head: The Paramount Years | (archive footage) | 2002-11-26 |
Movie | Destination Hitchcock: The Making of 'North by Northwest' | Self (archive footage) | 2000-09-10 |
Movie | Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood | Self (archive footage) | 1999-01-23 |
Movie | Frank Capra's American Dream | Self (archive footage) | 1997-01-01 |
Movie | The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender | Self (archive footage) | 1997-11-01 |
Movie | Ingrid Bergman Remembered | Self (archive footage) | 1996-04-06 |
Movie | Arizona Dream | Roger Thornhill (archive footage) (uncredited) | 1993-01-06 |
Movie | Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To | (archive footage) | 1990-06-04 |
Movie | Grace Kelly: The American Princess | Self (archive footage) | 1987-06-08 |
Movie | George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey | Self (archive sound) | 1985-03-03 |
Movie | Terror in the Aisles | John Robie (Archive Footage) | 1984-10-26 |
Movie | Notre Dame de la Croisette | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) | 1983-02-23 |
Movie | All-Star Party for Frank Sinatra | Self | 1983-12-11 |
Movie | Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid | (in "Suspicion") (archive footage) | 1982-05-21 |
Series | The Kennedy Center Honors | Unknown | 1978-12-28 |
Movie | It's Showtime | Self (archive footage) | 1976-03-31 |
Movie | That's Entertainment, Part II | (archive footage) | 1976-05-16 |
Movie | Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? | Self (archive footage) | 1975-08-06 |
Movie | That's Entertainment! | (archive footage) | 1974-06-21 |
Movie | The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks | Self (archive footage) | 1973-01-01 |
Movie | Elvis: That's the Way It Is | Self | 1970-11-11 |
Movie | Walk Don't Run | Sir William Rutland | 1966-06-29 |
Movie | Hollywood My Home Town | Self (archive footage) | 1965-12-31 |
Movie | The Big Parade of Comedy | Andre Charville (archive footage) | 1964-09-02 |
Movie | Father Goose | Walter Christopher Eckland | 1964-12-10 |
Movie | Hollywood Without Make-Up | Self (archive footage) | 1963-07-01 |
Movie | Charade | Peter Joshua | 1963-12-01 |
Movie | That Touch of Mink | Philip Shayne | 1962-06-14 |
Movie | The Grass Is Greener | Victor Rhyall | 1960-12-23 |
Movie | Operation Petticoat | Lieutenant Commander Matt Sherman | 1959-12-05 |
Movie | North by Northwest | Roger Thornhill | 1959-07-08 |
Movie | Indiscreet | Philip Adams | 1958-07-16 |
Movie | Houseboat | Tom Winters | 1958-11-19 |
Movie | An Affair to Remember | Nickie Ferrante | 1957-07-11 |
Movie | The Pride and the Passion | Anthony | 1957-07-10 |
Movie | Kiss Them for Me | Cmdr. Andrew " Andy" Crewson | 1957-12-10 |
Movie | To Catch a Thief | John Robie | 1955-08-03 |
Movie | Dream Wife | Clemson Reade | 1953-06-19 |
Movie | Room for One More | George "Poppy" Rose | 1952-01-10 |
Movie | Monkey Business | Barnaby Fulton | 1952-09-03 |
Movie | People Will Talk | Dr. Noah Praetorius | 1951-08-29 |
Movie | Crisis | Dr. Eugene Norland Ferguson | 1950-07-07 |
Movie | I Was a Male War Bride | Capt. Henri Rochard | 1949-08-26 |
Movie | Every Girl Should Be Married | Dr. Madison W. Brown | 1948-12-25 |
Movie | Blow-Ups of 1947 | Self | 1947-12-31 |
Movie | The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer | Richard Nugent | 1947-09-01 |
Movie | The Bishop's Wife | Dudley | 1947-12-25 |
Movie | Without Reservations | Cary Grant (uncredited) | 1946-05-13 |
Movie | Notorious | T.R. Devlin | 1946-08-21 |
Movie | George White's Scandals | Cary Grant (archive footage) (uncredited) | 1945-10-09 |
Movie | The Shining Future | Self | 1944-04-11 |
Movie | The Road to Victory | Cary Grant (uncredited) | 1944-05-18 |
Movie | None But the Lonely Heart | Ernie Mott | 1944-10-17 |
Movie | Once Upon a Time | Jerry Flynn | 1944-06-29 |
Movie | Arsenic and Old Lace | Mortimer Brewster | 1944-09-01 |
Movie | Mr. Lucky | Joe Adams | 1943-07-01 |
Movie | Destination Tokyo | Captain Cassidy | 1943-12-31 |
Movie | The Talk of the Town | Leopold Dilg | 1942-08-20 |
Movie | Once Upon a Honeymoon | Patrick O'Toole | 1942-11-27 |
Movie | Breakdowns of 1942 | Self | 1942-12-31 |
Movie | Penny Serenade | Roger Adams | 1941-04-24 |
Movie | Suspicion | John D. 'Johnnie' Aysgarth | 1941-11-14 |
Movie | My Favorite Wife | Nick Arden | 1940-05-17 |
Movie | The Howards of Virginia | Matt Howard | 1940-09-19 |
Movie | His Girl Friday | Walter Burns | 1940-01-18 |
Movie | A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound | Self | 1940-10-24 |
Movie | The Philadelphia Story | C.K. Dexter Haven | 1940-12-05 |
Movie | Only Angels Have Wings | Geoff Carter | 1939-05-15 |
Movie | Gunga Din | Archibald Cutter | 1939-01-26 |
Movie | In Name Only | Alec Walker | 1939-08-18 |
Movie | Holiday | Johnny Case | 1938-05-26 |
Movie | Topper Takes a Trip | George Kerby (archive footage) | 1938-12-29 |
Movie | When You're in Love | Jimmy Hudson | 1937-02-12 |
Movie | Topper | George Kerby | 1937-07-16 |
Movie | The Awful Truth | Jerry Warriner | 1937-10-21 |
Movie | The Toast of New York | Nick Boyd | 1937-07-22 |
Movie | Big Brown Eyes | Detective Sergeant Danny Barr | 1936-04-03 |
Movie | Suzy | Andre | 1936-07-20 |
Movie | Wedding Present | Charlie Mason | 1936-10-09 |
Movie | The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss | Ernest Bliss | 1936-07-28 |
Movie | Enter Madame | Gerald Fitzgerald | 1935-01-04 |
Movie | Wings in the Dark | Ken Gordon | 1935-02-01 |
Movie | Sylvia Scarlett | Jimmy Monkley | 1935-12-25 |
Movie | The Last Outpost | Michael Andrews | 1935-10-11 |
Movie | Pirate Party on Catalina Isle | Guest on Isle | 1935-11-20 |
Movie | Born to Be Bad | Malcolm Trevor | 1934-05-18 |
Movie | Thirty Day Princess | Porter Madison III | 1934-05-18 |
Movie | Kiss and Make-Up | Dr. Maurice Lamar | 1934-07-13 |
Movie | Ladies Should Listen | Julian De Lussac | 1934-08-10 |
Movie | She Done Him Wrong | Captain Cummings | 1933-02-09 |
Movie | The Eagle and the Hawk | Henry Crocker | 1933-05-06 |
Movie | The Woman Accused | Jeffrey Baxter | 1933-02-17 |
Movie | Gambling Ship | Ace Corbin | 1933-06-23 |
Movie | I'm No Angel | Jack Clayton | 1933-10-06 |
Movie | Singapore Sue | First Sailor | 1932-06-10 |
Movie | Sinners in the Sun | Ridgeway | 1932-05-13 |
Movie | This Is the Night | Stephen Mathewson | 1932-04-08 |
Movie | Merrily We Go to Hell | Charlie Baxter | 1932-06-10 |
Movie | Madame Butterfly | Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton | 1932-12-30 |
Movie | Hot Saturday | Romer Sheffield | 1932-10-28 |
Movie | Blonde Venus | Nick Townsend | 1932-09-23 |
Movie | Devil and the Deep | Lt. Jaeckel | 1932-08-12 |
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