Name: Cary Grant

Birth Name: Archibald Alexander Leach

Birthdate: Jan. 18, 1904

Date of Death: Nov. 29, 1986

Birthplace: Horfield, Bristol, England

The very personification of the debonair and charismatic leading man, Grant spent the first 14 years of his life in England before joining Bob Pender's traveling comedy troupe where he learned acrobatics and pantomime. After a successful Broadway run with the troupe, he stayed in the States and continued with light stage comedies before heading to Hollywood in 1931. Renamed Cary Grant early in his career while under contract at Paramount, he was one of the first actors to shun studio contracts in favor of directing his own career. A true Hollywood screen legend, Grant is best known for his performances in screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and the Hitchcock classics Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959).


1. He hated his performance in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), calling it way too over the top and his least favorite film; Indiscreet (1958) was his personal favorite.
2. He spoke with the quintessential Mid-Atlantic accent.
3. He never played a villain.
4. To avoid wearing makeup, he maintained a year-round suntan, inspired by his boyhood idol Douglas Fairbanks.
5. Paramount Studios named him Cary Grant when he began his film career because the similarity of the name to Gary Cooper, their biggest male star (C.G. being an inversion of G.C.); another possibility was that Clark Gable had the same initials.


"I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me."
— Parade, 1985


Wife: Barbara Harris, married Apr. 11, 1981 until widowed
Wife: Dyan Cannon, married July 22, 1965, divorced Mar. 21, 1968
Wife: Betsy Drake, married Dec. 25, 1949, divorced Aug. 14, 1962
Wife: Barbara Hutton, married July 10, 1942, divorced Aug. 30, 1945
Wife: Virginia Cherrill, married Feb. 10, 1934, divorced Mar. 26, 1935
Daughter: (with Cannon) Jennifer Grant, born Feb. 26, 1966

1970: Honorary Academy Award

1964: Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actor (Musical/Comedy), Charade

1963: Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actor (Musical/Comedy), That Touch of Mink

1961: Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actor (Musical/Comedy), The Grass Is Greener

1960: Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actor (Musical/Comedy), Operation Petticoat

1959: Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actor (Musical/Comedy), Indiscreet

1945: Academy Award nomination: Best Actor, None But the Lonely Heart

1942: Academy Award nomination: Best Actor, Penny Serenade

 

FILMS

Cary Grant Box Set - (2005) - Actor
Leading Men Collector's Edition - (2001) - Actor
Cary Grant - Four Great Films - (1993) - Actor
Walk, Don't Run - (1966) - Actor
Father Goose - (1964) - Actor
Charade - (1963) - Actor
The Grass Is Greener - (1961) - Actor
North by Northwest - (1959) - Actor
Operation Petticoat - (1959) - Actor
That Touch of Mink - (1959) - Actor
Houseboat - (1958) - Actor
Indiscreet - (1958) - Actor
An Affair to Remember - (1957) - Actor
The Pride and the Passion - (1957) - Actor
Kiss Them for Me - (1957) - Actor
To Catch a Thief - (1955) - Actor
Monkey Business - (1952) - Actor
People Will Talk - (1951) - Actor
I Was a Male War Bride - (1949) - Actor
Every Girl Should Be Married - (1948) - Actor
Mister Blandings Builds His Dream House - (1948) - Actor
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer - (1947) - Actor
The Bishop's Wife - (1947) - Actor
Night and Day - (1946) - Actor
Notorious - (1946) - Actor
Arsenic and Old Lace - (1944) - Actor
None But the Lonely Heart - (1944) - Actor
Once Upon A Time - (1944) - Actor
Mister Lucky - (1943) - Actor
Destination Tokyo - (1943) - Actor
The Talk of the Town - (1942) - Actor
Once Upon a Honeymoon - (1941) - Actor
Penny Serenade - (1941) - Actor
Suspicion - (1941) - Actor
Hollywood Romance - Penny Serenade/Meet John Doe - (1941) - Actor
The Howards of Virginia - (1940) - Actor
My Favorite Wife - (1940) - Actor
The Philadelphia Story - (1940) - Actor
His Girl Friday/Cary Grant On Film - (1940) - Actor
His Girl Friday - (1940) - Actor
Gunga Din - (1939) - Actor
In Name Only - (1939) - Actor
Only Angels Have Wings - (1939) - Actor
Bringing Up Baby - (1938) - Actor
Holiday - (1938) - Actor
The Awful Truth - (1937) - Actor
The Toast of New York - (1937) - Actor
Topper - (1937) - Actor
The Amazing Adventure - (1936) - Actor
Sylvia Scarlett - (1936) - Actor
Suzy - (1936) - Actor
Born to Be Bad - (1934) - Actor
She Done Him Wrong - (1933) - Actor
I'm No Angel - (1933) - Actor
The Eagle and the Hawk - (1933) - Actor
Blonde Venus - (1932) - Actor
Hollywood Rhythm: The Paramount Musical Shorts 1929-1941, V. 4 - Rhapsodies in Black and Blue - (1930) - Actor