Archibald Alec Leach
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Cary Grant, the second-greatest male star of Hollywood’s Golden Age per the American Film Institute’s 1999 list, retired from acting in 1966 after a career spanning classics like North by Northwest 1959 and Charade 1963. He died in 1986 at age 82 from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Cary Grant — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Cary Grant by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Cary Grant — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
At age nine, Cary Grant came home to find his mother had been institutionalized without explanation, a secret he uncovered only in his late twenties. He was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 in Horfield, Bristol, England, to Elsie Kingdom and Elias James Leach. He left school at 14, forging his father’s signature to join Bob Pender’s troupe of knockabout comedians, learning pantomime and acrobatics.
Cary Grant’s Hollywood breakthrough came in 1933 with Mae West’s She Done Him Wrong, where West cast him for his virility and gentlemanly bearing. He freelanced after his Paramount contract ended, a rare move that allowed him to choose roles such as Bringing Up Baby 1938, The Philadelphia Story 1940, and His Girl Friday 1940. In the 1950s he created a polished comedy style, improvising with Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief 1955. His biggest box-office success came with Hitchcock’s North by Northwest 1959. Grant gave his entire fee for The Philadelphia Story to the British war effort.
Grant married five times: Virginia Cherrill 1934–1935, Barbara Hutton 1942–1945, Betsy Drake 1949–1962, Dyan Cannon 1965–1968, and Barbara Harris 1981 until his death. He had one child, Jennifer Grant, born in 1966 when he was 62. He shared a house with actor Randolph Scott from 1932 to 1944, a subject of public fascination. He was romantically involved with Sophia Loren during The Pride and the Passion 1957, proposing to her after separating from Betsy Drake; she chose Carlo Ponti. He remained close to Barbara Hutton’s son Lance Reventlow after their divorce and was devastated by his 1972 plane crash.
In 1999, the American Film Institute named Grant the second-greatest male star of Golden Age Hollywood, behind only Humphrey Bogart. Ian Fleming partially modeled James Bond after him. Christopher Reeve based his Clark Kent on his early career performances. He turned down the role of Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady 1964 and Bond in Dr. No 1962. He received the Academy Honorary Award in 1970 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978. His estate was valued at $60 million at his death. He is most remembered for his comic timing and debonair screen presence in films like North by Northwest and Charade.
Browse the complete filmography of Cary Grant — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Cary Grant — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Cary Grant — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Have Spent the Greater Part of My Life Fluctuating Between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, Unsure of Each, Suspecting Each.
Everybody Wants to Be Cary Grant. Even I Want to Be Cary Grant.
My Screen Persona Is a Combination of Jack Buchanan, Noël Coward and Rex Harrison. I Pretended to Be Somebody I Wanted to Be, And, Finally, I Became That Person. or He Became Me.
I Improve on Misquotation.
Divorce Is a Game Played by Lawyers.
To Succeed with the Opposite Sex, Tell Her You Are Impotent; She Can’t Wait to Disprove It.
The Only Really Good Thing About Acting Is That There’s No Heavy Lifting.
My Formula for Living Is Quite Simple. I Get up in the Morning and I Go to Bed at Night. in Between, I Occupy Myself as Best I Can.
My Father Used to Say, Let Them See You and Not the Suit. That Should Be Secondary.
It Takes 500 Small Details to Add up to One Favorable Impression.
Actors Today Try to Avoid Comedy Because If You Write a Comedy That’s Not a Success, the Lack of Success Is Immediately Apparent Because the Audience Is Not Laughing. a Comedy Is a Big Risk. This Is a Tremendously Costly Business and to Put Money into a Picture That Might Not Come off Oh, That’s Pretty Risky.
This, I Love. I Enjoy Talking Back and Forth to People. You Know, Otherwise, I Wouldn’t Get to Meet the People.
I Tell You, in Films, One Doesn’t Really Meet the Audience. You Don’t Get the Impact or Spirit of Your Audience, Whereas When You Are Out in the Public, You Do.’
I’ve Often Been Accused by Critics of Being Myself on Screen. but Being Oneself Is More Difficult Than You’d Suppose.
It’s Important to Know Where You’ve Come from so That You Can Know Where You’re Going. I Probably Chose My Profession Because I Was Seeking Approval, Adulation, Admiration and Affection.
I Know They Nicknamed Us Cash and Cary, but I Never Asked Barbara Hutton for a Penny. I Never Married a Woman for Money, That’s the God’s Truth. I May Not Have Married for Very Sound Reasons, but Money Was the Least of Them.
Everyone Tells Me I’ve Had Such an Interesting Life, but Sometimes I Think It’s Been Nothing but Stomach Disturbances and Self Concern.
I Think Making Love Is the Best Form of Exercise.
I’d Like to Have Made One of Those Big Splashy Technicolor Musicals with Rita Hayworth.
There Are Only Seven Movie Stars in the World Whose Name Alone Will Induce American Bankers to Lend Money for Movie Productions, and the Only Woman on the List Is Ingrid Bergman.
I Can’t Portray Bing Crosby, I’m Cary Grant. I’m Myself in That Role. the Most Difficult Thing Is to Be Yourself Especially When You Know It’s Going to Be Seen Immediately by 300 Million People.
The Secret of Comedy Is Doing It Naturally Under the Most Difficult Circumstances. and Film Comedy Is the Most Difficult of All. at Least on Stage You Know Right Away If You’re Getting Laughs or Not. but Making a Movie, You Have No Way of Knowing. so You Try to Time the Thing for Space and Length and Can Only Hope When It Plays in the Movie Theaters Months Later That You Have Timed the Thing Right. It’s Difficult and It Takes Experience. I’ll Always Remember the Great Actor, A.E. Matthews, Who Said on His Death Bed, Dying’s Tough but Not as Tough as Comedy.
My Intention in Taking LSD Was to Make Myself Happy. a Man Would Be a Fool to Take Something That Didn’t Make Him Happy. I Took It with a Group of Men, One of Whom Was Aldous Huxley. We Deceived Ourselves by Calling It Therapy, but We Were Truly Interested in How This Chemical Could Help Humanity. I Found It a Very Enlightening Experience, but It’s Like Alcohol in One Respect: a Shot of Brandy Can Save Your Life, but a Bottle of Brandy Can Kill You.
If I Had Known Then What I Know Now, If I Had Not Been so Utterly Stupid, I Would Have Had 100 Children and I Would Have Built a Ranch to Keep Them On.
I Have No Rapport with the New Idols of the Screen, and That Includes Marlon Brando and His Style of Method Acting. It Certainly Includes Montgomery Clift and That God Awful James Dean. Some Producer Should Cast All Three of Them in the Same Movie and Let Them Duke It Out. When They’ve Finished Each Other Off, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and I Will Return and Start Making Real Movies Again Like We Used To.
When a Young Fellow Like Louis Jourdan Moves in on Your Field, You Take Stock of Your Assets and Liabilities. It Make You Nervous.
Hollywood Is Very Much Like a Streetcar. Once a New Star Is Made and Comes Aboard, an Old One Is Edged Out of the Rear Exit. There’s Room for Only so Many and No More.
Little-known facts about Cary Grant — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Grant gave serious consideration to retiring in 1953 due to the rise of Method acting, but was lured back for To Catch a Thief 1955 and delayed retirement until 1966.
Ian Fleming partially modeled the James Bond character after Grant.
After his divorce from Barbara Hutton, Grant remained close to her son Lance Reventlow, referring to him as his son, and was devastated when Lance died in a plane crash.
Unlike most stars, Grant decided to freelance after his Paramount contract expired, allowing him to work at any studio.
He maintained a year-round suntan to avoid wearing makeup.
One of his favorite poems was a risqué limerick about tin soldiers.
He donated his entire fee for The Philadelphia Story 1940 to the British war effort.
He donated his $100,000 salary for Arsenic and Old Lace 1944 to the U.S. War Relief Fund.
Grant said his character in Father Goose 1964 came closest to his real self.
He ran away from home at 13 to join a mime troupe; his father brought him back, but he ran away again and rejoined.
In 1968, a fan approached Michael Caine while walking with Grant, not recognizing Grant, who later commented on the fan’s lack of recognition.
Grant became a father at age 62 when his wife Dyan Cannon gave birth to Jennifer Grant on February 26, 1966.
Once he complained to hotel mogul Conrad Hilton about being served only 1.5 English muffins instead of two, leading the Plaza Hotel to change its policy.
Christopher Reeve based his portrayal of Clark Kent in the Superman films on Grant’s early career performances.
In 1948, Grant became seriously ill with infectious hepatitis and jaundice, given less than a 10% chance of survival due to years of heavy drinking; he took over six months to recover.
Unlike many stars, Grant never went bald and never needed a toupee; he dyed his hair black in the 1950s but let it go white after retirement.
He was largely self-educated, having dropped out of school at 14, but he was a voracious reader.
Grant turned down the role of James Bond in Dr. No 1962 because he felt too old at 58; the role went to Sean Connery.
He often spoke of his passionate romance with Sophia Loren, who was 31 years his junior.
In 1953, he held a press conference announcing his retirement due to anger over Hollywood’s treatment of Charlie Chaplin.
Grant cited To Catch a Thief co-star Grace Kelly as his favorite leading lady and wept at her state funeral in 1982.
He initially accepted his role in Houseboat 1958 because he was in love with Sophia Loren; after she married another, he wanted to back out but couldn’t.
Grant kept himself slender and fit, never weighing above 180 pounds.
He turned down the role of Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady 1964 because he feared being compared to Rex Harrison.
He initially ended his 1953 retirement just to make To Catch a Thief; its success led him to continue.
Grant was hurt by losing two Oscar nominations, especially for None But the Lonely Heart 1944, which he thought was his best performance.
He had only one incisor tooth, due to a childhood accident; he had a dental college gradually push his other teeth together to fill the gap.
From 1932 to 1944, Grant shared a house with actor Randolph Scott, with census records listing Scott as head and Grant as partner.
In His Girl Friday 1940, his character says Archie Leach said that, a reference to his real name.
Because of his acrobatic training, Grant performed most of his own stunts.
Grant was very close friends with Ingrid Bergman, supporting her during her affair with Rossellini and accepting her Best Actress Oscar in 1958.
According to his will, his body was cremated and no funeral held; his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
Douglas Fairbanks was his boyhood idol, inspiring Grant’s constant dark skin.
At a dinner at 10 Downing Street, Charlton Heston’s wife said she got to sit next to Grant, which Heston considered a big deal.
Grant hated his performance in Arsenic and Old Lace, calling it too over the top and his least favorite film.
The American Film Institute named Grant the #2 Greatest Actor on The Greatest Screen Legends list.
He fell madly in love with Sophia Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion 1957 when he was 53 and she was 22; both were married to others.
King George VI awarded Grant the King’s Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom on April 18, 1947.
Though financially well off, Grant was considered tight by servants: he charged fans for autographs, marked liquor levels, counted logs, and tracked food consumption, but paid well.
Grant replaced James Stewart in North by Northwest because Hitchcock thought Stewart looked too old after Vertigo, though Grant was four years older.
He always wore a gold chain with three charms: a St. Christopher, a cross, and a Star of David, representing his wives’ religions.
Grant strongly disliked Method acting and never played a villain.
He was a great fan of Elvis Presley and attended his Las Vegas shows.
Grant holds the record at Radio City Music Hall as its leading star with 27 films for 113 weeks.
His final Academy Awards appearance was in 1985 to present James Stewart with an honorary Oscar.
John Cleese’s character in A Fish Called Wanda 1988 was named Archie Leach after Grant’s real name.
Despite attempts by directors like Howard Hawks and Stanley Kubrick to bring him out of retirement, Grant never worked after 1966.
He became a director of Fabergé cosmetics in 1966.
Initially refused Charade 1963 but accepted after stipulating that Audrey Hepburn’s character chase his.
At his death, his estate was valued at $60 million.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Cary Grant.
Celebrities similar to Cary Grant — same craft, ranked by reach.
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