Oscar Profile #226: Cary Grant

Born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England on January 18, 1904, the future Cary Grant grew up in a working class family. When he was nine he was told his mother had gone off to a seaside resort. In truth, she had been placed in a mental institution. His father remarried when he was ten and young Archie had to fend for himself. He left school at 14 and joined Bon Pender’s troupe of knockabout comedians where he learned pantomime as well as acrobatics. In July, 1920 he was one of eight Pender boys selected to America with the show “Good Times” which ran for 425 performances on Broadway. After the show ended, he stayed in America, appearing on Broadway mostly in musicals..

He went to Hollywood in 1931 whereupon he changed his name, choosing Cary Grant because the initials CG had already proven lucky for Gary Cooper and Clark Gable. His first leading role was opposite Marlene Dietrch in 1932’s Blonde Venus, quickly followed by Madame Butterfly opposite Sylvia Sidney and the megahits, She Done Him Wrong and I’m No Angel opposite Mae West. In mostly forgettable fare for the next few years, he nevertheless stood out in 1935’s Sylvia Scarlet opposite Katharine Hepburn and 1936’s Suzy opposite Jean Hawlow.

Grant became a star in his own right with two 1937 hits, Topper opposite Constance Bennett and The Awful Truth opposite Irene Dunne. After that it was one memorable film after another including 1938’s Holiday and Bringing Up Baby opposite Katharine Hepburn, 1939’s Gunga Din, Only Angels Have Wings opposite Jean Arthur and In Name Only opposite Carole Lombard. In 1940 he scored major hits opposite Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, Dunne in His Favorite Wife and Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.

The actor received his first Oscar nomination opposite Dunne in 1941’s Penny Serenade, but his bigger hit that year was his first Hitchcock film, Suspicion opposite Joan Fontaine. He would receive his second and final nomination for 1944’s None But the Lonely Heart opposite Ethel Barrymore.

Grant’s late 1940s output included such major works as Hitchcock’s Notorious opposite Ingrid Bergman, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House opposite Myrna Loy, The Bishop’s Wife opposite Loretta Young and I Was a Male War Bride opposite Ann Sheridan. He was still at his peak in the 1950s in such films as Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief opposite Grace Kelly, An Affair to Remember opposite Deborah Kerr, Indiscreet again opposite Bergman, Houseboat opposite Sophia Loren and Hitchcock’s North by Northwest opposite Eva Marie Saint.

He slowed down in the 1960s but was still able to conquer the box office with such fare as That Touch of Mink opposite Doris Day, Charade opposite Audrey Hepburn, Father Goose opposite Leslie Caron and Walk Don’t Run opposite Samantha Eggar, after which he retired at 62.

Grant, who was married five times, but had only one child with fourth wife Dyan Cannon when in his sixties, received an honorary Oscar at the 1969 awards ceremony. On the boards of many businesses in his later years, he traveled the country with a one-man show featuring clips from his films. It was while preparing for one such performance in Davenport, Iowa that he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died on November 29, 1986. He was 82.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937), directed by Leo McCarey

Grant’s persona was firmly established with his portrayal of the recently divorced husband trying to win back former wife Irene Dunne in this screwball comedy classic. The only problem was Grant wasn’t inventing a new persona per se, he was doing a perfect imitation of director Leo McCarey.

The film’s highlight may well be the scene in which Grant does hat tricks with the dog he and Dunne are fighting over, played by The Thin Man’s Asta. Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D’Arcy, Cecil Cunningham, Molly Lamont and Joyce Compton add to the merriment.

BRINGING UP BABY (1938), directed by Howard Hawks

It’s hard to believe but the two classic Katharine Hepburn-Cary Grant comedies of 1938, Holiday and Bringing Up Baby, were flops when first released. Although both stars are great in both films, I give the edge to Hepburn in Holiday and Grant in Baby.

The definitive screwball comedy, the laughs come fast and furiously in this peerless gem featuring Hepburn as a spoiled heiress and Grant as the befuddled paleontologist she sets her sights on, supported by the likes of May Robson, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Catlett and Barry Fitzgerald.

Two years later Hepburn and Grant were joined by James Stewart, Ruth Hussey and Roland Young in The Philadelphia Story which this time around was a hit from the outset.

NOTORIOUS (2011), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Grant had become so popular by the time he made his first Hitchcock film, 1941’s Suspicion that the ending had to be changed because no one would accept him as a murderer. This time out, he is a cold-hearted federal agent thawed by his love for spy Ingrid Bergman in Hitchcok’s most romantic film, which also happens to be one of his most suspenseful. Superbly supported by a sublime Claude Rains and a fearsome Leopoldine Konstantin, the two stars are the peak of their fame and ability. They would reteam twelve years later for the comic bon-bon, Indiscreet.

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957), directed by Leo McCarey

Grant and Deborah Kerr first teamed for the dreary 1953comedy, Dream Wife and would work together again in1960’s equally dreary The Grass Is Greener which did no favors for Jean Simmons or Robert Mitchum either. This time around, however, they got things perfectly right in McCarey’s remake of his own 1939 dramedy, Love Affair in the roles created by Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer.

Grant’s grandmother was played by 68 year-old Cathleen Nesbitt, who was only 15 years older than 53 year-old Grant. When the film was remade yet again as Love Affair in 1994, 87-year-old Katharine Hepburn, cast in Nesbitt’s role, refused to play 57-year-old Warren Beatty’s grandmother so the character was changed to that of his aunt.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Still suave and debonair at 55, audiences had no problem believing that 35-year-old Eva Marie Saint would fall madly in love with him in this smash hit Hitchcock classic which takes audiences on a thrill ride from the halls of the United Nations to the noses on Mount Rushmore.

James Mason, who got the lead opposite Judy Garland in the 1954 remake of A Star Is Born after Grant turned it down, costars as one of Hitchcock’s most intriguing villains.

Grant would play the mysterious hero in a thriller one more time opposite Audrey Hepburn in 1963’s Charade, causing one critic to remark that when Hepburn eventually played little old ladies on screen, Grant would still be charming the pants off audiences in leading roles. Alas, that was not to be as Grant retired three years later at 62 and Hepburn didn’t live long enough to play little old ladies, having died at 63 in 1993, just seven years after Grant died at 82.