Before delving into Cary Grant’s relationships and personal life, it is essential to acknowledge his unique influence on the Golden Age of Hollywood. Grant’s affable charm, impeccable comedic timing, and undeniable talent have made him a legend of the silver screen. With directors like Alfred Hitchcock singing his praises and colleagues like Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn admiring his professionalism, Grant’s star in Tinseltown was shining brightly.
Despite his on-screen charisma, Grant’s personal life was marked by turmoil and uncertainty, stemming from a difficult childhood marked by parental abandonment and mental illness. His journey from a humble upbringing in Bristol, England to the glitz and glamor of Hollywood was fraught with emotional scars that haunted him throughout his life.
Cary Grant is one of the biggest names of Hollywood’s golden age. The handsome actor is considered one of the most attractive classic movie actors – but his looks weren’t the only thing he had to offer.
Grant was a funny and charming man who was able to transfer these gifts to the screen, resulting in an irresistible actor. The great director Alfred Hitchcock called Grant his favorite actor and he was also very popular among his female colleagues.
But in his private life, his relationships with women never worked. He blamed it on his mother, but rumors suggested that something else was the reason…
Grant was the envy of celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, and Bob Hope.
“Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Hell, I want to be Cary Grant,” the actor said of himself, according to The Sunday Post.
Cary Grant had an admirable wit, he was the kind of person who could get the question “How old is Cary Grant?” and reply, “Old Cary Grant all right. How are you?”
Although elegant and sophisticated, Grant was a desperately insecure man. The actor was married 5 times and “ruined his marriages and numerous love affairs to make up for his unhappy childhood,” according to the documentary Becoming Cary Grant.
Turbulent childhood
Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach in Bristol, England, on January 18, 1904. His family was poor, his father had a drinking problem and his mother lived with mental illness.
When he was 11 years old, his mother disappeared.
“One day I came home from school and she was gone. My cousins told me she had gone to a seaside resort. I thought it was strange. It seemed quite unusual, but I accepted that it was one of those things that adults do, ” he said. actor according to the Daily Mail.
Secret Mom
Later, his father started a new family with another woman and told Grant that his mother had died. Twenty years later, Grant found out that his mother was alive. The truth was that his father had committed her to an asylum in Bristol.
“It gradually dawned on me that she wasn’t coming back. She left a void in my life, a sadness of spirit that affected everything I did. I always felt rejected by my mother,” Grant admitted.
He experienced a deep sadness for his mother that never went away.
A poor boy became a Hollywood star
At a young age, Archibald Alec Leach became attracted to acting. When he was 16, he toured the US with the Pender Troupe.
He moved to Hollywood and began acting in dramas and crime films, later becoming famous for his participation in romantic comedies such as The Awful Truth (1937) or Bringing Up Baby (1938), in which he starred with another big name, actress Katharine Hepburn.
Grant’s female colleagues were especially happy to work with him.
“I had a great affection for him because I knew he understood me. It was an unspoken friendship, which was amazing.”
When he saw you, he threw his arms wide, hugged you, smiled, and let you know how he felt about you,” said Audrey Hepburn, his co-star in the movie Charade.
Grant created a new style for interacting with actresses, letting them flourish on screen and making them visible.
Deborah Kerr, Grant’s co-star in Dream Wife, An Affair to Remember, and The Grass is Greener, said of him: “His elegance, his wit, his true professionalism was outstanding and I learned so much just by watching him work.
As a person, in addition to his talent, he was warm and welcoming and a joy to have as a friend. He lived simply and was not extremely social – a very private person. He was also a shrewd and shrewd businessman; in fact, his talent had no end. I treasure my memories of him.”
Some of the most important roles played by Cary Grant were in some Alfred Hitchcock films. The director found in Grant a talented actor that he wanted for some of his best films like To Catch and
Thief (1955), Suspicion (19419 and North by Northwest (1959).
During his career, Grant received four Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor and was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor, but only received an honorary Academy Award.
5 marriages and 4 divorces
While the actor left behind a tumultuous childhood in England, his family life in the US was not easy either. Grant was married five times and divorced four times.
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He tied the knot for the first time in 1934 with actress Virginia Cherrill. The couple divorced a year later, and Virginia demanded $1,000 a week in benefits from money Grant earned during her time at Paramount, according to The Fashion Ball.
In 1942, Grant remarried. This time to Barbara Hutton, who was then one of the richest women in the world. Not wanting to be accused of marrying her for her money, Grant chose not to enter into any financial prenuptial agreement. The marriage lasted two years.
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Grant worked with actress Betsy Drake in two films and the pair fell in love. The actor married her in 1949 and hoped that this third marriage would be his last and happy one.
It wasn’t the last, but it was the longest.
Grant and Drake were together for 12 years.
But Grant wasn’t ready to give up on marriage. In 1965, the actor married Dyan Cannon, a woman 33 years his junior.
They weren’t married for long, two years, but the couple had a daughter, Jennifer, Grand’s only child. Jennifer was born in 1966 when the actor was 62 years old.
Grant did not end his marriage after his fourth divorce. The actor tied the knot for the fifth time with Barbara Harris, an actress 47 years younger than him. Harris became his widow when the actor died aged 82 in 1986.
But his relationships with women never ended well and the actor admits that it was difficult for him to get attached to women.
“I was surrounded by all kinds of attractive girls. I was never able to form an attachment.
If I had paid more attention, maybe I would have found satisfaction in marriage,” writes the Daily Mail.
Women, he stripped them of exposure
Women He’s Undressed, a documentary about Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly, tells the story of the relationship between the designer and Grant, even though “the actor denied his true self due to fears of being part of the homophobic film industry”.
“There was such pressure to conform to what was considered an ordinary, normal life,” says the film’s director, Gillian Armstrong.
Kelly was a tailor from Australia and met Cary Grant when he came to New York in the 1920s. They became roommates, but according to the documentary, they were more than just roommates — they were lovers.
Kelly later moved to Hollywood with Grant and began a career in the fashion industry, dressing actresses such as Kay Francis, Dolores del Río, and Katherine Hepburn.
Kelly was behind some of the most famous creations worn by Hollywood stars in iconic Hollywood films, such as Ingrid Bergman’s noir in Casablanca (1942) and Marilyn Monroe’s nude dress worn by the actress in Some Like it Hot (1959). according to Out.com.
Gillian Armstrong, director of Women He’s Undressed, told Out:
I could not believe that this man’s extraordinary work had been overlooked. (…) He had such a huge talent and I became interested in what allowed him to succeed at that particular time in Hollywood.
Orry-Kelly won three Oscars for Best Costumes.
Referring to Kelly’s s*xuality, Armstrong said:
“Orry refused to hide his s*xuality with a sham marriage. He had such a great sense of personal integrity and we wanted to capture that sense of bravery in the film.”
That was not the direction Cary Grant took. The actor has never talked about any relationship with men.
Lived with actor Randolph Scott for 12 years
Cary Grant and actor Randolph Scott first met in 1932, on the set of Paramount’s Hot Saturday, and soon moved in together.
Officially, they were roommates, but soon the media reported that the two handsome actors were in a relationship.
The couple lived together, on and off, for almost 12 years during the 1930s in a Santa Monica beach house and a mansion in Los Angeles.
Rumors continued and they strategically planned to appear in a fan magazine as bachelors sharing a home because Paramount Studios was unwilling to allow Cary Grant to come out as openly gay.
Despite the rumors, there are sources who claim that the images were just an advertising campaign. Referring to Grant’s homos*xuality or bis*xuality, his ex-wife Dyan Cannon also denied that her ex-husband was gay.
In her Good Stuff memoir, Grand’s daughter Jennifer says the rumors were unfounded. “I can’t blame men for wanting him (…) And I wouldn’t be surprised if Dad even slightly flirted back. (…) Dad kind of enjoyed being called gay. He said it made women prove, that this claim is wrong,” Jennifer wrote.
But Jennifer leaves open the possibility that her father was not exclusively heteros*xual:
“Did Dad ever experiment s*xually? I don’t know. Have I ever experimented s*xually?”
do you have If experimentation makes one gay, then my guess is that most of the world is gay.”
In conclusion, Cary Grant’s life was as complex and interesting as the characters he portrayed on screen. Despite his undeniable charm and talent, Grant struggled with personal demons rooted in a tumultuous childhood and a desire for satisfaction that eluded him in relationships. While his professional achievements cemented his status as a Hollywood icon, his private struggles with insecurity and failed marriages painted a different picture. Rumors and speculation surrounded his love life, including his relationships with women and hints of his liaisons with men such as Randolph Scott and Orry-Kelly. Yet, amid the gossip and scrutiny, Grant’s legacy endures as a testament to his enduring charisma, wit, and undeniable screen presence.