Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis in 1955
Born	Bernard Schwartz (1925-06-03)June 3, 1925 Bronx, New York
Died	September 29, 2010(2010-09-29) (aged 85) Henderson, Nevada
Cause of death	Cardiac arrest
Nationality	American
Education	The City College of New York
Alma mater	The New School
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1948–2010
Spouse	Janet Leigh (m.1951-1962; divorced) Christine Kaufmann (m.1963-1968; divorced) Leslie Allen (m.1968-1982; divorced) Lisa Deutsch (m.1993-1994; divorced) Jill Vandenberg (m.1998-2010; his death)
Children	6, including Kelly Curtis, Jamie Lee Curtis

Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama. In his later years, Curtis made numerous television appearances.

Although his early film roles were partly the result of his good looks, by the later half of the 1950s he became a notable and strong screen presence. He began proving himself to be a “fine dramatic actor,” having the range to act in numerous dramatic and comedy roles. In his earliest parts he acted in a string of "mediocre" films, including swashbucklers, westerns, light comedies, sports films, and a musical. However, by the time he starred in Houdini (1953) with his wife Janet Leigh, "his first clear success," notes critic David Thomson, his acting had progressed immensely.^[1][2]

He won his first serious recognition as a skilled dramatic actor in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with co-star Burt Lancaster. The following year he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in another drama, The Defiant Ones (1958). Curtis then gave what many believe was his best acting, in a completely different role, the comedy Some Like It Hot (1959). Thomson calls it an "outrageous film," and it was voted the number 1 funniest film in history from a survey done by the American Film Institute.^[3] It costarred Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, and was directed by Billy Wilder. That was followed by Blake Edwards’ comedy Operation Petticoat (1959) with Cary Grant. They were both “frantic comedies,” and displayed "his impeccable comic timing."^[4] He often collaborated with Edwards on later films.

His most significant serious part came in 1968 when he starred in the true-life drama The Boston Strangler, which some consider his "last major film role."^[4] The part reinforced his reputation as a serious actor with his "chilling portrayal" of serial killer Albert DeSalvo. He gained 30 pounds and had his face "rebuilt" with a false nose to look like the real DeSalvo.

Curtis was the father of actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis^[5] by his first wife, actress Janet Leigh.^[6]

Early life[link]

Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, one of three sons of Helen (Klein) and Emanuel Schwartz.^[7][8] His parents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants from Mátészalka, Hungary. Hungarian was Curtis' only language until he was five or six, postponing his schooling.^[9] His father was a tailor and the family lived in the back of the shop — the parents in one corner and Curtis and his brothers Julius and Robert in another. His mother once made an appearance as a participant on the television show You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx.^[10] Curtis said, "When I was a child, Mom beat me up and was very aggressive and antagonistic." His mother was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. His brother Robert was also institutionalized with the same mental illness.

When Curtis was eight, he and his brother Julius were placed in an orphanage for a month because their parents could not afford to feed them. Four years later, Julius was struck and killed by a truck. Curtis joined a neighborhood gang whose main crimes were playing hooky from school and minor pilfering at the local dime store. Aged 11, a friendly neighbor saved him from what he felt would have led to a life of delinquency by sending him to a Boy Scout camp where he was able to work off his energy and settle down. He attended Seward Park High School. At 16, he had his first small acting part in a school stage play.^[11]

Curtis enlisted in the United States Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor and war was declared. After being inspired by Cary Grant's role in Destination Tokyo and Tyrone Power in Crash Dive (1943), he joined the Pacific submarine force.^[9] Curtis served aboard a submarine tender, the USS Proteus until the end of the Second World War. On September 2, 1945, Curtis witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay from his ship's signal bridge about a mile away.^[12]

Following his discharge from US Navy, Curtis attended City College of New York as a result of the G.I. Bill. He then studied acting at the The New School in Greenwich Village under the influential German stage director Erwin Piscator. Fellow contemporaries included Elaine Stritch, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, and Rod Steiger. While still at college, Curtis was discovered by Joyce Selznick, the notable talent agent, casting director, and niece of film producer David O. Selznick. He later claimed it was because he "was the handsomest of the boys."

In 1948, Curtis arrived in Hollywood aged 23. When he was placed under contract at Universal Pictures, he changed his name from Bernard Schwartz to Tony Curtis. The first name was from the novel Anthony Adverse and "Kurtz" from a surname in his mother's family.^[13] Although Universal Pictures taught him fencing and riding, in keeping with the cinematic themes of the era, Curtis admitted he was at first only interested in girls and money. Neither was he hopeful of his chances of becoming a major star. Curtis biggest fear was having to return home to the Bronx as a failure:

I was a million-to-one shot, the least likely to succeed. I wasn't low man on the totem pole, I was under the totem pole, in a sewer, tied to a sack.^[11]

Career[link]

With wife Janet Leigh during a break in the filming of Houdini (1953)

Curtis's uncredited screen debut came in Criss Cross (1949) playing a rumba dancer. In his second film, City Across the River (also in 1949), he was credited as "Anthony Curtis".^[14] Later, as "Tony Curtis", he cemented his reputation with breakthrough performances such as in the role of the scheming press agent Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with Burt Lancaster (who also starred in Criss Cross) and an Oscar-nominated performance as a bigoted escaped convict chained to Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones.

He did both screen comedy and drama, and became one of the most sought after stars in Hollywood. Curtis' comedies include Some Like It Hot (1959, although voice actor Paul Frees read his and Jack Lemmon's "Daphne" and "Josephine" dialogues), Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and The Great Race (1965), and his dramas included playing the slave Antoninus in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) co-starring Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier,^[15] The Outsider (1961), the true story of WW II veteran Ira Hayes, and The Boston Strangler (1968), in which he played the self-confessed murderer of the film's title, Albert DeSalvo. The latter film was praised for Curtis' performance. He was also part of the all-star ensemble in Elia Kazan's 1976 drama The Last Tycoon. Curtis was nominated for a Golden Globe for Supporting actor for his performance in Spartacus (1960) alongside co star Kirk Douglas.

Curtis appeared frequently on television; he co-starred with Roger Moore in the TV series The Persuaders!. Later, he co-starred in McCoy and Vega$. In the early 1960s, he was immortalized as "Stony Curtis," a voice-over guest star on The Flintstones.

Throughout his life, Curtis enjoyed painting, and since the early 1980s, painted as a second career. His work commands more than $25,000 a canvas now. In the last years of his life, he concentrated on painting rather than movies. A surrealist, Curtis claimed "Van Gogh, [Paul] Matisse, Picasso, Magritte" as influences.^[9] "I still make movies but I'm not that interested in them any more. But I paint all the time." In 2007, his painting The Red Table was on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. His paintings can also be seen at the Tony Vanderploeg Gallery in Carmel, California.

Curtis spoke of his disappointment at never being awarded an Oscar. In March 2006, Curtis received the Sony Ericsson Empire Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) from France in 1995.

Personal life[link]

Marriages and children[link]

With his first wife, Janet Leigh

Curtis was married six times.^[16] His first wife was actress Janet Leigh, to whom he was married from 1951 to 1962, and with whom he fathered actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis. "For a while, we were Hollywood's golden couple," he said. "I was very dedicated and devoted to Janet, and on top of my trade, but in her eyes that goldenness started to wear off. I realized that whatever I was, I wasn't enough for Janet. That hurt me a lot and broke my heart."^[16][17]

The studio he was under contract with, Universal-International, generally stayed out of their stars' love lives. However, when they chose to get married, studio executives spent three days trying to talk him out of it, telling him he would be "poisoning himself at the box office." They threatened "banishment" back to the Bronx and the end of his budding career. In response, Curtis and Leigh decided to defy the studio heads and instead eloped and were married by a local judge in Greenwich Connecticut. Comedian and close friend Jerry Lewis came as a witness.^[11]

It was Leigh's third marriage. They divorced in 1962, and in 1963, Curtis married Christine Kaufmann, the 17-year old German co-star of his latest film, Taras Bulba. He stated that his marriage with Leigh had effectively ended "a year earlier".^[9] Curtis and Kaufmann had two daughters, Alexandra (born July 19, 1964) and Allegra (born July 11, 1966). They divorced in 1968. Kaufmann resumed her career, which she had interrupted during her marriage.

Curtis was also married to:

• Leslie Allen (April 20, 1968 – 1982); divorced, two sons: Nicholas Curtis (1970–1994) and Benjamin Curtis (born May 2, 1973)
• Lisa Deutsch (February 28, 1993 – 1994); divorced
• Jill Vandenberg Curtis (November 6, 1998 – September 29, 2010; his death)

His last wife was 42 years his junior. They met in a restaurant in 1993 and married in 1998. "The age gap doesn't bother us. We laugh a lot. My body is functioning and everything is good. She's the sexiest woman I've ever known. We don't think about time. I don't use Viagra either. There are 50 ways to please your lover."^[18]

His son Nicholas (December 31, 1970 — April 2, 1994,^[19] with Leslie Allen) died of a heroin overdose at the age of 23. On his son's death, Curtis remarked, "You never get over that. The death of a child. No. Can't talk about it,"^[20] and that it's "a terrible thing when a father loses his son."^[21]

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Curtis, who had a problem with alcoholism and drug abuse, went though the treatment center of the Betty Ford Clinic in the mid 1980s, which was successful for him.

Philanthropy[link]

Tony Curtis

Beginning in 1990, Curtis and his daughter Jamie Lee Curtis took a renewed interest in their family's Hungarian Jewish heritage, and helped finance the rebuilding of the "Great Synagogue" in Budapest, Hungary.(photo) The largest synagogue in Europe today, it was originally built in 1859 and suffered damage during World War II.^[22] In 1998, he also founded the Emanuel Foundation for Hungarian Culture, and served as honorary chairperson. The organization works for the restoration and preservation of synagogues and 1300 Jewish cemeteries in Hungary. He dedicated this to the 600,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust in Hungary and lands occupied by the Hungarian Army.^[23] He also helped promote Hungary's national image in commercials.^[24]

Curtis, during a signing of his 2008 memoir, American Prince

Books and appearances[link]

In 1994,^[25] a mural featuring his likeness, painted by the artist George Sportelli, was unveiled on the Sunset Boulevard overpass of the Hollywood Freeway Highway 101 in California. The mural was relocated to Hollywood Blvd and Bronson Ave in Sept 2011.

In 2004, he was inducted into the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Hall of Fame.^[26] A street is named after him in the Sun City Anthem development in Henderson, Nevada.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, he was featured in the documentary The Jill & Tony Curtis Story about his efforts with his wife to rescue horses from slaughterhouses.^[27]

In October 2008, Curtis's autobiography American Prince: A Memoir, was published.^[28] In it, he describes his encounters with other Hollywood legends of the time including Frank Sinatra and James Dean, as well as his hard-knock childhood and path to success. It was followed by the publication of his next book, The Making of Some Like it Hot: My Memories of Marilyn Monroe and the Classic American Movie (2009).^[29] Curtis shared his memories of the making of the movie, in particular about Marilyn Monroe, whose antics and attitude on the set made everyone miserable.

On May 22, 2009, Curtis apologized to the BBC radio audience after he used three profanities in a six-minute interview with BBC presenter William Crawley. The presenter also apologized to the audience for Curtis's "Hollywood realism". Curtis explained that he thought the interview was being taped, when it was in fact live.

Later years and death[link]

Curtis was a lifelong Democrat and attended the 1960 Democratic National Convention alongside such liberal performers as Edward G. Robinson, Shelley Winters, Ralph Bellamy, and Lee Marvin^[30].

In 1984 Curtis was rushed to hospital suffering from advanced cirrhosis as a result of his alcoholism and cocaine addiction. He then entered the Betty Ford Clinic and vowed to overcome his "various illnesses".^[31] He underwent heart bypass surgery in 1994.^[32]

Curtis nearly died when he contracted pneumonia in December 2006 and was in a coma for several days. As a result he used a wheelchair and could only walk short distances.^[33]

On July 8, 2010, Curtis, who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), was hospitalized in Las Vegas after suffering an asthma attack during a book signing engagement in Henderson, Nevada, where he lived.^[34]

Curtis died at his Henderson home on September 29, 2010, of a cardiac arrest.^{[35][36][37][38]} In a release to the Associated Press, his daughter, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, stated:

"My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages. He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world. He will be greatly missed."^[39]

He was interred at Palm Memorial Park Cemetery in Green Valley, Nevada on October 4, 2010.^[40][41] His memorial service was attended by his daughters, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rich Little, and Vera Goulet, Robert Goulet's widow.^[41] Investor Kirk Kerkorian, actor Kirk Douglas and singer Phyllis McGuire were among the honorary pallbearers.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Curtis, Tony; Barry Paris (1993). Tony Curtis: The Autobiography. New York: William Morrow & Company. ISBN 978-0-688-09759-2. 
• Ayres, Ian (2006). Van Gogh's Ear: The Celebrity Edition. Paris: French Connection. ISBN 978-2-914853-07-1.  The book includes Tony Curtis's prose, poetry, and artwork.
• Curtis, Tony; Peter Golenbock (2008). Tony Curtis: American Prince: My Autobiography. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-307-40849-5. 
• Curtis, Tony (2009). Some Like it Hot: My Memories of Marilyn Monroe and the Making of the Classic Movie. New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 240. ISBN 978-0-470-53721-3. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tony Curtis

United States Navy portal

• CBS news: Tony Curtis 1925-2010 video: 1.5 minutes
• Tony Curtis at the Internet Movie Database
• Tony Curtis at the TCM Movie Database
• Biography and naval service from the California Center for Military History website
• Tony Curtis' Famous Friends - slideshow by Life magazine
• 2009 interview with Dodd Vickers for the Magic Newswire
• 2007 interview by Nick Thomas in Nevada Magazine
• Tony Curtis and Nehemiah Persoff talk about Some Like it Hot
• John Patterson, "Some like it very hot", The Guardian, 18 April 2008
• Alison Jackson, Some tormented Hollywood souls still like their gossip hot, Profile: Tony Curtis, Sunday Times, 20 April 2008
• Documentary film, The Jill & Tony Curtis Story
• Photographs and literature
• Tony Curtis: Life and Times - slideshow by Life magazine
• The Telegraph obituary
• Interview by Michael Hainey for GQ Magazine

Cary Grant
Cary Grant in a 1941 publicity still
Born	Archibald Alexander Leach (1904-01-18)January 18, 1904 Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Died	November 29, 1986(1986-11-29) (aged 82) Davenport, Iowa, United States
Cause of death	Cerebral hemorrhage
Other names	Archie Leach
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1932–1966
Spouse	Virginia Cherrill (1934–1935) Barbara Hutton (1942–1945) Betsy Drake (1949–1962) Dyan Cannon (1965–1968) Barbara Harris (1981–1986)
Partner	Maureen Donaldson (1973–1977)[1]
Children	Jennifer Grant, born on (1966-02-26) February 26, 1966 (age 46)
Awards	Academy Honorary Award - 1970 For his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues. Kennedy Center Honors - 1981

Archibald Alexander Leach^[2] (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English-American actor.^[3] Known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor and "dashing good looks", Grant is considered one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men.

Grant was named the second Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. Noted particularly for his work in comedy but also for drama, Grant's best-known films include The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Gunga Din (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), His Girl Friday (1940), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Notorious (1946), To Catch A Thief (1955), An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959) and Charade (1963).

Nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Penny Serenade (1941) and None But the Lonely Heart (1944), and five times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, Grant was continually passed over, and in 1970 was given an Honorary Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards. Frank Sinatra presented Grant with the award, "for his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues".^[4][5]

Early life and career[link]

Archibald Alexander Leach was born at 15 Hughenden Road, Horfield, Bristol, England, to Elsie Maria Kingdon (1877–1973) and Elias James Leach (1873–1935).^[6][7] An only child, Leach had an unhappy upbringing, attending Bishop Road Primary School. His mother had suffered from clinical depression since the death of a previous child. Her husband placed her in a mental institution, and told his nine-year-old son only that she had gone away on a "long holiday". Believing she was dead, Grant did not learn otherwise until he was 31 and discovered her alive in a care facility.^[8] When Grant was 10, his father abandoned him after remarrying and having a baby with his new young wife.^[9]

Grant was expelled from the Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol in 1918. After joining the "Bob Pender Stage Troupe", Leach performed as a stilt walker and travelled with the group to the United States in 1920 at the age of 16, on a two-year tour of the country. He was processed at Ellis Island on July 28, 1920.^[10]

When the troupe returned to the UK, he decided to stay in the U.S. and continue his stage career. During this time, he became a part of the vaudeville world and toured with Parker, Rand and Leach. Still using his birth name, he performed on the stage at The Muny in St. Louis, Missouri in such shows as Irene (1931); Music in May (1931); Nina Rosa (1931); Rio Rita (1931); Street Singer (1931); The Three Musketeers (1931); and Wonderful Night (1931). Leach's experience on stage as a stilt walker, acrobat, juggler, and mime taught him "phenomenal physical grace and exquisite comic timing" and the value of teamwork, skills which would benefit him in Hollywood.^[8]

Hollywood stardom[link]

After appearing in several musicals on Broadway under the name "Archie Leach,"^[11] Grant went to Hollywood in 1931.^[8] When told to change his name, he proposed "Cary Lockwood," the name of the character he had played in the Broadway show Nikki, based upon the recent film The Last Flight. He signed with Paramount Pictures, where studio bosses decided that the name "Cary" was acceptable, but that "Lockwood" was too similar to another actor's surname. Paramount gave their new actor a list of surnames to choose from, and he selected "Grant" because the initials C and G had already proved lucky for Clark Gable and Gary Cooper, two of Hollywood's biggest movie stars.

Grant appeared as a leading man opposite Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus (1932), and his stardom was given a further boost by Mae West when she chose him for her leading man in two of her most successful films, She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel (both 1933).^[12] I'm No Angel was a tremendous financial success and, along with She Done Him Wrong, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, saved Paramount from bankruptcy. Paramount put Grant in a series of unsuccessful films until 1936, when he signed with Columbia Pictures. His first major comedy hit was when he was loaned to Hal Roach's studio for the 1937 Topper (which was distributed by MGM).

in The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Awful Truth (1937) was a pivotal film in Grant's career, establishing for him a screen persona as a sophisticated light comedy leading man. As Grant later wrote, "I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point." Grant is said to have based his characterization in The Awful Truth on the mannerisms and intonations of the film's director, Leo McCarey, whom he resembled physically. As writer/director Peter Bogdanovich notes, "After The Awful Truth, when it came to light comedy, there was Cary Grant and then everyone else was an also-ran."

With Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946)

The Awful Truth began "what would be the most spectacular run ever for an actor in American pictures."^[8] During the next four years, Grant appeared in several classic romantic comedies and screwball comedies, including Holiday (1938), Bringing Up Baby (1939), and The Philadelphia Story (1940) with Katharine Hepburn; His Girl Friday(1940) with Rosalind Russell; and My Favorite Wife (1940), which reunited him with Irene Dunne, his co-star in The Awful Truth. During this time he also made the adventure films Gunga Din and Only Angels Have Wings (both 1939) and dramas Penny Serenade (1941, also with Dunne) and Suspicion (1941, the first of Grant's four collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock).

Grant remained one of Hollywood's top box-office attractions for almost 30 years.^[8] Howard Hawks said that Grant was "so far the best that there isn't anybody to be compared to him".^[13] David Thomson called him "the best and most important actor in the history of the cinema".^[8]

as John Robie in Alfred Hitchcock's
To Catch a Thief (1955)

Grant was a favorite of Hitchcock, who called him "the only actor I ever loved in my whole life".^[14] Besides Suspicion, Grant appeared in the Hitchcock classics Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959). Biographer Patrick McGilligan wrote that, in 1965, Hitchcock asked Grant to star in Torn Curtain (1966), only to learn that Grant had decided to retire after making one more film, Walk, Don't Run (1966); Paul Newman was cast instead, opposite Julie Andrews.^[15]

In the mid-1950s, Grant formed his own production company, Granart Productions, and produced a number of movies distributed by Universal, such as Operation Petticoat (1959), Indiscreet (1958), That Touch of Mink (co-starring with Doris Day, 1962), and Father Goose (1964). In 1963, he appeared opposite Audrey Hepburn in Charade. His last feature film was Walk, Don't Run three years later, with Samantha Eggar and Jim Hutton.

In Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959)

Grant was the first actor to "go independent" by not renewing his studio contract, effectively leaving the studio system,^[8] which almost completely controlled what an actor could or could not do. In this way, Grant was able to control every aspect of his career, at the risk of not working because no particular studio had an interest in his career long term. He decided which movies he was going to appear in, he often had personal choice of the directors and his co-stars and at times even negotiated a share of the gross revenue, something uncommon at the time. Grant received more than $700,000 for his 10% of the gross for To Catch a Thief, while Hitchcock received less than $50,000 for directing and producing it.^[16]

Grant was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Penny Serenade (1941) and None But the Lonely Heart (1944), but never won a competitive Oscar; he received a special Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1970. Accepting the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1965, Father Goose co-writer Peter Stone had quipped, "My thanks to Cary Grant, who keeps winning these things for other people." In 1981, Grant was accorded the Kennedy Center Honors.

Never self-absorbed, Grant poked fun at himself with statements such as, "Everyone wants to be Cary Grant—even I want to be Cary Grant,"^[17] sometimes elaborating, "I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point." He poked fun at himself in ad-lib lines - such as in the film "His Girl Friday", saying, "I never had so much fun since Archie Leach died" and in "Arsenic and Old Lace" a gravestone is seen bearing the name Archie Leach. According to an extremely famous story now believed to be apocryphal, after seeing a telegram from a magazine editor to his agent asking "How old Cary Grant?" Grant reportedly responded with "Old Cary Grant fine. How you?"^[18][19]

Retirement and death[link]

Statue of Cary Grant in Millennium Square, Bristol, England

Cary Grant retired from the screen at 62 when his daughter Jennifer was born, in order to focus on raising her and to provide a sense of permanency and stability in her life. While raising his daughter, he archived artifacts of her childhood and adolescence in a (bank quality) room sized vault he had installed in the house. His daughter attributed this meticulous collection to the fact that artifacts of his own childhood had been destroyed during the bombing of Bristol in World War II (an event that also claimed the lives of his uncle, aunt and cousin as well as the cousin's husband and grandson) and he may have wanted to prevent her from experiencing a similar loss.^[20]

Although Grant had retired from the screen, he remained active in other areas. In the late 1960s, he accepted a position on the board of directors at Fabergé. By all accounts this position was not honorary, as some had assumed; Grant regularly attended meetings and his mere appearance at a product launch would almost certainly guarantee its success. The position also permitted use of a private plane, which Grant could use to fly to see his daughter wherever her mother, Dyan Cannon, was working. He later joined the boards of Hollywood Park^{[disambiguation needed ]}, The Academy of Magical Arts (The Magic Castle, Hollywood, CA) Western Airlines (now Delta Air Lines), and MGM.^[21]

In the last few years of his life, Grant undertook tours of the United States in a one-man show, A Conversation with Cary Grant, in which he would show clips from his films and answer audience questions. Grant was preparing for a performance at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Iowa on the afternoon of November 29, 1986 when he sustained a cerebral hemorrhage (he had previously suffered a stroke in October 1984). He died at 11:22 pm^[21] in St. Luke's Hospital at the age of 82. The bulk of his estate, worth millions of dollars, went to his fifth wife Barbara Harris and his daughter Jennifer Grant.^[22]

In 2001 a statue of Grant was erected in Millennium Square, a regenerated area next to the harbour in his city of birth, Bristol, England.

In November 2005, Grant came in first in the "The 50 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time" list by Premiere Magazine.^[23] Richard Schickel, the film critic, said about Grant: "He's the best star actor there ever was in the movies."^[24]

Personal life[link]

Second wife Barbara Hutton

Grant was married five times. He wed Virginia Cherrill on February 10, 1934. She divorced him on March 26, 1935, following charges that Grant had hit her. In 1942 he married Barbara Hutton, one of the wealthiest women in the world, and became a father figure to her son, Lance Reventlow. The couple was derisively nicknamed "Cash and Cary", although in an extensive prenuptial agreement Grant refused any financial settlement in the event of a divorce.^{[citation needed]} After divorcing in 1945, they remained lifelong friends. Grant always bristled at the accusation that he married for money: "I may not have married for very sound reasons, but money was never one of them."^{[citation needed]}

Wife Betsy Drake in trailer of her film with Grant, Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)

On December 25, 1949, Grant married Betsy Drake. He appeared with her in two films. This would prove to be his longest marriage, ending on August 14, 1962. Drake introduced Grant to LSD, and in the early 1960s he related how treatment with the hallucinogenic drug — legal at the time — at a prestigious California clinic had finally brought him inner peace after yoga, hypnotism and mysticism had proved ineffective.^[25][26][27] Grant and Drake divorced in 1962.

He eloped with Dyan Cannon on July 22, 1965, in Las Vegas. Their daughter, Jennifer Grant, was born prematurely on February 26, 1966. He frequently called her his "best production" and regretted that he had not had children sooner. The marriage was troubled from the beginning, and Cannon left him in December 1966, claiming that Grant flew into frequent rages and spanked her when she "disobeyed" him. The divorce, finalized in 1968, was bitter and public, and custody fights over their daughter went on for nearly ten years.

On April 11, 1981, Grant married long-time companion Barbara Harris, a British hotel public relations agent, who was 47 years his junior. They renewed their vows on their fifth wedding anniversary. (Fifteen years after Grant's death, Harris married former Kansas Jayhawks All-American quarterback David Jaynes in 2001.)^[28]

Some, including Hedda Hopper^[29] and screenwriter Arthur Laurents, have said that Grant was bisexual, the latter writing that Grant "told me he threw pebbles at my window one night but was luckless".^[30] Grant allegedly was involved with costume designer Orry-Kelly when he first moved to Manhattan,^[31] and lived with actor Randolph Scott off and on for twelve years. Richard Blackwell wrote that Grant and Scott were "deeply, madly in love",^[32] and alleged eyewitness accounts of their physical affection have been published.^[31] Alexander D'Arcy, who appeared with Grant in The Awful Truth, said he knew that Grant and Scott "lived together as a gay couple", adding: "I think Cary knew that people were saying things about him. I don't think he tried to hide it."^[31] The two men frequently accompanied each other to parties and premieres and were unconcerned when photographs of them cozily preparing dinner together at home were published in fan magazines.^[31]

Barbara, Grant's widow, has disputed that there was a relationship with Scott.^[21] When Chevy Chase joked about Grant being gay in a television interview Grant sued him for slander; they settled out of court.^[33] However, Grant did admit in an interview that his first two wives had accused him of being homosexual.^[33] Betsy Drake commented: "Why would I believe that Cary was homosexual when we were busy fucking?"^[21]

Politics[link]

Cary Grant

Grant did not think movie stars should publicly make political declarations.^[34] Grant described his politics and his reticence about them this way:

"I'm opposed to actors taking sides in public and spouting spontaneously about love, religion, or politics. We aren't experts on these subjects. Personally I'm a mass of inconsistencies when it comes to politics. My opinions are constantly changing. That's why I don't ever take a public stand on issues."^[35]

Throughout his life, Grant maintained personal friendships with colleagues of varying political stripes, and his few political activities seemed to be shaped by personal friendships. Repulsed by the human costs to many in Hollywood, Grant publicly condemned McCarthyism in 1953, and when his friend Charlie Chaplin was blacklisted, Grant insisted that the actor's artistic value outweighed political concerns.^[35] Grant was also a friend of the Kennedy brothers and Robert Kennedy's press secretary Frank Mankiewicz. He hosted one of Robert Kennedy's first political fundraisers at his home. He made one of his rare statements on public issues following the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, calling for gun control.^[35]

In 1976, after his retirement from movies, Grant made his one overtly partisan appearance, introducing his friend Betty Ford, the First Lady, at the Republican National Convention,^[34] but even in this he maintained some distance from partisanship, speaking of "your" party, rather than "ours" in his remarks.^[35]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

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Bibliography of cited references[link]

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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Cary Grant

• Media related to Cary Grant at Wikimedia Commons
• Cary Grant at the Internet Movie Database
• Cary Grant at AllRovi
• Cary Grant at the TCM Movie Database
• Cary Grant at the Internet Broadway Database
• Becoming Cary Grant (in Atlantic Magazine)
• Cary Grant's christening record, and his appearance in the 1911 England/Wales Census, 1920 US immigration, and Social Security Death index in 1986