ACTOR
Cary Grant
142 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (142)
- #001
Ian Fleming partly modeled the character James Bond on Cary Grant.
- #002
After his divorce, Cary Grant remained close to Barbara Hutton's son, Lance Reventlow, who regularly stayed with Grant on some weekends. Grant referred to him as his son, was devastated when Reventlow died in a plane crash, and helped Barbara with the funeral arrangements.
- #003
In 1953 Grant seriously considered retiring, believing that the success of Marlon Brando and Method acting meant his own style of acting was a thing of the past. Eighteen months later he was persuaded to make To Catch a Thief (1955), and he therefore postponed his retirement until 1966.
- #004
Although Grant was a contract player for Paramount Pictures early in his film career, when the contract ended he made a decision unusual for the time: he chose to work as a freelancer. Because his films were so successful at the box office, he was able to work at any studio he chose for most of his career.
- #005
Cary Grant maintained a tan year-round in order to avoid wearing makeup.
- #006
One of his favorite poems was a bit of nonsense: "They bought me a box of tin soldiers,/I threw all the Generals away,/I smashed up the Sergeants and Majors,/Now I play with my Privates all day."
- #007
Cary Grant gave his entire fee for The Philadelphia Story (1940) to the British war effort.
- #008
Cary Grant donated his entire salary for Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), $100,000, to the US War Relief Fund.
- #009
In his later years, Cary Grant said that the character he played in Father Goose (1964) came closest to his real personality.
- #010
Cary Grant ran away from home at the age of 13 to join a pantomime troupe. His father followed him and brought him home, but he ran away again and rejoined the troupe.
- #011
In 1968, Cary Grant and Michael Caine were walking together when a fan approached them but recognized Caine. At the end of the conversation, the fan turned to Grant and remarked on how gracious today's film stars are to the public, and Grant nodded in agreement.
- #012
The late Christopher Reeve said that early in his career he based his portrayal of Clark Kent in the "Superman" films on Grant.
- #013
In 1948, Grant fell seriously ill with infectious hepatitis and jaundice, and doctors gave him less than a 10% chance of survival. The problem was the damage years of heavy drinking had done to his liver. Grant's recovery took more than six months.
- #014
Unlike many other major film stars of his era, including James Stewart, John Wayne and Gary Cooper, Grant never went bald and never needed a toupee. When his hair began to gray in the 1950s he dyed it back to its natural black, but when he retired from acting in the 1960s he stopped dyeing it, and at the time of his death his hair was completely white.
- #015
Because he left school at 14, Grant was largely self-educated. He was, however, an avid reader throughout his life.
- #016
Grant turned down the role of James Bond in Dr. No (1962), believing he was too old at 58 to play the hero. The role went to Sean Connery instead.
- #017
In early 1953, Grant held a press conference to announce his retirement from acting, saying he was furious at Hollywood's recent treatment of director Charles Chaplin, who had been blacklisted because of his liberal political beliefs.
- #018
Grant initially accepted his role in Houseboat (1958) because he was dating Sophia Loren, with whom he had fallen madly in love. Heartbroken after she married someone else, Grant wanted to back out. He could not, but the director made sure the production ran smoothly.
- #019
Grant initially decided to end his 1953 retirement solely for To Catch a Thief (1955). When the film became a great success, he agreed to make more films.
- #020
Grant turned down the role of Prof. Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1964) because he felt he could either not be as good as Rex Harrison, who had originated the role on the London stage and on Broadway, or would be accused of imitating Harrison. He told producer Jack L. Warner that he would not even go to see the film unless Harrison was cast.
- #021
Grant was deeply upset when he lost his two Oscar nominations, especially for None But the Lonely Heart (1944), which he considered his best performance. That is why he was so excited when he received an Honorary Academy Award in 1970.
- #022
Grant was very close friends with his Indiscreet (1958) and Notorious (1946) co-star Ingrid Bergman. He was one of the few people who stood by her during her notorious relationship with Rossellini, and Bergman won the Best Actress Oscar in 1958 while in exile in Italy.
- #023
Thanks to the strength and physical skill he gained as an acrobat in his youth, Grant performed most of his own stunts throughout his film career — far more than people think.
- #024
Douglas Fairbanks was his childhood idol; Fairbanks's "healthy" bronzed look was the inspiration for Grant's permanently dark complexion.
- #025
In 1966, Grant became a director of the Fabergé cosmetics company.
- #026
Grant kept himself slim and fit until he retired from acting, never weighing more than 180 pounds.
- #027
Grant hated his performance in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), saying it was far too over the top and that it was his least favorite of his films.
- #028
Grant was named the second Greatest Male Screen Legend on the American Film Institute's list.
- #029
Cary Grant replaced James Stewart in the role of unlucky advertising man Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959). Stewart badly wanted the part, but director Alfred Hitchcock decided against casting him because of Vertigo's (1958) failure at the box office; Hitchcock accused Stewart of looking "too old" and chose Grant instead, even though Grant was in fact four years older than him.
- #030
Although he was financially well off, Cary Grant was considered "tight" by his servants. Among other things, they reported that he charged fans for his autograph, marked the level of liquor in every bottle, counted the logs for the fireplace, and kept a detailed record of how much food was bought and how much was consumed. He was, however, much loved by his servants and paid them very well.
- #031
Cary Grant never cared for method acting and would never play a villain.
- #032
Cary Grant always wore a gold chain with three charms around his neck. The three charms represented the religion of each of his former wives: a Saint Christopher for Virginia Cherrill (Roman Catholic), a small cross for Barbara Hutton and Betsy Drake (Protestants), and a Star of David for Dyan Cannon (Jewish). (Donaldson).
- #033
Cary Grant was a big Elvis Presley fan and attended his shows in Las Vegas. He can be seen in the closing title sequence of Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970), behind the scenes, discussing Elvis's performance with him.
- #034
Cary Grant's last appearance at the Oscars was in 1985, when he presented James Stewart with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.
- #035
Cary Grant holds the record as Radio City Music Hall's top star, with 27 films over a total of 113 weeks. Fred Astaire came second with 16 films over 60 weeks.
- #036
People were surprised when Cary Grant retired in 1966, and despite efforts by major directors such as Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder and even Stanley Kubrick to bring him out of retirement and into their films, he never worked again.
- #037
Cary Grant initially turned down Stanley Donen's offer to appear in Charade (1963), but accepted some time later once he realized what a big role it was. He set a single condition: Audrey Hepburn had to chase him, not the other way around.
- #038
At the time of his death, Cary Grant's estate was worth 60 million dollars.
- #039
Alfred Hitchcock told François Truffaut that, unlike James Stewart, Cary Grant would be willing to play the villain. Before he became a star, Stewart (unlike Grant) had in fact once played a complete villain in After the Thin Man (1936). The closest Grant came was the original version of Suspicion (1941), directed by Hitchcock, in which Grant's character poisons his wife, but the film was re-cut so that Grant would not be a bad man.
- #040
The character played by John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) was named "Archie Leach" after Cary Grant's real name.
- #041
Cary Grant received the Kennedy Center Honors in November 1981. President Ronald Reagan wrote of how happy he was to be able to honor his friend, while Grant said he was pleased that James Stewart was at the ceremony.
- #042
Cary Grant became an American citizen on June 26, 1942, with naturalization certificate number 5502057.
- #043
Mike Todd initially wanted Cary Grant to play Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days (1956), but gave up after six months of trying. The role went to his close friend David Niven.
- #044
Cary Grant smoked up to 60 cigarettes a day until 1957, when his third wife, Betsy Drake, got him to give them up in order to protect her voice. He quit while filming An Affair to Remember (1957), after visiting a hypnotist. She recalled, however, that she occasionally caught him smoking outside the house, so he probably never quit completely.
- #045
In 1971, fearing that Dyan Cannon would take their daughter Jennifer to New York and Europe, Cary Grant filed for joint custody. Jennifer was overjoyed when the judge ruled that she should stay in California with her father and spend time visiting her mother. He could plan to spend every evening waiting for her to come home from school and every weekend teaching her to ride horses. Within eight weeks he had sold the rights to his last films with Universal for more than 2 million dollars. The deal included Operation Petticoat (1959), The Grass Is Greener (1960), That Touch of Mink (1962) and Charade (1963), as well as Penny Serenade (1941), the only one of his earlier films whose rights he still held. He now had no connection to the film business at all. He invested in a real estate development project in Malaga in southern Spain and near Shannon in Ireland.
- #046
Alfred Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant to appear in Dial M for Murder (1954), but Warner Brothers felt he would be miscast as the villain.
- #047
Cary Grant took part in an experimental psychotherapy program in which LSD was prescribed. Betsy Drake encouraged him to take the drug (as part of a medical experiment) because she wanted to examine their failed marriage. He said he underwent close to 100 sessions and benefited greatly. In later life, however, he said that if he had known about the side effects he would not have tried LSD, and he asked people not to use drugs.
- #048
As a child, Cary Grant had a fear of knives and a fear of heights.
- #049
According to Marc Eliot's 2005 biography of Cary Grant, Grant watched the Marx Brothers' early Vaudeville and Broadway performances and drew inspiration from the most unlikely brother: "While the rest of the country preferred Groucho, the handsome heterosexual man and romantic lead Zeppo was [Grant's] favorite, and the one he believed was the real key to the show's success with his foil timing." Grant even modeled his first Hollywood appearance and persona on Zeppo.
- #050
Cary Grant said Indiscreet (1958) was his personal favorite of his films.
- #051
Cary Grant was originally set to play Humphrey Bogart's role in Sabrina (1954), but he turned it down, reportedly because he did not want to carry an umbrella on screen.
- #052
Cary Grant can be seen among the audience and behind the scenes in Elvis Presley's concert documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970).
- #053
Cary Grant's daughter, Jennifer Grant, gave birth to a son named Cary Benjamin Grant on August 12, 2008.
- #054
Warner Bros. considered renting Cary Grant from Paramount to star in Captain Blood (1935), but Michael Curtiz thought he was "too effete."
- #055
In a scene in The Grass Is Greener (1960), Cary Grant refused to wear a smoked jacket for fear that he would immediately lose the audience's support if he were seen dressed that way. The director later recalled that an old-fashioned style of comedy died that day and never came back.
- #056
Cary Grant starred in four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959).
- #057
Alfred Hitchcock briefly considered Cary Grant for the role of Mitch Brenner in The Birds (1963), but decided against using the actor, who was too expensive, believing that the birds and Hitchcock's name were the biggest draws.
- #058
Early in his Hollywood career, Cary Grant shared a house with his close friend Noël Coward.
- #059
Cary Grant never said "Judy, Judy, Judy" in any film, a line attributed to him by Larry Storch, but he did say "Susan, Susan, Susan" in Bringing Up Baby (1938).
- #060
In June 1968, after the assassination of his friend Robert F. Kennedy, Cary Grant made a public call for gun control.
- #061
Cary Grant was director Howard Hawks's first choice to star in Man's Favorite Sport? (1964), but he turned it down because he was 59 years old and his co-star Paula Prentiss was 25.
- #062
When his daughter Jennifer Grant was born, Cary Grant gave his wife Dyan Cannon a diamond and sapphire bracelet as a keepsake.
- #063
Alfred Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant to play opposite Grace Kelly in Marnie (1964), but the people of Monaco were unhappy with the idea of their Princess playing an obsessive thief.
- #064
When Sophia Loren visited Los Angeles during the filming of An Affair to Remember (1957), Cary Grant bombarded her with dozens of phone calls and hundreds of flowers, even though their relationship had ended.
- #065
By the time Houseboat (1958) was to be filmed, Sophia Loren was still in love with Cary Grant. She went to director Melville Shavelson in tears and complained that Grant was following her again; she had told Grant she was in love with Carlo Ponti, but the director did not believe her.
- #066
Cary Grant was the only actor said to have joined Alfred Hitchcock's "love." Hitch said James Stewart was the "everyman," but after Vertigo (1958) failed he never cast Stewart again, blaming it on Stewart looking too old to blend into a crowd anymore. Ironically, Grant was actually four years older than Stewart.
- #067
Cary Grant mostly played characters much younger than his real age. He was 50 when To Catch a Thief (1955) was filmed but played a 34-year-old character.
- #068
Cary Grant enjoyed performing on network radio, where he often played roles different from his screen persona. He once told the producers of the radio series "Suspense," "Invite me back, invite me back."
- #069
In August 1979, Cary Grant attended the state funeral of his friend Earl Louis Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey and openly wept during the ceremony.
- #070
Cary Grant was generally considered weak at accents. His attempts at a Cockney accent in Gunga Din (1939) and None but the Lonely Heart (1944) were widely mocked in the United Kingdom.
- #071
In 1975, Cary Grant was appointed a director of MGM. After the parent company split in 1980, he served on the boards of MGM Films and MGM Grand Hotels. He had taken an active role in promoting the MGM Grand Hotel, which opened in Las Vegas in 1973, and continued to promote the city throughout the 1970s. When Allan Warren met Grant that year for a photo shoot, he noticed how tired Grant looked and noted his "slightly melancholic air." Grant later joined the boards of Hollywood Park, the Academy of Magical Arts (The Magic Castle, Hollywood, California) and Western Airlines (acquired by Delta Air Lines in 1987).
- #072
In 1999, the American Film Institute named Cary Grant the Greatest Male Star of All Time in American cinema, second only to Humphrey Bogart.
- #073
In 1957, a benign tumor was removed from Cary Grant's forehead.
- #074
Cary Grant was circumcised at birth in 1904, which was highly unusual in the United Kingdom at the time.
- #075
One of the first baby teeth of Cary Grant's daughter, Jennifer Grant, was coated in Lucite.
- #076
Cary Grant's mother, Elsie Maria Leach, died in January 1973 at the age of 94.
- #077
Elton John recalled that one of the highlights of his 1976 United States tour was meeting Cary Grant backstage after a concert.
- #078
Cary Grant donated money to Israel in his late mother's name.
- #079
In his later years, Cary Grant was a militant anti-smoking campaigner.
- #080
Alfred Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant for the lead in Foreign Correspondent (1940), but Grant was busy with Only Angels Have Wings (1939).
- #081
Alfred Hitchcock initially planned for Cary Grant to play the publisher and Montgomery Clift to play Brandon in Rope (1948). However, the implicit acknowledgment of the homosexual relationship between Leopold and Loeb and a similar bond between Hamilton's killers persuaded Grant and Clift to stay away from the project to avoid long-term commercial repercussions.
- #082
On the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American love stories, compiled in June 2002, Cary Grant topped all actors with six films on the list. His An Affair to Remember (1957) ranked 5th, followed by: #44 The Philadelphia Story (1940), #46 To Catch a Thief (1955), #51 Bringing Up Baby (1938), #77 The Awful Truth (1937) and #86 Notorious (1946).
- #083
Cary Grant was pictured on a 37¢ United States commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued on October 15, 2002.
- #084
In 1980, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art held a two-month retrospective of more than 40 of Cary Grant's films.
- #085
Alfred Hitchcock initially wanted Cary Grant to star in Torn Curtain (1966), but Grant told him he was too old.
- #086
In 1995, Cary Grant was named one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history (at No. 22) by "Empire" magazine (UK).
- #087
Cary Grant was the original choice to play Rupert Cadell in Rope (1948), but he was unavailable, so the role went to James Stewart instead (Grant would later take Stewart's place as the lead in North by Northwest (1959)). Rope (1948) contains references to Grant and to the earlier Hitchcock film Notorious (1946), in which he starred with Ingrid Bergman.
- #088
Both of Cary Grant's grandchildren, Cary Benjamin Grant (born 2008) and Davian Adele Grant (born 2011), were born more than a century after his birth in 1904, an unusually wide span of just two generations.
- #089
After his serious illness in 1948, he gave up excessive drinking.
- #090
He once had a Sealyham terrier named Archie Leach.
- #091
Three of his 1930s residences are featured in Hollywood Mouth 2 (2014): a Spanish-style house on West Live Oak Dr. near Griffith Park, the La Ronda Apartments on Havenhurst Dr., and another apartment building on Sweetzer Ave.
- #092
On 16.08.2020, he was honored with a retrospective of his filmography at Turner Classic Movies' Summer Under the Stars event.
- #093
He was hyperopic, or "far-sighted." Because of this, he is seen holding his glasses in his hand in many publicity photos.
- #094
He introduced First Lady Betty Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention.
- #095
He once lived with silent film star William Haines.
- #096
For several years he toyed with the idea of playing Hamlet in order to prove to his critics that he could act. The idea was finally put to rest by Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948).
- #097
Alfred Hitchcock wanted him for the lead role in Spellbound (1945).
- #098
Paramount Pictures gave him the name Cary Grant when he began his film career; the reason was the similarity of the name to that of Gary Cooper, one of the biggest male stars (C. G. is the reverse of G. C.), and possibly because it shared the same initials as Clark Gable. Gable and Cooper had been born with their surnames, but Grant had been born Archibald Leach.
- #099
As a young actor, he shared an apartment with Ballard Berkeley.
- #100
He introduced Frederick Brisson to his future wife Rosalind Russell and served as best man at their wedding.
- #101
His daughter Jennifer Grant gave birth to a baby girl named Davian Adele Grant on 23 November 2011.
- #102
He was offered the role of 007 but thought he was too old.
- #103
He has eight films on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list: Bringing Up Baby (1938) at No. 14, The Philadelphia Story (1940) at No. 15, His Girl Friday (1940) at No. 19, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) at No. 30, Topper (1937) at No. 60, The Awful Truth (1937) at No. 68, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) at No. 72, and She Done Him Wrong (1933) at No. 75.
- #104
He actively pursued James Stewart's role in Bell, Book and Candle (1958) and Clark Gable's role in Teacher's Pet (1958).
- #105
He died on 29 November 1986, nearly two months short of his 83rd birthday on 18 January 1987.
- #106
He and his fifth wife, Barbara Harris, renewed their wedding vows on 11 April 1986, their fifth wedding anniversary.
- #107
Cary Grant was once engaged to Queenie Smith.
- #108
He was a rabid baseball fan who initially supported the New York Giants and later the Los Angeles Dodgers.
- #109
He eagerly sought the role of Midshipman Roger Byam in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), but Franchot Tone got it instead.
- #110
He underwent hernia surgery in the spring of 1977.
- #111
In 2006, his performance as Dr. David Huxley in Bringing Up Baby (1938) ranked 68th on Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.
- #112
In October 1997, he ranked 7th on Empire (UK) magazine's list of "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time."
- #113
He voted for Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972, for Gerald Ford in 1976, and for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984.
- #114
He was named the sixth Greatest Movie Star of All Time by Entertainment Weekly.
- #115
In 2006, his performance as T. R. Devlin in Notorious (1946) ranked 16th on Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.
- #116
He turned down the role of the gunman Cherry Valance, which was to have been much larger, in Howard Hawks's epic western Red River (1948), in which he would have appeared alongside John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. The role went to John Ireland instead.
- #117
He was horrified by the failure of Operation Musketeer, the British-French attempt to retake the Suez Canal after it was seized by Nasser's regime in Egypt. Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula.
- #118
In March 1968, he was involved in a serious car accident in New York but fortunately escaped with only minor injuries.
- #119
On February 8, 1960, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1610 Vine St.
- #120
His favorite aftershave was Acqua Di Parma.
- #121
Although he was seen as a liberal throughout his career, after retiring from acting he emerged in the late 1960s as a major supporter of Richard Nixon.
- #122
He was considered for the lead role in Bicycle Thieves (1948).
- #123
Alfred Hitchcock once considered casting him as Hamlet (it was to be a film version of William Shakespeare's play in modern dress), but he never dared to do it.
- #124
He was a lifelong Republican.
- #125
He was Carol Reed's choice to play Holly Martins in The Third Man (1949), since the character in the novel is English. Coincidentally, when shooting returned to the sound stages in London, he regularly visited the film set at lunchtime.
- #126
Writer Sidney Sheldon used Grant as the prototype for Rhys Williams, a character in his novel "Bloodline."
- #127
While struggling as Archie Leach, a Paramount executive told him, "You're bow-legged and your neck is too thick!"
- #128
When Grant was 9 years old, his father placed his mother in Glenside Hospital, a mental institution, and told the boy that she had gone on a "long holiday." Grant spent years believing she had abandoned or died. He did not learn his mother was still alive until he was 31, when his father confessed the lie shortly before his own death.
- #129
He died three days before Desi Arnaz, who died on December 2, 1986.
- #130
He appeared in three films on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list of the best 100 American films: Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940) and North by Northwest (1959).
- #131
He joined an acrobatic troupe in England and traveled with them to America.
- #132
In 1941 he donated his salary from The Philadelphia Story to war relief.
- #133
When Grant was only 4 years old, his mother taught him to sing and dance.
- #134
He was caricatured in Hollywood Steps Out (1941).
- #135
He was chosen as Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in December 2023.
- #136
He worked as an attendant at Bristol Hippodrome. For many years, until his mother's death in the 1970s, he always tried to combine his visits to her with a Christmas pantomime performance at "The Hip," and he was very pleased that various comedians picked up the bill, since he always stopped by the dressing rooms for a chat after the performance.
- #137
In his early childhood, Grant's mother regularly took him to the cinema. He cited this as one of his favorite childhood memories. His favorite actors at the time were Charlie Chaplin, Chester Conklin, Fatty Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, Mack Swain and Broncho Billy Anderson.
- #138
In 1915 Grant won a scholarship to attend Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol, but his father could barely afford the uniform.
- #139
In July 1920 Grant visited the United States for the first time. He traveled on the British ocean liner RMS Olympic, the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class vessels.
- #140
On March 13, 1918, the 14-year-old Grant was expelled from Fairfield Grammar School for unclear reasons. The various differing accounts given by classmates and teachers during interviews included Grant being found in the girls' toilet and Grant helping two other classmates with a theft in the nearby town of Almondsbury. In any case, on March 16, 1918, Grant rejoined the Bob Pender Stage Group as a performer.
- #141
During his school years in World War I, Grant spent his evenings working backstage at Bristol theaters. In 1917, at age 13, he was working as a lighting technician alongside the magician David Devant at the Bristol Empire.
- #142
As a performing member of the Bob Pender Stage Troupe, Grant appeared at the Wintergarten theater in Berlin c. 1914. This was his earliest known performance outside the United Kingdom.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work