ACTOR
Cary Grant
- Known for
- Bringing Up Baby (1938), Suspicion (1941), An Affair to Remember (1957), Indiscreet (1958)
142 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Cary Grant is an actor best known for Bringing Up Baby, Suspicion and An Affair to Remember.
20 Facts From Cary Grant's Career
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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