Cary Grant net worth is $10 Million. Also know about Cary Grant bio, salary, height, age weight, relationship and more …

Cary Grant Wiki Biography

Cary Grant was a Bristol-born British-American actor born as Archibald Alexander Leach. A leading personality in Hollywood when it comes to classic movies, Cary is perhaps most recognized for his roles in movies “The Awful Truth”, “Suspicion”, “To Catch A Thief” and several more. Born on 18 Jan 1904, Cary was active in the field of entertainment from 1932 until his retirement in 1966. He died from a stroke on 29th November 1986.

A legendary actor of Hollywood who is still considered as one of the most important personalities in the history of cinema, one may wonder what was his net worth at the time of his death? As estimated by sources, Cary Grant’s net worth at the time of his passing was $10 million taking inflation into account. This goes without saying that he was able to amass such wealth being one of the most famous and successful personalities in Hollywood during his career of over 30 years.

Raised in Horfield, Bristol, Grant was educated at Bishop Road Primary School and Fairfield Grammar School. As a child, he was very attracted towards theatre, and when he was only six years old, he started performing with a troupe known as “The Penders”. Initially, Cary became famous in vaudeville, a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. Later, he took his talent to Hollywood and began appearing in movies, debuting in the 1932 movie “This Is The Night”. Cary’s popularity rose through his roles in romantic comedy movies like “Bringing Up Baby” and “The Philadelphia Story” among others. In the movie “None But The Lonely Heart”, Cary worked with Ethel Barrymore and Barry Fitzgerald among other actors. He also worked with famous actors Ann Sheridan and Marion Marshall in the movie “I Was A Male War Bride”, and moreover, he was particularly famous for working with one of the most sought-after directors of his time, Alfred Hitchcock in his movies “Suspicion” and “North By Northwest” among numerous others. Obviously, being a part of such popular movies had a very significant influence on Cary’s net worth over the years.

Cary Grant is known as the cornerstone of classic Hollywood romantic movies. Named as the second greatest male star after Humphrey Bogart in Golden Age Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute, latterly Cary worked with Audrey Hepburn in the 1963 movie “Charade”, and decided to retire from movie-making in 1966, having appeared in over 70 films. During his career, Cary was nominated five times at Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor. He was also nominated twice for Academy Awards for his roles in the movies “Penny Serenade” and “None But The Lonely Heart”. In 1970, Grant was presented with an Honorary Oscar by Frank Sinatra and was again rewarded with Kennedy Center Honors in 1981.

Regarding his personal life, Grant was married for five times, with actress Virginia Cherrill for two years in London in the mid-’30s; to Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton(1942-45); a co-star Betsy Drake(1949-62); actress Dyan Cannon(1965-68) with whom he had his only child, Jennifer, who is now a famous actress in Hollywood. Finally he married British PR agent Barbara Harris – 47 years younger – in 1981. The legendary actor died in 1986, suffering a massive stroke while preparing for a stage appearance, and refusing to be revived.

Apart from acting, Grant sat on the board of MGM, an American media company and represented numerous businesses including cosmetics firm Faberge.

IMDB Wikipedia $10 million 1.87 m 10000000 1904 1904-01-18 1986 1986-11-29 Actor Alfred Hitchcock American Audrey Hepburn Bishop Road Primary School Bristol British Cary Grant Cary Grant Net Worth Elias James Leach Elsie Maria Kingdon England Fairfield Grammar School Frank Sinatra Horfield Humphrey Bogar January 18 Jennifer Grant November 29 producer UK United Kingdom Virginia Cherrill Virginia Cherrill Barbara Harris m. 1981–1986 Dyan Cannon m. 1965–1968 Betsy Drake m. 1949–1962 Barbara Hutton m. 1942–1945 Virginia Cherrill m. 1934–1935

Cary Grant Quick Info

Cary Grant Trademarks

1. Often played characters who were much younger than his actual age.
2. Chin dimple
3. Roles in romantic comedies
4. Often played a handsome bachelor
5. Mid-Atlantic accent

Cary Grant Quotes

• [on Marilyn Monroe, his co-star in Monkey Business (1952)] She seemed very shy, and I remember that when the studio workers would whistle at her, it seemed to embarrass her.
• [on Ingrid Bergman] She wears no make-up and has big feet and peasant hips, yet women envy her ability to be herself.
• [on aging] When people tell you how young you look, they are also telling you how old you are.
• Hollywood is very much like a streetcar. Once a new star is made and comes aboard, an old one is edged out of the rear exit. There’s room for only so many and no more.
• When a young fellow like Louis Jourdan moves in on your field, you take stock of your assets and liabilities. It make you nervous.
• I have no rapport with the new idols of the screen, and that includes Marlon Brando and his style of Method acting. It certainly includes Montgomery Clift and that God-awful James Dean. Some producer should cast all three of them in the same movie and let them duke it out. When they’ve finished each other off, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and I will return and start making real movies again like we used to.
• [In 1986 on what he finds attractive in a woman] A lack of artifice. I don’t like a lot of make-up or a lot of perfume. If someone wears a lot of make-up, it shows me they’re not happy with their features – it shows their insecurity.
• Look at it this way, I’ve always tried to dress well. I’ve had some success in life. I’ve enjoyed my success and I include in that success some relationships with very special women. If someone wants to say I’m gay, what can I do? I think it’s probably said about every man who’s been known to do well with women. I don’t let that sort of thing bother me. What matters to me is that I know who I am.
• [Asked in 1986 why he no longer makes movies] There’s too much heavy breathing and shooting going on.
• If I had known then what I know now, if I had not been so utterly stupid, I would have had a hundred children and I would have built a ranch to keep them on.
• [In 1986 on actresses] I’ve worked with Bergman. I’ve worked with Hepburn. I’ve worked with some of the biggest stars, but Grace Kelly was the best actress I’ve ever worked with in my life. That woman was total relaxation, absolute ease – she was totally THERE. She was an extraordinarily serene girl. Both she and Hitchcock were Jesuit-trained; maybe that had something to do with it.
• My intention in taking LSD was to make myself happy. A man would be a fool to take something that didn’t make him happy. I took it with a group of men, one of whom was Aldous Huxley. We deceived ourselves by calling it therapy, but we were truly interested in how this chemical could help humanity. I found it a very enlightening experience, but it’s like alcohol in one respect: a shot of brandy can save your life, but a bottle of brandy can kill you.
• [In 1986 about Hollywood and drugs] I don’t know anything about drugs. None of the people I know is involved with drugs. Hollywood is a very hard-working town – you have to get up early, and you have to look good. If you read the “National Enquirer,” you think drugs are everywhere, but I’ve never seen them.
• [1983] I asked James Stewart recently if he had thought about dying. He said he hadn’t at all. But I have.
• [1981] I have no plans to write an autobiography, I will leave that to others. I’m sure they will turn me into a homosexual or a Nazi spy or something else.
• [on Betsy Drake] Betsy was a delightful comedienne, but I don’t think Hollywood was ever really her milieu. She wanted to help humanity, to help others help themselves.
• [Charles Chaplin] has given great pleasure to millions of people, and I hope he returns to Hollywood. Personally, I don’t think he is a Communist, but whatever his political affiliations, they are secondary to the fact that he is a great entertainer. We should not go off the deep end.
• The secret of comedy is doing it naturally under the most difficult circumstances. And film comedy is the most difficult of all. At least on stage you know right away if you’re getting laughs or not. But making a movie, you have no way of knowing. So you try to time the thing for space and length and can only hope when it plays in the movie theaters months later that you have timed the thing right. It’s difficult and it takes experience. I’ll always remember the great actor, A.E. Matthews, who said on his death bed, “Dying’s tough–but not as tough as comedy”.
• I can’t portray Bing Crosby, I’m Cary Grant. I’m myself in that role. The most difficult thing is to be yourself – especially when you know it’s going to be seen immediately by 300 million people.
• There is no doubt I am aging. My format of comedy is still the same as ever. I gravitate toward scripts that put me in an untenable position. Then the rest of the picture is spent in trying to squirm out of it. Naturally, I always get the girl in the end. It may appear old-fashioned. There seems to be a trend toward satirical comedy, like The Apartment (1960). Perhaps it is because young writers today feel satirical living in a world that seems headed for destruction.
• [1965] I don’t like to see men of my age making love on the screen. Being a father will make me more free than I have ever been. It will be a great experience. I can’t wait.
• [1980] I have nothing against gays, I’m just not one myself.
• There are only seven movie stars in the world whose name alone will induce American bankers to lend money for movie productions, and the only woman on the list is Ingrid Bergman.
• I’d like to have made one of those big splashy Technicolor musicals with Rita Hayworth.
• I think making love is the best form of exercise.
• Everyone tells me I’ve had such an interesting life, but sometimes I think it’s been nothing but stomach disturbances and self-concern.
• For more than thirty years of my life I had smoked with increasing habit. I was finally separated from the addiction by Betsy [wife Betsy Drake], who, after carefully studying hypnosis, practiced it, with my full permission and trust, as I was going off to sleep one night. She sat in a chair near the bed and, in a quiet, calm voice, rhythmically repeated what I inwardly knew to be true, the fact that smoking was not good for me; and, as my conscious mind relaxed and no longer cared to offer a negative thought, her words sank into my subconscious; and the following day, to my surprise I had no need or wish to smoke. Nor have I smoked since. Nor have I, as far as I know, replaced it with any other harmful habit.
• [on Katharine Hepburn] She was this slip of a woman and I never liked skinny women. But she had this thing, this air you might call it, the most totally magnetic woman I’d ever seen, and probably ever seen since. You had to look at her, you had to listen to her; there was no escaping her.
• [Charles Chaplin] is waiting a long time at a trolley car stop. He’s the first in line of what turns out to be a huge crowd. The trolley finally arrives, he’s the first one on, but then the crowd behind him surges through the door and pushes him right through the door on the other side. And that’s a lot like what Hollywood is like. When you’re a young man, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. is driving. Wallace Beery is the conductor, and Charles Chaplin’s got a front-row seat. You take your seat, and back behind you is Gary Cooper. He has got his long feet stuck out in front of one of the exit doors, and people keep tripping over him and onto the street. Suddenly a young man named Tyrone Power gets on. He asks you to move over. You make a picture with Joan Fontaine. You think you do a good job, but she wins the Oscar, and you get nothing. And pretty soon more and more people get on, it’s getting very crowded, and then you decide to get off. When you get off the trolley, you notice that it’s been doing nothing but going around in circles. It doesn’t go anywhere. You see the same things over and over. So you might as well get off.
• [on his many marriages] It seems that each new marriage is more difficult to survive than the last one. I’m rather a fool for punishment–I keep going back for more, don’t ask me why.
• I know they nicknamed us “Cash and Cary”, but I never asked Barbara Hutton for a penny. I never married a woman for money, that’s the God’s truth. I may not have married for very sound reasons, but money was the least of them.
• [on Irene Dunne] Her timing was marvelous. She was so good that she made comedy look easy. If she’d made it look as difficult as it really is, she would have won her Oscar.
• It’s important to know where you’ve come from so that you can know where you’re going. I probably chose my profession because I was seeking approval, adulation, admiration and affection.
• I’ve often been accused by critics of being myself on-screen. But being oneself is more difficult than you’d suppose.
• I tell you, in films, one doesn’t really meet the audience. You don’t get the impact or spirit of your audience, whereas when you are out in the public, you do.’
• This, I love. I enjoy talking back and forth to people. You know, otherwise, I wouldn’t get to meet the people.
• Actors today try to avoid comedy because if you write a comedy that’s not a success, the lack of success is immediately apparent because the audience is not laughing. A comedy is a big risk. This is a tremendously costly business and to put money into a picture that might not come off — oh, that’s pretty risky.
• It takes 500 small details to add up to one favorable impression.
• Mostly, we have manufactured ladies— with the exception of Ingrid [Ingrid Bergman], Grace [Grace Kelly], Deborah [Deborah Kerr] and Audrey [Audrey Hepburn].
• My father used to say, “Let them see you and not the suit. That should be secondary.”
• My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.
• [1970 Honorary Oscar acceptance speech] You know that I may never look at this without remembering the quiet patience of directors who were so kind to me, who were kind enough to put up with me more than once, some of them even three or four times. I trust they and all the other directors, writers and producers and my leading women have forgiven me for what I didn’t know. You know that I’ve never been a joiner or a member of any particular social set, but I’ve been privileged to be a part of Hollywood’s most glorious era.
• The only really good thing about acting is that there’s no heavy lifting.
• To succeed with the opposite sex, tell her you are impotent; she can’t wait to disprove it.
• Divorce is a game played by lawyers.
• I improve on misquotation.
• My screen persona is a combination of Jack Buchanan, Noël Coward and Rex Harrison. I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be, and, finally, I became that person. Or he became me.
• [About Burt Reynolds] As well as being my, and the world’s favorite light comedian, Burt is a very considerate and thoughtful man.
• Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.
• I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each, suspecting each.
• [responding to a wire from a reporter inquiring, “How old Cary Grant?”] Old Cary Grant fine. How you?

Cary Grant Important Facts

• $4,000,000 (including his percentage of the gross profits.)
• $3,000,000 (including his percentage of the gross profits.)
• $450,000 (plus $315,000 overtime and percentage of gross profit)
• $300,000 + Rolls Royce
• $750,000 + 10% of grosses over $8,000,000
• $300,000
• $100,000 (plus 10% of the gross receipts if they reached $1m.)
• $500,000
• $150,000
• $150,000 + 10% of the Profits
• $160,000 (donated to British War Relief, USO, and Red Cross)
• $100,000
• $137,500 (donated to British War Relief Fund)
• $150,000
• $100,000
• $125,000
• $75,000 + 11% gross ($139,150)
• $50,000 + 10% of gross ($500,000 in back end earnings)
• $50,000
• % of Gross
• $50,000
• $3,500 /week
• $3,500 /week
• $3,500 /week
• $3,500 /week
• $2,500 /week + $15,000 bonus
• $2,500 /week
• $2,500 /week
• $2,500 /week
• $750 /week
• $750 /week
• $750 /week
• $750 /week
• $750 /week
• $750 /week
• $450 /week
• $450 /week
• $450 /week
• $450 /week
• $450 /week
• $450 /week
• $150
• $450 /week
• $450 /week
• Cut back on his heavy drinking after his serious illness in 1948.
• He appeared in four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959).
• He was usually considered poor at accents. His attempts at Cockney accents in Gunga Din (1939) and None But the Lonely Heart (1944) were widely ridiculed in the UK.
• In his last years he was a militant anti-smoker.
• He donated money to Israel in the name of his late mother.
• He was circumcised at birth, which was highly unusual in the UK in 1904.
• He turned down the lead role in Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) because he contended he was Jewish and thought he looked Jewish. He maintained, “The public won’t believe my portrayal of a gentile trying to pass himself off as a Jew.”.
• In November 1956 he was dismayed by the failure of Operation Musketeer, the Anglo-French attempt to regain the Suez Canal after it had been seized by the Nasser regime in Egypt. Israel invaded the Sinai peninsula.
• His daughter, Jennifer Grant, gave birth to a baby girl, Davian Adele Grant, on 23th November 2011.
• In 1971, fearful that Dyan Cannon would take their daughter Jennifer with her to New York and Europe, Grant filed for joint custody. When the judge ruled that Jennifer should remain in California with her father, taking time out to visit her mother, he was jubilant. He could plan to spend every evening waiting for her to come back from school and every weekend teaching her to ride a horse. Within eight weeks he had sold the rights to his last films with Universal for more than $2 million. Operation Petticoat (1959), The Grass Is Greener (1960), That Touch of Mink (1962) and Charade (1963) were all included, as was Penny Serenade (1941), the only one of his earlier films to which he still retained the rights. He had no more connection to the movie business. He invested in a property development in Malaga in southern Spain and another near Shannon in Ireland.
• Started smoking in 1911.
• Died three days before Desi Arnaz who died on December 2, 1986.
• Played Irene Dunne’s husband in 3 movies: The Awful Truth (1937), My Favorite Wife (1940), and Penny Serenade (1941).
• Though financially well off he was considered “tight” by his servants. They reported that, among other things, he charged fans for his autograph, marked the height of the 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, well liked by his servants and paid them very well.
• A Paramount exec told struggling actor Archie Leach “You’re bow legged and your neck is far too thick”.
• Holds the record at the Radio City Music Hall as its leading star. 27 films for a total of 113 weeks. Fred Astaire is the runner-up with 16 films for 60 weeks.
• Unlike several other major movie stars in his day, including James Stewart, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, etc., Grant never went bald and never needed to wear a toupee. Although he did dye his hair back to its natural black color when it started to gray in the 1950s. When he retired from acting in the 1960s, he stopped dying his hair and his hair was all-white by the time of his passing.
• Was once engaged to Queenie Smith.
• He kept himself slender and fit until he retired acting, never weighing above 180 pounds.
• Ran away from home at 13 to join a mime troupe. His father tracked him down and brought him home, but he ran away again and rejoined the troupe.
• Has eight films on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 Funniest Movies: Bringing Up Baby (1938) at #14, The Philadelphia Story (1940) at #15, His Girl Friday (1940) at #19, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) at #30, Topper (1937) at #60, The Awful Truth (1937) at #68, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) at #72 and She Done Him Wrong (1933) at #75.
• Grant introduced Frederick Brisson to future wife Rosalind Russell and acted as his best man at their marriage.
• Was a very good friend of Frederique “Quique” Jourdan, the wife of Louis Jourdan.
• He strongly disliked Method acting.
• Made a public appeal for gun control following the assassination of his friend Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968.
• He can be seen in the audience and backstage in the Elvis Presley concert documentary Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (1970).
• In 1968, he and fellow actor and friend Michael Caine were walking together and a fan approached them, only recognizing Caine. At the end of the conversation, the fan turned to Grant and commented how accommodating today’s film stars are with the public, to which Grant nodded in agreement.
• Loved performing on network radio, where he often got to perform in roles different from his screen persona. He once told the producers of the radio series “Suspense,” “Invite me back, invite me back.”.
• His daughter, Jennifer Grant, gave birth to a son, Cary Benjamin Grant on August 12th, 2008.
• Alfred Hitchcock told François Truffaut that Grant, unlike James Stewart, would have been willing to play a villain. Before he was a star, Stewart (unlike Grant) once actually played an out-and-out 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 poisoned his wife, but the film was recut so that Grant wouldn’t be a bad guy.
• Once lived with the silent movie star William Haines.
• He considered himself to be miscast in The Howards of Virginia (1940), None But the Lonely Heart (1944) and The Pride and the Passion (1957).
• Once shared a house with his close friend Noël Coward early in his Hollywood career.
• He voted for Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972, Gerald Ford in 1976 and Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984.
• He and Charlton Heston attended a dinner at 10 Downing Street honoring the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom they both greatly admired. Afterward Heston said to his wife Lydia Heston, “You know I sat next to Mrs. Thatcher.” She replied, “That’s nothing–I got to sit next to Cary Grant!”.
• He actively sought James Stewart’s role in Bell Book and Candle (1958), and Clark Gable’s role in Teacher’s Pet (1958).
• For several years he had toyed with the idea of playing Hamlet in an attempt to prove to his critics that he could act. This idea was finally scuppered by Laurence Olivier’s film Hamlet (1948).
• Elton John recalled that one of the highlights of his 1976 tour of the United States was meeting Grant backstage after a concert.
• In March 1968 he was involved in a serious car crash in New York, but fortunately escaped with only minor injuries.
• He initially decided to end his 1953 retirement just to make To Catch a Thief (1955). When the film proved to be a huge success he agreed to make further films.
• After The Howards of Virginia (1940) flopped at the box office, Grant turned down all offers for historical epics until The Pride and the Passion (1957), which was also a failure.
• For a scene in The Grass Is Greener (1960), he refused to wear a smoking jacket, fearing he would immediately lose the support of the audience if he were seen dressed like that. The director later recalled that an old-fashioned kind of comedy had died that day, and it never came back.
• In 1999 he was named the second Greatest Male Star of All Time of American cinema, after Humphrey Bogart, by the American Film Institute.
• He and his fifth wife Barbara Harris renewed their wedding vows on 11 April 1986, the fifth anniversary of their marriage.
• In later years he always said the character he played in Father Goose (1964) came closest to his real self.
• He turned down the role of Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1964) because he felt he would either not be as good as Rex Harrison, who had originated the part on the London stage and on Broadway, or he would be accused of imitating Harrison. He told producer Jack L. Warner that unless Harrison was cast, he would not even go to see the film.
• Turned down James Mason’s role in Lolita (1962) because he considered the film “depraved”.
• Turned down James Mason’s role in A Star Is Born (1954).
• Eagerly sought the role of Midshipman Roger Byam in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), but the part went to Franchot Tone instead.
• Became seriously ill with infectious hepatitis and jaundice in 1948, and doctors gave him a less than 10% chance of survival. The problem was the damage that years of heavy drinking had done to his liver. Grant took more than six months to recover.
• Had a benign tumor removed from his forehead in 1957.
• Underwent a hernia operation in the spring of 1977.
• His mother died in January 1973 at the age of 94.
• At the time of his death, his estate was valued at $60 million.
• Always cited his To Catch a Thief (1955) co-star Grace Kelly as his favorite leading lady. He attended her state funeral in 1982 and wept throughout the televised service.
• Was very close friends with Ingrid Bergman, his co-star in both Indiscreet (1958) and Notorious (1946). Grant was one of the few who supported her throughout her notorious affair with Rossellini, and while Bergman was in exile in Italy he accepted her Best Actress Oscar in 1958.
• Turned down the role of gunfighter Cherry Valance, which was to have been much larger, in Howard Hawks’ epic western Red River (1948) opposite John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. The part went to John Ireland instead.
• He was director Howard Hawks’ first choice to play the lead in Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964), but turned it down because he was 59 and leading lady Paula Prentiss was 25.
• Grant eagerly sought William Holden’s role in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), but the producers decided he wasn’t right for the part, and in any case they felt he was too old at 53.
• Considered for the leading role in Bicycle Thieves (1948).
• Smoked up to 60 cigarettes a day until 1957, when his third wife Betsy Drake made him give up in order to protect his voice. He quit smoking while filming An Affair to Remember (1957) after visiting a hypnotist. However, she recalled occasionally catching him smoking outside the house, so he probably never stopped completely.
• Although he had been considered a liberal during his career, after his retirement from acting he emerged as a major supporter of Richard Nixon in the late 1960s.
• Biography in: “The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives”. Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 346-348. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999.
• He never played a villain.
• He often played characters who were considerably younger than his actual age. He was 50 when To Catch a Thief (1955) was filmed, but was playing a character of 34.
• His final appearance at the Academy Awards was in 1985 to present James Stewart with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.
• Alfred Hitchcock originally planned to cast Grant in the role of the publisher and Montgomery Clift as Brandon Rope (1948). However the established homosexual relationship between Leopold and Loeb, and the tacit recognition of a similar tie between Hamilton’s killers, persuaded Grant and Clift to steer clear of the project to avoid long term commercial repercussions.
• Attended the state funeral of his friend Earl Louis Mountbatten of Burma at Westminster Abbey in August 1979, and openly wept during the service.
• Held a press conference announcing his retirement from acting early in 1953, saying he was very angry over Hollywood’s treatment of director Charles Chaplin, who had recently been blacklisted for his liberal political beliefs.
• Received Kennedy Center honors in November 1981. President Ronald Reagan wrote how pleased he was to be able to honor his friend, while Grant stated that he was glad James Stewart was at the ceremony.
• Maintained good physical health until becoming ill with high blood pressure in the late 1970s. In October 1984 he suffered a minor stroke, which limited his appearances thereafter.
• He gave serious consideration to retiring in 1953, because he believed the success of Marlon Brando and Method acting meant his own kind of acting was a thing of the past. Eighteen months later he was lured back to make To Catch a Thief (1955), and therefore delayed his retirement until 1966.
• Said Indiscreet (1958), to be his personal favorite film.
• Was very hurt when he lost his two Academy Award nominations, particularly None But the Lonely Heart (1944), which he thought was his best performance. This is why he was so excited when he accepted his Honarary Academy Award in 1970.
• Initially refused Stanley Donen’s offer to appear in Charade (1963), but-realizing that it was a great part-accepted it after a while. He made one stipulation: Audrey Hepburn had to chase him, not visa-versa.
• Initally accepted his role in Houseboat (1958) because he was dating Sophia Loren, whom he was madly in love with. After she went and married someone else, Cary, heartbroken, wanted to back out. He couldn’t, but the director made sure the production was a smooth one.
• Was the only actor Alfred Hitchcock was said to “love.” Hitch said that James Stewart was the “everyman”, but never cast Stewart after Vertigo (1958) flopped, which he blamed on Stewart now looking too old to draw in the crowds. Ironically, Grant was actually four years older than Stewart.
• Hated his performance in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), saying it was way too over the top and that it was his least favorite film.
• If you look closely at his teeth, you’ll find that he only has one incisor (front tooth). Apparently when he was a boy he knocked out a tooth while ice skating. Rather than get into trouble with his father, he opted to go to a nearby dental college and have them gradually push his other teeth together to fill in the gap. Only one person (an eagle-eyed cinematographer) ever noticed and mentioned it to him. It’s described in depth in the book “Evenings with Cary Grant”.
• Was considered one of the best-dressed men in the United States of America. George Francis Frazier, Jr., in “The Art of Wearing Clothes” (published in ‘Esquire’ magazine, September 1960), wrote “Although Grant, who is fifty-six, favors such abominations as large tie knots and claims to have originated the square-style breast-pocket handkerchief, he is so extraordinarily attractive that he looks good in practically anything. He insists upon tight armholes in his suit jackets, finds the most comfortable (and functional) of all underwear to be women’s nylon panties.” Other best-dressed American men cited in the article were Miles Davis, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon.
• He always wore a gold chain around his neck with three charms attached. The three charms represented the religions of each of his former wives: a St. 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).
• As a child, he had a fear of knives and a fear of heights.
• He became an American citizen on June 26, 1942, under naturalization certificate #5502057.
• At one time, he owned a Sealyham terrier called Archie Leach.
• He was a big baseball fan, originally supporting the New York Giants and then the L.A. Dodgers.
• One of his favorite poems was a bit of doggerel: “They bought me a box of tin soldiers,/I threw all the Generals away,/I smashed up the Sergents and Majors,/Now I play with my Privates all day.”
• Writer Sidney Sheldon used Grant as the prototype for Rhys Williams, a character in the novel “Bloodline.”
• He had one of his daughter Jennifer Grant’s first baby teeth encased in Lucite.
• When his daughter Jennifer Grant was born, he gave wife Dyan Cannon a diamond and sapphire bracelet as a keepsake.
• His favorite after-shave was Acqua Di Parma.
• His performance as Dr. David Huxley in Bringing Up Baby (1938) is ranked #68 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
• His performance as T.R. Devlin in Notorious (1946) is ranked #16 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
• On April 18, 1947, King George VI awarded Grant the King’s Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom, citing his “outstanding service to the British War Relief Society.”
• Introduced First Lady Betty Ford at the Republican National Convention in 1976.
• Was the original choice to play “Rupert Cadell” in Rope (1948), but he was unavailable, so the part went to James Stewart, instead (whom Grant would later replace as the lead in North by Northwest (1959)). Rope (1948) features references to Grant and the earlier Hitchcock film he appeared in, Notorious (1946) with Ingrid Bergman.
• Replaced James Stewart as the hapless ad man “Roger Thornhill” in North by Northwest (1959). Stewart very much wanted the part, but director Alfred Hitchcock decided not to cast him because of the box office failure of Vertigo (1958), which Hitchcock blamed on Stewart for looking “too old” and chose Grant instead, even though he was actually four years older.
• Is portrayed by John Gavin in Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (1980) and by Michael-John Wolfe in The Aviator (2004)
• In 1957, he accepted the Oscar for “Best Actress in a Leading Role” on behalf of Ingrid Bergman, who wasn’t present at the awards ceremony
• Alfred Hitchcock once toyed with the idea of casting him as Hamlet (in what would have been a modern-dress film version of William Shakespeare’s play), but he never got around to it.
• Became the director of Fabergé cosmetics firm in 1966.
• Maintained a year-round suntan to avoid wearing make up.
• Premiere Magazine ranked him as the #1 Movie Star of All Time in their “Stars in Our Constellation” feature (2005).
• Participated in an experimental psychotherapy program in which he was prescribed LSD. Betsy Drake encouraged him to take the drug (as part of a medical experiment), as he wanted to examine his failed marriages. He underwent about 100 sessions, and said that he benefited greatly from them. However in later life he said he would not have experimented with LSD if he had known about the side-effects, and asked people not to use drugs.
• When Sophia Loren visited Los Angeles during the filming of An Affair to Remember (1957), Grant inundated her with dozens of phone calls and hundreds of flowers – even though she had called the affair off.
• Fell madly in love with Sophia Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion (1957) when he was 53 and she was 22. At the time, Grant was still married to actress Betsy Drake, and Loren was involved with 45-year-old producer Carlo Ponti, who was also married. Both men eventually separated from their wives and proposed to Loren at the same time; she chose Ponti.
• Was still in love with Sophia Loren when it came time for them to film Houseboat (1958). She went to director Melville Shavelson, in tears, complaining that Grant was chasing her again – she had told Grant she was in love with Carlo Ponti, but he didn’t believe her.
• Often spoke of his relationship with Sophia Loren as one of the most passionate romances in his life. She was 31 years his junior.
• Director Leo McCarey accused Grant of ripping off his persona during the time they shot The Awful Truth (1937) and using it as his own to become world-famous. What McCarey failed to notice was that many aspects of Grant’s image were already developed in Sylvia Scarlett (1935), an otherwise poor Katharine Hepburn-George Cukor picture made two years before “The Awful Truth”, and that his comic timing and versatility as an actor were all his own. Although ill at ease about it, they collaborated again several times.
• Was largely self-educated as he had dropped out of school at age 14. He was, however, a voracious reader throughout life.
• John Cleese’s character in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) was named “Archie Leach” after Grant’s real name.
• Was hyperopic or “far-sighted.” That is why in many publicity stills, he is seen holding a pair of glasses.
• In His Girl Friday (1940), his character remarks, “Archie Leach said that”, a reference to his real name.
• The late Christopher Reeve said that he based his portrayal of Clark Kent in the Superman films on Grant in the early part of his career.
• He was voted the 6th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• According to his will (dated 26th November 1984), his body was to be cremated and no funeral service held. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
• Was named #2 on The Greatest Screen Legends actor list by the American Film Institute.
• Paramount Pictures named him Cary Grant while he began his film career, because the similarity of the name to Gary Cooper, their biggest male star, (C.G. being an inversion of G.C.) and possibly because Clark Gable had the same initials. Gable and Cooper were born with their last names, however, with Grant having been born Archibald Leach.
• People were surprised by his retirement in 1966 and, despite the attempts of directors as important as Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, and even Stanley Kubrick to get him out of retirement and into their films, he never worked again.
• He remained close to Barbara Hutton’s son Lance Reventlow after their divorce. The boy regularly stayed with Grant on some weekends. Grant referred to him as his son, was devastated when he died in a plane crash and helped Barbara with the funeral arrangements.
• Douglas Fairbanks was his boyhood idol, with Fairbanks’ “healthy” tan being the inspiration for Grant’s constantly dark skin.
• Thanks mainly to the strength and physical dexterity he gained as an acrobat when he was young, he did a majority of his own stunts during his film career (far more than people would think).
• Biography in: “Who’s Who in Comedy” by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 191-193. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
• Although he became a Paramount Pictures contract player early in his film career, when the contract was up he made an unusual decision for the time: he decided to freelance. Because his films were so successful at the box office, he was able to work at any studio he chose for the majority of his career.
• Turned down roles opposite Audrey Hepburn in both Roman Holiday (1953) and Sabrina (1954); later he starred with her in Charade (1963).
• Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 15 October 2002.
• On American Film Institute’s list of top 100 U.S. love stories, compiled in June 2002, Grant led all actors with six of his films on the list. His An Affair to Remember (1957) was ranked #5; followed by: #44 The Philadelphia Story (1940) #46 To Catch a Thief (1955) #51 Bringing Up Baby (1938) #77 The Awful Truth (1937) #86 Notorious (1946)
• Was a great fan of Elvis Presley and attended his Las Vegas shows. He is seen discussing Elvis’ performance with him backstage during the closing credits of Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (1970).
• He never said “Judy, Judy, Judy” in the movies, which he credits to Larry Storch, but he did say “Susan, Susan, Susan” in Bringing Up Baby (1938).
• Refused the part of Humbert in Lolita (1962).
• Donated his entire salary for Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) ($100,000) to the U.S. War Relief Fund.
• Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#22). [1995]
• Turned down the role of James Bond in Dr. No (1962), believing himself to be too old at 58 to play the character.
• He once phoned hotel mogul Conrad Hilton in Istanbul, Turkey, to find out why his breakfast order at the Plaza Hotel, which called for muffins, came with only 1-1/2 English muffins instead of two. When Grant insisted that the explanation (a hotel efficiency report had found that most people ate only three of the four halves brought to them) still resulted in being cheated out of a half, the Plaza Hotel changed its policy and began serving two complete muffins with breakfast. From then on, Grant often spoke of forming an English Muffin-Lovers Society, members of which would be required to report any hotel or restaurant that listed muffins on the menu and then served fewer than two.
• He gave his entire fee for The Philadelphia Story (1940) to the British war effort.
• Ashes scattered in California, USA.
• From 1932-44 he shared a house with Randolph Scott, whom he met on Hot Saturday (1932). Scott often jokingly referred to Grant as his spouse. The 1940 census report shows Scott as head of household and Grant as his partner. Many studio heads threatened not to employ them together, unless they lived separately. Grant’s marriage to Barbara Hutton permanently dissolved his living arrangement with Scott.
• Suffered a major stroke prior to performing in his one man show “An Evening With Cary Grant” at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Iowa, on November 29, 1986. Died later that night at St. Luke’s Hospital at 11:22 p.m.
• Ian Fleming modeled the James Bond character partially with Grant in mind.
• Became a father for the 1st time at age of 62 when his 4th wife Dyan Cannon gave birth to their daughter Jennifer Diane Grant (aka Jennifer Grant) on February 26, 1966.
• Ranked #7 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time” list. [October 1997]

Cary Grant Filmography

Cary Grant Awards