Grant, Cary, 1904–86, British movie actor, b. Bristol as Archibald Alexander Leach. He began on stage in 1923 and made his first film in 1932. An almost immediate hit, Grant was a leading star until his retirement in 1966, embodying debonair British charm and elegance in a broad range of comic and romantic roles. Among his films are She Done Him Wrong (1932), The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Holiday (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Notorious (1946), North by Northwest (1959), and Charade (1963).

Bibliography

See biographies by A. Govoni (1972), C. Higham (1986), and G. McCann (1997).

Grant, Cary

orig. Archibald Alexander Leach

Cary Grant, 1957

(credit: The Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive, New York City)

(born Jan. 18, 1904, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng.—died Nov. 29, 1986, Davenport, Iowa, U.S.) British-born U.S. film actor. He performed with an acrobatic comedy troupe in England before he found parts in stage musicals. He made his film debut in This Is the Night (1932) and earned stardom with Mae West in She Done Him Wrong (1933). His debonair charm and good looks, combined with a distinctive voice, made him a longtime popular star in sophisticated comedies such as Topper (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), and The Philadelphia Story (1941). He also starred in Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). He received an honorary Academy Award in 1970.

Grant, Cary (b. Archibald Alexander Leach) (1904–86) film actor; born in Bristol, England. Running away from home at age 13, he became a song-and-dance man, first arriving in New York in 1920 with an acrobatic troupe. Returning to London in 1923, he began appearing in musical comedies where he was discovered by stage producer Arthur Hammerstein, who brought him back to New York. He made his movie debut in This Is the Night (1932) and went on to become one of the most popular actors of his time, a suave, debonair, seemingly ageless performer in comedies, romances, and adventure films. Offscreen he had five wives and one daughter and was alleged at various times to have been everything from a cheapskate to a user of LSD. Retiring in 1966, he received a special Academy Award in 1970.