Cary Grant's

Cary Grant's
Cary Grant's real name is Archibald Alexander Leach. He was born on 18-01-1904 in Horfield, Bristol, England. His parents were Elsie Maria and Elias James Leach, who worked in a factory. He attended Bishop Road Primary School and for just a few months North Street Wesleyan School in Stokes Croft. At age nine, he came home from school one day, he was told that his mother had gone off to a seaside resort. But the truth was that she had been placed in a mental hospital, where she would remain for years and he was never told about it. He left school at the age of fourteen, lying about his age and forging his father's signature on a letter to join Bob Pender's troupe of comedians. He learned pantomime as well as acrobatics as he toured with the Pender troupe in the English provinces, picked up a Cockney accent in the music halls in London, and in July 1920, became one of the eight Pender boys selected to go to the US. Their show on Broadway, "Good Times," ran for 456 performances. He went to Hollywood in 1931. He appeared as a leading man opposite Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus in 1932Mae West chose him for her leading man in two of her most successful films: She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel, which were successful at box office. Her another film "She Done Him Wrong" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and all these saved Paramount from bankruptcy. His first major comedy hit was Topper. The Awful Truth (1937) was his another pivotal film. After that he appeared in several classic romantic comedies including Holiday (1938) and Bringing Up Baby (1938), both opposite Katharine Hepburn; The Philadelphia Story (1940) with Hepburn and James Stewart; 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 (1939) with Douglas Fairbanks and Only Angels Have Wings (1939) with Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth and dramas Penny Serenade (1941) with Dunne and Suspicion (1941). In the 1950s and early 1960s, he had invented a man-of-the-world persona and a style "high comedy with polished words". In "To Catch a Thief" (1955), he and Grace Kelly were allowed to improvise some of the dialogue. His biggest box-office success was another Hitchcock 1950s film, North by Northwest (1959) made with Eva Marie Saint since Kelly was by that time Princess of Monaco. In 1963, he played opposite Audrey Hepburn in Charade directed by Stanley Donen. In 1981, Grant was accorded the Kennedy Center Honors. He died on 29-11-1986 in Davenport, Iowa, United States.