From a Bristol childhood to the height of Hollywood glamour, Cary Grant became the screen’s most polished leading man — urbane, funny, and quietly melancholy beneath the perfect suit.
Cary Grant was born in Bristol, England, on 18 January 1904. His birth name is recorded in sources as both Archibald Alec Leach and Archibald Alexander Leach, and both variants appear in the historical record. His father worked in a clothing factory, and his early life in Bristol was far from the glamour that would later define him. As a boy he was drawn to the music hall and the theatre, and he left school to join a troupe of acrobats and performers.
In 1920 he travelled to the United States with the Pender troupe, performing on the vaudeville stage. He stayed in America, worked his way through Broadway, and in the early 1930s signed with Paramount Pictures. After a series of early roles, he found his footing in comedy and adventure alike, and by the late 1930s he was one of Hollywood’s most reliable stars.
Grant’s great gift was lightness. In screwball comedies such as Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940), he could deliver a line at speed and still make it sound effortless. In romantic films such as The Philadelphia Story (1940) and An Affair to Remember (1957), he brought warmth and a hint of sadness to the perfect gentleman. Alfred Hitchcock used another side of him, the cool surface with something unsettled beneath, in Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946) and North by Northwest (1959).
He became an American citizen in 1942, and his screen career continued through the 1950s and into the 1960s, ending with Walk, Don’t Run (1966). After retiring from acting he remained a familiar public figure, devoted to his daughter Jennifer, who was born in 1966. Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa, on 29 November 1986, leaving behind a body of work that still defines what a movie star can be: elegant, funny, and endlessly watchable.