Cary Grant- Cool to the End

Born in England but becoming US citizen during WWII, Cary Grant would become an American acting icon. He's been the subject of historians, biographers, and Turner Movies Classics favorite.

I've seen a few of his movies and he can be a lot of fun to watch.

Where I would normally write a bio, this week I'm going to write about what I liked about Cary Grant.

I have always liked the classic movies from the 1930s to the present. One weekend when I was sick, I binge watched the Katherine Hepburn-Cary Grant trilogy of movies. I've since discovered they made four movies, but the initial introduction were the best remembered classics. Holiday was not successful in it's initial theatrical run, but it had a cute-meet, bad relationships, and humor. Bringing up Baby is a screwball classic. It wasn't the first screwball movie, but it was funny and has been an influence on screwball comedies ever since. Katherine Hepburn was never funnier. The fast talking was new to movies. The final movie of that trilogy was the Academy Award winning Philadelphia Story. It had the humor, romance, love triangles, and Cary Grant at his smarmiest and enjoyable.

Grant had a lock on romantic comedies in the 1930s to the 1950s. I don't know if his five marriages helped that image. He was a confident fast talking-fast thinking lead. His suits were pressed and he could get out of a scrape without messing his hair. When he switched to drama, he still had beautiful co-stars and fast moving suspense.

Over the years he made a bunch of movies I would still watch if I had the free time:

Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House (with Myrna Loy, who I blogged about back in January 2016)

Arsenic and Old Lace (dark comedy about murder)

My Favorite Wife

Charade

Bishops Wife

An Affair to Remember (not a favorite but other people like it)

In spite of all these classics, he was nominated for two Academy Awatrds but never won.

He wasn't that tough guy actor that many men watch. That romantic lead, does pigeonhole an actor. He was the best at it so the Academy screwed up on that. The guy stayed cool his entire career. Many male actors think they're still cool even after they are too old and it's embarrassing, but not Grant. He married a much younger Dyan Cannon and retired in 1966 after the birth of his daughter. His last movie was called Walk Don't Run.

There are stories that he tried LSD in the sixties. He was a big Elvis Presley fan, even appearing in the movie, Elvis-That's the Way it Is.

Cary Grant died November 30, 1986 after having a stroke.

Here's famous scene from Bringing Up Baby