Born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England, to divorced parents, the future actor lived in extreme poverty, scraping for a living like a character out of a Dickens novel. It has often been said that Archie Leach deliberately turned himself into the urbane Cary Grant as a means of obliterating any memory of his past. While a teenager, he joined an acrobatic act and came to America with them in 1920. He quit the act in the United States and hit the vaudeville circuit with a mind-reading routine. None too successful in America, he returned to England in 1923 and broke into the theater, playing modest roles in musical comedies. Spotted on the London stage, he was hired for an Oscar Hammerstein musical on Broadway called Golden Dawn.
His stage career was soon well established. With the advent of sound motion pictures, Cary Grant (like so many other stage-trained actors) saw an opportunity to make big money. He went to Hollywood but managed only to get a job at Paramount feeding lines to an actress who was being screentested. The actress remains unknown; Cary Grant was discovered. He had been right—there was big money to be made in Hollywood; his starting salary was $450 per week. His first film was a musical, This Is the Night (1932), in which he had a modest role. In a string of films he had supporting parts, including the heavy who nearly destroys MARLENE DIETRICH in Blonde Venus (1932) and MAE WEST's foil in She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I'm No Angel (1933). He kept getting plenty of work, but he hadn't truly become a star, as evidenced by his having to wear a moustache in The Last Outpost (1935).
1936 was the year that Cary Grant suddenly began to shine at the box office. As is often the case, a combination of the right script, the right chemistry between costars, and the right director made an actor who had previously appeared in 20 films suddenly catch on with the public. The movie was Sylvia Scarlett; his costar was KATHARINE HEPBURN; and the director was GEORGE CUKOR.
But Cary Grant's contract was finished with Paramount before Sylvia Scarlett was released. He was a free agent when he suddenly became a major star. In a unique arrangement, Cary Grant signed a nonexclusive contract with two studios, Columbia and RKO, and he even managed to win script approval. He was now master of his own fate, and very few stars have ever chosen their films more wisely than Cary Grant.
Cary Grant worked with Hollywood's most inspired directors. As a consequence, the actor starred in a substantial number of top-notch movies. For instance, Cary Grant appeared in HOWARD HAWKS's wonderful screwball comedies Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), I Was a Male War Bride (1949), and Monkey Business (1952). He also distinguished himself in a Hawks drama, Only Angels Have Wings (1939).
The number of quality films in which Cary Grant starred is staggering, and he was rarely between hit movies during his long career—with only one exception. In 1953–54, after one mediocre film, Dream Wife (1953), he disappeared from movie screens for nearly two years; it was generally assumed that none of the studios wanted a 50-year-old leading man (despite his youthful appearance). But the real reason he was absent from movie screens for two years had nothing to do with his lack of appeal: he had agreed to star in two films, but both deals fell through because of Cary Grant's own ambivalence about the parts. Had he actually played those two roles, there may have been that many more quality films to add to his already impressive list. The movies he was supposed to appear in were Sabrina (1954) and A Star Is Born (1954).
Cary Grant remained immensely popular throughout the late 1950s, and well into the 1960s. His last film, Walk Don't Run (1966), was a money-maker. But Cary Grant was offered the directorship of the Fabergé cosmetics company, and he opted to leave his movie career while he was still on top. Very few actors have walked away from the limelight as Cary Grant did. Even JIMMY CAGNEY returned to films after a 20- year retirement. But not Cary Grant. He was America's best-looking senior citizen, and movie fans the world over lamented his abandoning the silver screen.
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