In Memoriam: Cary Grant's Best Movies & Career Highlights
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Cary Grant
Cary Grant enjoyed one of Hollywood's great careers as a comedic, dramatic, and romantic leading man. The versatile talent ended up trailing only Humphrey Bogart on the AFI's "100 Years... 100 Stars" list of Hollywood's greatest male actors. Explore his memorable three-decade career, awards success, life, and relationships in this gallery!
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Cary Grant
Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on Jan. 18, 1904, in Horfield, Bristol, England. He came to the United States when he was 16 years old as part of a vaudeville performing troupe, and called the country home thereafter. In the 1920s, he continued his vaudeville performances and landed parts in musical and theatre productions. A role in the 1931 stage musical Nikki earned him praise which soon after launched his film career.
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'This Is the Night'
In late 1931, Grant signed a contract with Paramount Pictures, and later made his screen debut in little-known 1932 comedy This Is the Night. He'd appear in many drama and crime films over the few years that followed, but it wasn't until the late 1930s that the actor began to establish himself as a popular and acclaimed star.
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'His Girl Friday'
Cary Grant truly put himself on the map with a run of comedy films in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Several of these titles were collaborations with actress Irene Dunne - such as The Awful Truth - and Katherine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story. He also starred alongside Rosalind Russell in 1940's His Girl Friday, which is often cited as one of the greatest comedies of all time.
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'Penny Serenade'
While Grant was first renowned for his witty and suave roles of the late 1930s and '40s, he also began to receive acclaim for his dramatic acting ability around the same time. In 1941, his performance in Penny Serenade with Irene Dunne earned him his first of two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor. The other nomination followed in 1944 for None But the Lonely Heart, though the actor surprisingly never took home a conventional Oscar win.
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Cary Grant, 1970
The Academy did, however, step up and recognize the legendary actor's career in 1970, when he was awarded an Honorary Oscar. The then 66-year-old Grant attended at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to accept the honour from Frank Sinatra.
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'Suspicion'
Following his run of successful comedies and dramas, Grant put his charm to good use in multiple deceptive roles in Alfred Hitchcock crime and thriller movies. The actor was at his most devious in 1941's Suspicion, in which he plays a man who may have sinister intentions behind a marriage to his wife, played by Joan Fontaine. His other Hitchcock collaboration of the '40s was Notorious with Ingrid Bergman.
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'North by Northwest'
Hitchcock films were among Grant's best projects of the 1950s as well. He starred in To Catch a Thief in 1955, and then played what's probably his best-known role as "Roger Thornhill" in 1959's North by Northwest. Grant delivers one of his best performances as a man embroiled in a case of mistaken identity in the epic Hitchcock thriller.
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'Charade'
Grant's acting career began to wind down following the 1950s and North by Northwest. Around this time, he'd also transitioned to roles in dramas and romantic films, which made him a favourite at the Golden Globes. Between 1958 and 1963, he earned five Golden Globe nominations as well as a BAFTA nomination for roles in films including Indiscreet, Operation Petticoat, and Charade with Audrey Hepburn.
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'Walk Don't Run'
The actor then wrapped up his film career with the 1966 movie Walk Don't Run. He retired from acting at the age of 64 and made several business pursuits. He returned to the film world a few years late for his Honorary Oscar in 1970, and also received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1981.