Cary Grant was born Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, England, 1904. Look up debonair in the dictionary and it will say “see Cary Grant”. Grant was born into a lower-class family and started work doing pantomime, acrobatics, and comedy in London music halls as part of Bob Pender’s troupe. The troupe traveled to America to perform and Archie decided to stay in America. His thick cockney accent made it hard for him to get acting jobs, so he shed it, and essentially created his own accent — a mid-atlantic blend of the aristocracy of Britain and New England. Can you spot young Archie in the below picture of the Pender Troupe?
He got his first film job in the 1932 movie This is the Night and went on to do 77 films.
Grant really came into himself in the George Cukor film Sylvia Scarlett in 1935. His early experience in comedy and acrobatics gave him perfect timing and physical grace. Critics have complained that Cary Grant was always visible in his performances, but Cary Grant was also a performance for the boy from Bristol.
The Biographical Dictionary of Film, by David Thomson, refers to Cary Grant as “the best and most important actor in the history of the cinema.”
Behold, some of his best works:
10. His Girl Friday (1940) — In this Howard Hawks film, Cary Grant plays the editor of a newspaper. His ex-wife (Rosalind Russell) is his star reporter. When she says she is quitting to remarry, he does everything he can to win her back.
“You’ve got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, ‘til death do us part.’ Why divorce doesn’t mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge.” — Walter Burns
9. Houseboat (1958) — If anyone could steal attention from Cary Grant, it would be la perfetta Sophia Loren. Houseboat was their second film together. Grant plays a wealthy widower that moves his kids onto a houseboat and hires Loren to be their nanny.
“It’s a leaky, broken down soggy derelict that’ll probably sink and dump us all into the river —- but I wouldn’t think of living any other place. Yeh, I’ll make a deal.” — Tom Winters
8. The Awful Truth (1937) — A screwball comedy in which a couple in the process of divorce do their best to sabotage each other’s new romantic endeavors. The film is directed by Leo McCarey and costars Irene Dunne.
“Well you should be, because you’re wrong about things being different because they’re not the same. Things are different except in a different way. You’re still the same, only I’ve been a fool… but I’m not now.” — Jerry Warriner
7. Only Angels Have Wings (1939) — In an extremely thoughtful film from Howard Hawks, Cary Grant plays the manager of an airmail company in South America. The work is extremely dangerous and Grant must risk his employees to get an important contract. Amidst the turmoil as pilots are lost, two women arrive, played by Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth (in her first major role).
“Sure it was your fault. You were gonna have dinner with him, the Dutchman hired him, I sent him up on schedule, the fog came in, a tree got in the way. All your fault. Forget it, unless you want the honor.” — Geoff Carter
6. Charade (1963) — The latest film in this list brings together Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn under director Stanley Donen (best known for Funny Face and Singin’ in the Rain). The two most stylish actors in the world chase through the streets of Paris in a suspense thriller that critics have said marks the end of Hollywood’s golden age.
“This is a ludicrous situation. I can think of a dozen men who are just longing to use my shower.” — Reggie Lampert
5. Holiday (1938) — George Cukor directs Grant and Hepburn for the second time in this story about a man that gets engaged after knowing a girl for less than two weeks and then we he goes to meet the family he simultaneously realizes he has little in common with the girl and starts to fall for her sister.
“Compared to the life I lead, the last man in a chain gang thoroughly enjoys himself.” — Linda Seton
4. Notorious (1946) — Alfred Hitchcock in the film that more than any other shows his genius for camera shots and setups, directs Cary Grant as a spy that recruits Ingrid Bergman to infiltrate the household of an enemy spy (Claude Rains).
“Miss Huberman is first, last, and always not a lady. She may be risking her life, but when it comes to being a lady, she doesn’t hold a candle to your wife, sitting in Washington, playing bridge with three other ladies of great honor and virtue.” — Devlin
3. The Philadelphia Story (1940) — Katherine Hepburn so wanted to make this film that she bought the rights to the play and recruited the director (George Cukor) and co-stars Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant.
The film puts Hepburn’s character into a romantic quadrangle with Cary Grant as her ex-husband, Jimmy Stewart as a reporter sent to get the story on her family, and John Howard as the man she’s supposed to be marrying.
“Aaah, that’s the old redhead. No bitterness, no recrimination, just a good swift left to the jaw.” — C.K. Dexter Haven
2. Bringing Up Baby (1938) — the movie that defines screwball. Director Howard Hawks brings together Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn for the first time. They would end up doing four films together (three of which are in this list).
The film is absolutely nuts and Grant plays well against type as a socially inept paleontologist and even does a cross-dressing scene. If it doesn’t sound crazy enough for you, yet — Baby is a leopard.
“Now it isn’t that I don’t like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I’m strangely drawn toward you, but — well, there haven’t been any quiet moments.” — David Huxley
1. North by Northwest (1959) — Alfred Hitchcock puts Cary Grant through his paces in a espionage film that crosses the US.
Grant plays an advertising executive who, through a case of mistaken identity is pursued by agents from a mysterious organization.
This is the film in which I fell in love with Cary Grant. It was just a simple scene — Grant walks down some stairs — but he does it with such grace that it blew my mind.
“Not that I mind a slight case of abduction now and then, but I have tickets for the theater this evening, to a show I was looking forward to and I get, well, kind of *unreasonable* about things like that.” — Roger Thornhill
Films that almost made the list include: Arsenic and Old Lace, To Catch a Thief, An Affair to Remember, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Topper, Gunga Din, The Bishop’s Wife, Indiscreet, and The Grass is Greener.
What would you have put on your list?
