Grant, Cary

1904–1986

Actor

During the 1940s and 1950s, Cary Grant became the model of urbane, heterosexual masculinity for a generation of American filmgoers. Standing over six feet tall, Grant was strikingly handsome, and he was often cast as an upper-class character— such as C. K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story (1940)— whose charms made him irresistible to women. A popular romantic leading man from the 1930s through the 1960s, Grant's image of on-screen manhood evolved from that of a screwball comedian, featuring physical gags and self-deprecating wit, to that of a tanned, suave, self-contained hero.

Born in Bristol, England, as Archibald Alexander Leach, Grant grew up in modest circumstances. Coming to the United States in 1920, he found work on Broadway in New York City. By the 1930s ...