Cary Grant, Hollywood’s Leading Man By The Northern Rose

CARY GRANT

Cary Grant was born as Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 in Bristol, England. He did not have a happy childhood. His father was an alcoholic and his mother suffered from clinical depression. Four years before Grant was born his older brother passed away from tuberculosis meningitis, the family structure only collapsed from there. Biographers of the actor have claimed that Grant’s mother blamed herself for her sons death and was never able to recover from unnecessary guilt. Because of this Grant did not receive much affection as a child. Later in life Grant would speak about his relationship with his mother as being so bad that he shadowed those negative experiences into poor treatment of women later on. He would also say that it took him a long time to realize that his mother was simply being over protective since she was terrified of loosing another child.

              When Cary Grant was nine years old his life was irrevocably changed. His father placed his mother into Glenside Hospital. This was a mental hospital for the “insane.” It is important to note that most inmates within insane asylums were not actually insane, they suffered from mental illnesses that could have been treated properly if mental illness was seen as being a real thing. We can be certain that Elsie Leach’s life after this point was not a pleasant one.

              When his mother was put into the mental hospital Grant’s father simply told them that she was going away on a long vacation, he would later simply say that she had died. Within a year his father remarried and ‘started a new family.’ It would not be until Grant was thirty-one, and his father was on his death bed, that he would discover that his mother was still alive. After twenty-one years of being locked within an asylum Grant ran to rescue the mother did not know.

              One thing that his mother did give him was a love of theater. Before she was sent away, the pair would often attend the cinema and enjoy the likes of Charlie Chapman, Fatty Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, and many more. At a young age Grant connected with a troupe of acrobatic dancers who trained him as a stilt walker and allowed him to tour with them.

              Grant was good at school, but he was known for being a trouble maker and never doing his homework. He probably never did his homework because he spent his time after school doing something he found much more important, hanging out at theaters. He would do odd jobs around the theater, supposedly to escape his home life.

              In 1918 he would get expelled from school. Some say that he did this on purpose. Three days after his expulsion he rejoined the acrobatic troupe. At this point in life Grant’s father had moved away for a better job, he seemingly had no problem leaving his underaged son behind. British authorities demanded answers from the father and threatened action against him. Because of this Grant’s father signed a three-year contract with the troupe requiring Grant to work for them in return for room and board. Looking back at this, it is clear that the troupe members cared for the boy. Yet, for a father to simply abandon his son is unfortunate.

              Cary Grant quickly became a successful vaudeville actor. When he came of age he decided to leave the troupe so that he could stay in the United States after they preformed an extended stay there. He found a varied amount of success in America. His vaudeville was considered to be great, yet his acting skills were found to be a bit lacking. He was given a large variety of roles to play, including in some plays produced by the infamous Hammerstein. It is said that his charm saved him from being fired over bad acting.

              As with many other actors, Grant’s career had a setback when the Great Depression hit and productions got canceled due to a lack of funds. Luckily, he was one of the few lucky enough to find success in Hollywood. One of his first roles, in a production entitled Nikki, got him nation wide attention. By this time his acting had apparently gotten much better for it did not take him long to sign a four-year contract with Paramount Pictures. There was one catch though. Up until this point in time the infamous Cary Grant was still going by the name Archibald Alec Leach. Paramount required him to change his name to something that sounded more pleasant. Thus, Cary Grant was born.

              Grant wanted to become known as the “epitome of masculine glamour.” It is safe to say that he was successful. In fact, the newly coined Grant had little trouble finding success in Hollywood. He made his feature film debut in the 1932 production of This is the Night. He never had to look back. He was quickly type cast as the suave playboy and would go on to star alongside the likes of Ingrid Bergman, Joan Fontain, and both of the famous Hepburn’s.  

By The Northern Rose.