Actor Cary Grant is known as “the second of the greats” after Humphrey Bogart, the winner of an honorary Oscar for achievements in the field of cinematography and the star of more than 70 films. And also as one of the most famous Hollywood womanizers of all time!
Difficult childhood
Archibald Alexander Leach, known as Cary Grant, was born on January 18, 1904, in Bristol, UK. Four years earlier, his older brother died of tuberculous meningitis, his mother blamed herself for his death, so she took care of her youngest son with all her might.
Alas, she suffered from clinical depression, and when the boy was 9 years old, his father placed his wife in a psychiatric clinic. The son was told that his mother left, and then died.
By that time, the guy already had experience in public performances, and then received a scholarship to study at a theater school. The father had problems with alcohol, soon he married for the second time: it turned out that he had no time to raise his son.
At the age of 14, Archie joined a troupe of traveling acrobats and performed with them, as well as in mobile theaters. Childhood left a harsh imprint on his life, and he really blossomed only in 1932, when at the age of 28 he reached Hollywood.
Career takeoff
The Paramount studio managers liked the guy with an interesting accent, and they came up with the pseudonym Cary Grant for him. His first bright film role was the lover of actress Mae West in the film She Treated Him Unfairly (1933). And then everything went like clockwork…
Two years later, Carey’s father confessed to his son that his mother was alive before he died. Grant was able to get her out of the hospital, settled her in a London apartment, where she lived for another 40 years, but they never became really close.
First adventures
Before arriving in the United States, Cary Grant had almost no love experience: he considered himself unattractive and thought that he would be as unlucky in life as his parents. But after the first shooting, he discovered a whole world of beautiful actresses!
The actor’s first wife was Virginia Cherill, known for Charlie Chaplin’s film City Lights (1931). At that time, she was worried about the lack of good offers for filming, and the attention of a handsome actor was very useful. They married in 1934, but broke up a year later: Virginia accused him of violence.
After the divorce, she demanded a thousand dollars a week from the actor’s fees, but achieved nothing. Virginia left her film career and married twice more: to Earl George Child-Villers, receiving the title, and then to director Florian Martini, with whom she lived for almost half a century.
After a difficult divorce, Grant developed depression, took medication for many years, and even became addicted to LSD. In 1937-1939, he dated actress Phyllis Brooks, but it did not come to the wedding.
In 1942, he got together with millionaire Barbara Hutton, who was nicknamed “the poor little rich girl”: she had squandered a huge inheritance all her life. Grant is her third husband (from 1942 to 1945) and the only one of the seven who did not marry her for money.
This couple looked strange: an actor who had not yet recovered from depression and an insecure rich psychopath. They divorced by mutual consent and remained on good terms.
Barbara was married four more times, she continued to naively help her men. After the death of her son in 1972, she fell into depression, and by the time of her death – six years later – out of 80 million dollars received in 1924, only about three thousand remained.
Beautiful Betsy
In 1948, in London, fate brought Grant together with the theater star Betsy Drake, who was 19 years younger than the actor. He persuaded her to move to Hollywood and start acting in films.
In 1949, they played a magnificent wedding. The actress’s business went uphill, she often starred in films, often with her husband.
This couple was exemplary… until in 1957, Grant became interested in Sophia Loren and kicked Betsy out of the set of the film Houseboat, forcing the director to take his new passion in the lead role.
Betsy could not forgive him, although they divorced only in 1962 (and the affair with Sophie did not last even a year). She left the cinema and never married again.
Barbara and Jennifer
The actor’s popularity in the cinema grew. Ian Fleming regretted that Grant was already under 60 and could not play James Bond.
In 1965, he suddenly married actress Barbara Cannon, who was 33 years younger than him.
On February 26, 1966, the couple had a daughter, Jennifer, the actor’s only child.
In 1968, they divorced. Cannon could not accept the fact that her husband used LSD and sometimes behaved strangely.
Barbara married again, starred in films until the mid-90s. Cary Grant left the film industry after his divorce and retired.
Cynthia the Deceiver
In the late 60s, Carey had a short-lived affair with actress Cynthia Buron. She really wanted to marry a rich and popular actor, but he did not want to. Then she became pregnant by a young guy who looked like Grant in his youth, and said that it was Cary Grant who was the father of her daughter. And I even wrote his name on the birth certificate!
Grant offered to take a paternity test, but she failed to appear in court three times and was forced to remove his name from the documents.
The last novel
In the 1970s, Cary Grant dated younger and younger girls, and in 1979 he moved in with Barbara Harris, who was 43 years younger. Two years later, they got married.
Relatives recall that Carey has never been as happy as in recent years. His wife was not an actress and did not claim an inheritance.
On November 29, 1986, Grant felt ill on the set of a television program, he was rushed to the hospital, where he died of a stroke in the arms of his last wife the same evening.
Photo: Getty images