Haunted Idol The Story of The Real Cary Grant

About this book

To millions of moviegoers around the world Cary Grant epitomizes the glamour and the style of Hollywood in its golden years. With his dark hair and mischievous smile he is was and always will be one of the great stars and in the decade since his death the incandescence of his image on the screen has not dimmed. Born Archie Leach the only child of a poor tailors presser and an unstable mother in Bristol in 1904 Cary Grant became what the critic Pauline Kael once memorably called the "fairy tale hero". Handsome debonair endlessly attractive and yet never seeming to take himself seriously he was pursued by some of the most beautiful women in the history of the cinema among them Marlene Dietrich Sophia Loren Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. In a career spanning 72 films he appeared with such notable co-stars as Mae West Katherine Hepburn Ingrid Bergman Grace Kelly. He was also directed by some of Hollywoods greatest directors including Howard Hawks Alfred Hitchcock Leo McCarey George Cukor Stanley Donen and Frank Capra. Grant was five times married to a succession of beautiful women including the heiress Barbara Hutton and the actress Dyan Cannon and sustained a tortured relationship with money.