to my tribute to the greatest actor of all time, Cary Grant. Scroll down to see lots of pictures and learn some facts. I also have all the movies he ever made listed here. I never get tired of watching my Cary Grant movies. He had a special gift in acting and a way of attracting the ladies. I tell everyone that if I had born earlier, I would have been Mrs. Cary Grant. ;D I think the thing that attracted me to him was the fact that he was so real, even when acting. He put a bit of himself in every part he played. He could be dark and mysterious, yet light and funny at the same time. And he was without a doubt the most handsome man in his time. So sit back and get lost in the eyes of the only other man besides my husband to capture my heart...

On January 18, 1904, Archibald Alexander Leach was born in Bristol, England. His parents, Elsie and Elias had no idea what a great man their son would become. Neither did the rest of the world for that matter. Archibald Leach was baptized into the Episcopal faith on February 8, 1904. In 1918 Archie Leach got a job touring with The Bob Pender Troup for $2.38 U.S. currency a week. There he learned all the acrobatic stunts he would later use in his movies.

Archie Leach age 5

Archie spent time doing Broadway shows in New York. He was happy with that for awhile, but it didn't satisfy him. He didn't like the ups and downs and suddens closure of shows. He also was not happy with the $300~$400 a week salaries he had been making for years. During his broadway career, he had been introduced to many big name actors from Hollywood. He decided to head West and see what the movies had to offer. He went from Archibald Leach to Cary Lockwood to Cary Grant...The rest is history.

Contrary to popular belief, Mae West did not discover Cary Grant. In his first year at Paramount, Cary made seven movies and none of them included Mae West. He wasn't the star in his first movies. He had second lead parts and some were even appearances. It was not until his 5th film called Blonde Venus that he worked in a film that anyone cared about. It starred Marlene Dietrich who was a major star at that time.  Blonde Venus was good for Cary's career and is probably why he was brought to Mae West's attention. She spotted him on Paramount's lot was was immediately attracted to him.

Her exact words were, "If he can talk, I'll take him." This movie also helped Cary's career because Mae West was also a big star and great care was taken in making her movies. The movie was a hit. Paramount put them together again in I'm No Angel.

Cary's film career lasted for 34 years. He made more than a quarter of his pictures in the first four years of his career. The studio didn't know what Cary was or who he might be. Neither did Cary. He was beginning to have a fore site of what he would like to become. Finally the movie Sylvia Scarlett liberated Cary Grant as an actor. He had never worked under the direction of anyone like George Cukor before and he liked what it did for him. To this point, Cary was just a successful, good-looking actor, but he had no particular identity. The difference between She Done Him Wrong and Sylvia Scarlett is simply put...amazing!

From Topper in 1937 to Suspicion in 1941, we saw a period of Cary Grant that forever changed our images of him. He placed in unlooseable grip on our imaginations and our affections. This came about, I believe from his excitement about what he was discovering about himself. He was trying things out for himself. His excitement and had an infectious effect on everyone around him and carried over into his movies. When it came time to re~new his contract with Paramount, Cary made the decision not to re~new. He was not going to accept other people's judgements about what was right for him and his career.

After leaving Paramount, Cary did some scre~ball comed movies with RKO, including, Topper, Bringing Up Baby, The Awful Truth, The Philadelphia Story and His Girl Friday. It seemed that Cary had found his character. He truly did his best at being funny. Distractedness was something Cary did better than anyone.  It became his comic signature.

Only true die~hard Cary Grant fans can appreciate the serious movies he made after having fun for a few years. Pictures like The Howard's of Virginia, In Name Only and Penny Serenade. They were so uncharacteristc after the screw~ball comedies. But you have to give him credit for trying. Personally, I love all three of those movies and never get tired of watching either one of them. But then again, I'm a die~hard true blue Cary Grant fan.

Cary Grant's career survived many ups and downs. He had the disadvantage of the Great Depression and World War 2 to deal with as far as box office hits. There were not alot of movie goers back then because of the circumstances. He also survived 4 failed marriages. His first wife, Virginia Cherill was Mrs. Cary Grant from February 10, 1934 to March 26, 1935. Barbara Hutton was Mrs. Cary Grant from July 8, 1942 to August 30, 1945. Betsy Drake was Mrs. Cary Grant from December 25, 1949 to August 14, 1962. Dyan Cannon was Mrs. Cary Grant from July 22, 1965 to

March 21, 1968. She also gave him his only child, a daughter named Jennifer who was born on February 26, 1966.  Barbara Harris is still Mrs. Cary Grant and has been since April 11, 1981.

Even rumors of homosexuality couldn't stop this suave and debonior man from living up to his expectations of himself. He never let rumors, failed movies, failed marriages or life to get in the way of him being Cary Grant. He was impeccable, he was magic, he was style, he was class. From the top of his perfectly smoothed hair to bottom of his perfectly shined shoes, he was Cary Grant. On November 29, 1986, Cary Grant had a massive stroke in Davenport Iowa and died at 11:22 p.m. He died in as humble surroundings as his character. The world may have lost a great actor that night, but his magic will always live on in those who knew him best, his fans...

Although Cary Grant never received an oscar for any of his movies, he was presented a special award for his lifetime achievements by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on April 7, 1970. He was 66 years old. Cary said that it was probably the greatest honor of his life to have the respect of his colleagues.

Cary Grant's 76 movies The ones highlighted in pink are the ones I own.

Singapore Sue ~ 1931 Sinners In the Sun ~ 1932 Merrily We Go To Hell ~ 1932 Madame Butterfly ~ 1932 Hot Saturday ~ 1932 Devil and the Deep ~ 1932 Blonde Venus ~ 1932 This Is the Night ~ 1932 Woman Accused ~ 1933 She Done Him Wrong ~ 1933 The Eagle and the Hawk ~ 1933 Gambling Ship ~ 1933 I'm No Angel ~ 1933 Alice In Wonderland ~ 1933 Thirty Day Princess ~ 1934 Born To Be Bad ~ 1934 Kiss and Make Up ~ 1934 Ladies Should Listen ~ 1934 Sylvia Scarlett ~ 1935 Pirate Party on Catalina Isle ~ 1935 The Last Outpost ~ 1935 Enter Madame ~ 1935 Wings In the Dark ~ 1935 The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss ~ 1936 Big Brown Eyes ~ 1936 Suzy ~ 1936 Wedding Present ~ 1936 Topper ~ 1937 When You're In Love ~ 1937 The Toast of New York ~ 1937 The Awful Truth ~ 1937 Holiday ~ 1938 Bringing Up Baby ~ 1938 In Name Only ~ 1939 Gunga Din ~ 1939 Only Angels Have Wings ~ 1939 The Philadelphia Story ~ 1940 The Howards of Virginia ~ 1940 His Girl Friday ~ 1940 My Favorite Wife ~ 1940 Suspicion ~ 1940 Penny Serenade ~ 1940 Once Upon A Honeymoon ~ 1942 The Talk of the Town ~ 1942 Mr. Lucky ~ 1943 Destination Tokyo ~ 1943 None But the Lonely Heart ~ 1944 Road To Victory ~ 1944 Once Upon A Time ~ 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace ~ 1944 Notorious ~ 1946 Night and Day ~ 1946 Without Reservations ~ 1946 The Bishop's Wife ~ 1947 The Bachelor and the BobbySoxer ~ 1947 Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse ~ 1948 Every Girl Should Be Married ~ 1948 I Was A Male War Bride ~ 1949 Crisis ~ 1950 People Will Talk ~ 1951 Monkey Business ~ 1952 Room For One More ~ 1952 Dream Wife ~ 1953 To Catch A Thief ~ 1955 Kiss Them for Me ~ 1957 An Affair To Remember ~ 1957 The Pride and the Passion ~ 1957 Houseboat ~ 1958 Indiscreet ~ 1958 Operation Petticoat ~ 1959 North By Northwest ~ 1959 The Grass Is Greener ~ 1960 That Touch of Mink ~ 1962 Charade ~ 1963 Father Goose ~ 1964 Walk Don't Run ~ 1966

Thank you for visiting my tribute to Cary Grant. He is without a doubt my favorite actor of all time. He worked in a time when actors earned their money. He truly is an actor. If you're a Cary Grant fan, e~mail me and let me know. I'm curious to know how many of us their are out there.

Thank you Lynn for this wonderful background set. You're so awesome. Please don't take this set without permission from Lynn, it was made especially for me.