Download or read book Cary Grant written by Scott Eyman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Film historian and acclaimed New York Times bestselling biographer Scott Eyman has written the definitive, “captivating” (Associated Press) biography of Hollywood legend Cary Grant, one of the most accomplished—and beloved—actors of his generation, who remains as popular as ever today. Born Archibald Leach in 1904, he came to America as a teenaged acrobat to find fame and fortune, but he was always haunted by his past. His father was a feckless alcoholic, and his mother was committed to an asylum when Archie was eleven years old. He believed her to be dead until he was informed she was alive when he was thirty-one years old. Because of this experience, Grant would have difficulty forming close attachments throughout his life. He married five times and had numerous affairs. Despite a remarkable degree of success, Grant remained deeply conflicted about his past, his present, his basic identity, and even the public that worshipped him in movies such as Gunga Din, Notorious, and North by Northwest. This “estimable and empathetic biography” (The Washington Post) draws on Grant’s own papers, extensive archival research, and interviews with family and friends making it a definitive and “complex portrait of Hollywood’s original leading man” (Entertainment Weekly).

Download or read book The Man Who Wanted to Be Cary Grant written by Bob Pritchard and published by Austin Macauley. This book was released on 2024-06-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George is at rock bottom: His wife is leaving him, his job is gone, and even his kids can barely stand him. But instead of wallowing in despair, George opts for a drastic makeover. Inspired by his cinematic hero, Cary Grant, he sets out to reinvent himself, enlisting the help of modern-day mentors akin to Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering from 'My Fair Lady.' Suddenly, George is the toast of Hollywood. He rubs elbows with A-listers like Bradley Cooper and George Clooney, while acclaimed directors like Spielberg are captivated by his charm. But when George's estranged mother orchestrates a reunion with his childhood love, he's forced to ponder the cost of his new life. Is this glamorous façade worth losing the one who got away? The choice becomes even more complicated when he spots her in the arms of another man. Returning to LA, George finds that his friends and family have teamed up for the ultimate romantic intervention - with a celestial assist from Cary Grant himself.

Download or read book Cary Grant written by Charles Higham and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cary Grant written by Graham McCann and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-02 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than a biography, this is a savvy portrait of how Archie Leach, born to a poor working-class family in Bristol, England became Cary Grant, one of Hollywood's most irresistible and admired celebrities of all time.

Download or read book The Man Who Wanted to Be Cary Grant written by Bob Pritchard and published by Austin Macauley Publishers. This book was released on 2024-06-21 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George is at rock bottom: His wife is leaving him, his job is gone, and even his kids can barely stand him. But instead of wallowing in despair, George opts for a drastic makeover. Inspired by his cinematic hero, Cary Grant, he sets out to reinvent himself, enlisting the help of modern-day mentors akin to Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering from ‘My Fair Lady.’ Suddenly, George is the toast of Hollywood. He rubs elbows with A-listers like Bradley Cooper and George Clooney, while acclaimed directors like Spielberg are captivated by his charm. But when George’s estranged mother orchestrates a reunion with his childhood love, he’s forced to ponder the cost of his new life. Is this glamorous façade worth losing the one who got away? The choice becomes even more complicated when he spots her in the arms of another man. Returning to LA, George finds that his friends and family have teamed up for the ultimate romantic intervention – with a celestial assist from Cary Grant himself.

Download or read book Cary Grant the Making of a Hollywood Legend written by Mark Glancy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A definitive new account of the professional and personal life of one of Hollywood's most unforgettable, influential stars. Archie Leach was a poorly educated, working-class boy from a troubled family living in the backstreets of Bristol. Cary Grant was Hollywood's most debonair film star--the embodiment of worldly sophistication. Cary Grant: The Making of a Hollywood Legend tells the incredible story of how a sad, neglected boy became the suave, glamorous star many know and idolize. The first biography to be based on Grant's own personal papers, this book takes us on a fascinating journey from the actor's difficult childhood through years of struggle in music halls and vaudeville, a hit-and-miss career in Broadway musicals, and three decades of film stardom during Hollywood's golden age. Leaving no stone unturned, Cary Grant delves into all aspects of Grant's life, from the bitter realities of his impoverished childhood to his trailblazing role in Hollywood as a film star who defied the studio system and took control of his own career. Highlighting Grant's genius as an actor and a filmmaker, author Mark Glancy examines the crucial contributions Grant made to such classic films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Notorious (1946), An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959), Charade (1963) and Father Goose (1964). Glancy also explores Grant's private life with new candor and insight throughout the book's nine sections, illuminating how Grant's search for happiness and fulfillment lead him to having his first child at the age of 62 and embarking on his fifth marriage at the age of 77. With this biography--complete with a chronological filmography of the actor's work--Glancy provides a definitive account of the professional and personal life of one of Hollywood's most unforgettable, influential stars.

Download or read book Good Stuff written by Jennifer Grant and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2011-05-03 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jennifer Grant is the only child of Cary Grant, who was, and continues to be, the epitome of all that is elegant, sophisticated, and deft. Almost half a century after Cary Grant’s retirement from the screen, he remains the quintessential romantic comic movie star. He stopped making movies when his daughter was born so that he could be with her and raise her, which is just what he did. Good Stuff is an enchanting portrait of the profound and loving relationship between a daughter and her father, who just happens to be one of America’s most iconic male movie stars. Cary Grant’s own personal childhood archives were burned in World War I, and he took painstaking care to ensure that his daughter would have an accurate record of her early life. In Good Stuff, Jennifer Grant writes of their life together through her high school and college years until Grant’s death at the age of eighty-two. Cary Grant had a happy way of living, and he gave that to his daughter. He invented the phrase “good stuff” to mean happiness. For the last twenty years of his life, his daughter experienced the full vital passion of her father’s heart, and she now—delightfully—gives us a taste of it. She writes of the lessons he taught her; of the love he showed her; of his childhood as well as her own . . . Here are letters, notes, and funny cards written from father to daughter and those written from her to him . . . as well as bits of conversation between them (Cary Grant kept a tape recorder going for most of their time together). She writes of their life at 9966 Beverly Grove Drive, living in a farmhouse in the midst of Beverly Hills, playing, laughing, dining, and dancing through the thick and thin of Jennifer's growing up; the years of his work, his travels, his friendships with “old Hollywood royalty” (the Sinatras, the Pecks, the Poitiers, et al.) and with just plain-old royalty (the Rainiers) . . . We see Grant the playful dad; Grant the clown, sharing his gifts of laughter through his warm spirit; Grant teaching his daughter about life, about love, about boys, about manners and money, about acting and living. Cary Grant was given the indefinable incandescence of charm. He was a pip . . . Good Stuff captures his special quality. It gives us the magic of a father’s devotion (and goofball-ness) as it reveals a daughter’s special odyssey and education of loving, and being loved, by a dad who was Cary Grant.

Download or read book Cary Grant written by Marc Eliot and published by Crown Archetype. This book was released on 2009-02-04 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.” —Cary Grant He is Hollywood’s most fascinating and timeless star. Although he came to personify the debonair American, Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach on January 18, 1904, in the seaport village of Bristol, England. Combining the captivating beauty of silent-screen legend Rudolph Valentino with the masculine irresistibility of Clark Gable, Grant emerged as Hollywood’s quintessential leading man. Today, “the man from dream city,” as critic Pauline Kael once described him, remains forever young, an icon of quick wit, romantic charm, and urbane sophistication, the epitome of male physical perfection. Yet beneath this idealized movie image was a conflicted man struggling to balance fame with a desire for an intensely private life separate from the “Cary Grant” persona celebrated by directors and movie studios. Exploring Grant’s troubled childhood, ambiguous sexuality, and lifelong insecurities as well as the magical amalgam of characteristics that allowed him to remain Hollywood’s favorite romantic lead for more than thirty-five years, Cary Grant is the definitive examination of every aspect of Grant’s professional and private life, and the first to reveal the man behind the movie star. Working with the most talented directors of his time, Grant starred in an astonishing seventy-two films, ranging from his groundbreaking comedic roles in such classics as Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks) and The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor) to the darker, unforgettable characters of Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion and Notorious, culminating in the consummate sophisticates of An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey), North by Northwest (Hitchcock), and Charade (Stanley Donen). The camera loved Grant, and his magnetism helped illuminate his leading ladies, some of the most glamorous women ever to grace the silver screen: Mae West, Irene Dunne, Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, and Sophia Loren, among others. Yet, because of his pioneering role as an independent player, Grant was repeatedly denied the Oscar he coveted—a snub from the Academy that would last until 1970, when he graciously accepted a special lifetime achievement award. Grant’s sparkling image on-screen hid a tumultuous personal life that he tried desperately to keep out of the public eye, including his controversial eleven-year relationship with Randolph Scott, five marriages, and numerous affairs. Rigorously researched and elegantly written, Cary Grant: A Biography is a complete, nuanced portrait of the greatest Hollywood star in cinema history.

Download or read book John Wayne The Life and Legend written by Scott Eyman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revelatory biography shows how both the facts and fictions about John Wayne illuminate his singular life.

Download or read book Cary Grant written by Geoffrey Wansell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: His signature jaw line and charismatic characters made him an American symbol. His films, including Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, and North by Northwest, were timeless classics. However, Grant was also married five times and sustained a tortured, obsessive relationship with money. In this beautifully illustrated and comprehensive book, Geoffrey Wansell traces the threads of both light and darkness in one of Holly-wood’s greatest stars. As his friend and co-star Deborah Kerr wrote, he was “one of the most outstanding personalities in the history of the cinema.”

Download or read book Dear Cary written by Dyan Cannon and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-09-20 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Withhonesty and heart-rending emotion, actress and filmmaker DyanCannon tells the story of her topsy-turvy relationship with Hollywood legendCary Grant. Cannon’s captivating narrative takes the reader behind the scenesof Hollywood’s Golden Age, inside America’s high court of glamour and notorietyin which Cary Grant was king. In his private life alongside Cannon, however, astory that began with all the romance of his famous films—Charade, ToCatch a Thief, An Affair to Remember or The Philadelphia Story—wouldend up taking a series of tragic and unpredictable twists and turns. Insharing Grant’s inside story for the first time, Dear Cary is exactlywhat Hollywood is always looking for . . . the next blockbuster, and a storyfor romance lovers of all ages.

Download or read book Evenings With Cary Grant written by Nancy Nelson and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, this is a sublime and candid look at the man named Archie Leach who transformed himself by sheer willpower, work, talent and perseverance into the incomparable Hollywood star, Cary Grant. Timed for release just after the Cary Grant Centennial, the 100th Anniversary of his birth on January 18, 2004, this book reveals not only the debonair, witty leading man but the humble, shy and vulnerable human being. Forget the other Grant books, this is it. Superb' - Kirkus Reviews 'A standout biography' - Philadelphia Inquirer'

Download or read book Hank and Jim written by Scott Eyman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A] remarkably absorbing, supremely entertaining joint biography” (The New York Times) from bestselling author Scott Eyman about the remarkable friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart, two Hollywood legends who maintained a close relationship that endured all of life’s twists and turns. Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood for forty years, but they became friends when they were unknown. They roomed together as stage actors in New York, and when they began making films in Hollywood, they were roommates again. Between them they made such classic films as The Grapes of Wrath, Mister Roberts, Twelve Angry Men, and On Golden Pond; and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, and Rear Window. They got along famously, with a shared interest in elaborate practical jokes and model airplanes, among other things. But their friendship also endured despite their differences: Fonda was a liberal Democrat, Stewart a conservative Republican. Fonda was a ladies’ man who was married five times; Stewart remained married to the same woman for forty-five years. Both men volunteered during World War II and were decorated for their service. When Stewart returned home, still unmarried, he once again moved in with Fonda, his wife, and his two children, Jane and Peter, who knew him as Uncle Jimmy. For his “breezy, entertaining” (Publishers Weekly) Hank and Jim, biographer and film historian Scott Eyman spoke with Fonda’s widow and children as well as three of Stewart’s children, plus actors and directors who had worked with the men—in addition to doing extensive archival research to get the full details of their time together. This is not just another Hollywood story, but “a fascinating…richly documented biography” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) of an extraordinary friendship that lasted through war, marriages, children, careers, and everything else.

Download or read book Empire of Dreams written by Scott Eyman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-09-07 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BEST KNOWN AS THE DIRECTOR of such spectacular films as The Ten Commandments and King of Kings, Cecil B. DeMille lived a life as epic as any of his cinematic masterpieces. As a child DeMille learned the Bible from his father, a theology student and playwright who introduced Cecil and his older brother, William, to the theater. Tutored by impresario David Belasco, DeMille discovered how audiences responded to showmanship: sets, lights, costumes, etc. He took this knowledge with him to Los Angeles in 1913, where he became one of the movie pioneers, in partnership with Jesse Lasky and Lasky’s brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn). Working out of a barn on streets fragrant with orange blossom and pepper trees, the Lasky company turned out a string of successful silents, most of them directed by DeMille, who became one of the biggest names of the silent era. With films such as The Squaw Man, Brewster’s Millions, Joan the Woman, and Don’t Change Your Husband, he was the creative backbone of what would become Paramount Studios. In 1923 he filmed his first version of The Ten Commandments and later a second biblical epic, King of Kings, both enormous box-office successes. Although his reputation rests largely on the biblical epics he made, DeMille’s personal life was no morality tale. He remained married to his wife, Constance, for more than fifty years, but for most of the marriage he had three mistresses simultaneously, all of whom worked for him. He showed great loyalty to a small group of actors who knew his style, but he also discovered some major stars, among them Gloria Swanson, Claudette Colbert, and later, Charlton Heston. DeMille was one of the few silent-era directors who made a completely successful transition to sound. In 1952 he won the Academy Award for Best Picture with The Greatest Show on Earth. When he remade The Ten Commandments in 1956, it was an even bigger hit than the silent version. He could act, too: in Billy Wilder’s classic film Sunset Boulevard, DeMille memorably played himself. In the 1930s and 1940s DeMille became a household name thanks to the Lux Radio Theater, which he hosted. But after falling out with a union, he gave up the program, and his politics shifted to the right as he championed loyalty oaths and Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist witch hunts. As Scott Eyman brilliantly demonstrates in this superbly researched biography, which draws on a massive cache of DeMille family papers not available to previous biographers, DeMille was much more than his clichéd image. A gifted director who worked in many genres; a devoted family man and loyal friend with a highly unconventional personal life; a pioneering filmmaker: DeMille comes alive in these pages, a legend whose spectacular career defined an era.

Download or read book Sleeping with Strangers written by David Thomson and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wholly original work of film criticism, David Thomson, celebrated author of The Biographical Dictionary of Film, probes the many ways in which sexuality has shaped the movies—and the ways in which the movies have shaped sexuality. Exploring the tangled notions of masculinity, femininity, beauty, and sex that characterize our cinematic imagination—and drawing on examples that range from advertising to pornography, Bonnie and Clyde to Call Me by Your Name—Thomson illuminates how film as art, entertainment, and business has historically been a polite cover for a kind of erotic séance. In so doing, he casts the art and the artists we love in a new light, and reveals how film can both expose the fault lines in conventional masculinity and point the way past it, toward a more nuanced understanding of what it means to be a person with desires.

Download or read book Cary Grant written by Gary Morecambe and published by Robson Books Limited. This book was released on 2001 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A legendary leading man, Cary Grant, was what every man aspired to be and every woman desired. But underlying the charm was a man determined to escape a wretched childhood, and reinvent himself. His life was a mass of contradictions and speculations. Gary Morecombe's father, Eric, enjoyed a 20 year friendship with Grant and from this unique advantage point the authors have examined his life, loves and career of the troubled screen icon. This first truly objective study explores what drove this funny, flawed man who never confronted...let alone exorcised...his inner demons.

Download or read book Cary Grant written by Yann-Brice Dherbier and published by Rizzoli Publications. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cary Grant enjoys a special status in Hollywood; he embodies masculine chic. He was the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s famous British spy, James Bond: a mixture of chic, virility and sex appeal. Interestingly, in 1962, Cary Grant actually turned down the role of agent 007, James Bond, in the film Dr No. However, far from being just a dandy with a sense of humour, Cary Grant was an accomplished actor, nominated twice for an Oscar and five times for a Golden Globe, as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s favourite actor.This book provides a pictorial account of his fascinating life story. It's the story of Archie Leach, born in England into poverty, and who transformed himself into Cary Grant and became rich and famous in America. With his suave, debonair personality, he conquered Hollywood and became an intimate friend of Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Sofia Loren. He was a leading man for over 30 years and ended his days as an influential actor and businessman, with all the trappings of success – a magnificent manor house, a private jet and the sumptuous leather of a Rolls-Royce, with a ‘CG1’ licence plate.