Cary Grant: The Making of a Hollywood Legend

by Mark Glancy

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.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, Film

1 pages, Audio CD

Published May 25, 2021

Reviews

[Niklas Pivic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never steeped myself into the worlds of Cary Grant—the stage name of Bristolian Archie Leach—but now, I wish I had done so earlier.

Mark Glancy has done an outstanding job at researching and writing this, a making-of biography about Cary Grant.

It seems that many biographies about Grant include falsifications and bad research; one example of this is claim that Grant was secretly homosexual.

Glancy has interviewed Barbara Jaynes, Grant's widow, had access to The Cary Grant Papers—the archive left by Grant—was a consultant for the documentary named 'Becoming Cary Grant', and has been involved with people behind the Cary Grant Festival. So yeah, this is no Wikipedia half-assed job.

Grant himself was distrustful of biographies, so this is a fresh breath of air. Not to say that others haven't done a good job.

He saved not only the letters he received but carbon copies of the replies he sent, and when he clipped articles about his life and career from newspapers and magazines, he wrote corrective notes in the margins (“Nonsense!” was a frequent entry) or attached a typed sheet to them, listing their inaccuracies before filing the articles away. Even in retirement, he was a steadfast archivist, meticulously saving his press clippings and correspondence.

So, there is a lot of good stuff to delve through.

Fact-finding doesn't make a book, but Glancy's writing does. He whisks the reader through Grant's life in chronological order, quickly building a case for a poor family where the father doesn't care and the mother suffers from bad mental health.

The fact that little Archie was told that his mother had died when she, in fact, had been committed to a mental hospital by his father, was even traumatic to read about.

Elsie Leach was not dead. Archie did not know it, but his mother was just three miles from home, a patient at the Bristol Lunatic Asylum in Fishponds (on the outskirts of Bristol). Jim Leach had taken her there and had her committed. Decades down the line, when Cary Grant recalled the terrible day that he came home from school to find her gone, he never remembered noticing that she was mentally unwell prior to her disappearance. He recalled that she had some peculiarities: when he was an infant, she kept him in baby clothes far too long, and when he was a young boy, she kept him in short pants far too long.1 He also spoke privately about an incident when, as a child, he got separated from her while shopping in a Marks and Spencer department store. He could not find her and as he grew increasingly anxious, his mother suddenly seized him. “You see how it is, Archie?” she asked angrily. “Who looks out for you? Who came to save you? Me, that’s who! I’m the only one in the whole world who cares about you, and you better not forget it.”2 It was an unpleasant memory but, like the reluctance to dress him in age-appropriate clothing, it points more toward maternal possessiveness than mental illness.

Little wonder, then, that Archie wanted to escape.

Backstage at the Saturday matinee, Archie found himself, as he put it, “in a dazzling land of smiling, jostling people wearing and not wearing all sorts of costumes and doing all sorts of clever things.” It was a mesmerizing epiphany for him. “And that’s when I knew! What other life could there be but that of an actor? They happily travelled and toured. They were classless, cheerful and carefree. They gaily laughed, lived and loved.”

There are quite a few shameful incidents recounted throughout young Archie's life.

Whatever offence he committed, his expulsion was carried out in the most humiliating way. The day after his offense, an unsuspecting Archie attended the school’s morning assembly, where the usually mild-mannered headmaster, Augustus “Gussie” Smith, called him to the podium to reprimand him. Archie was so dazed by the experience that he took in only a few scattered words, “inattentive. . . irresponsible . . .incorrigible . . . a discredit to the school” before he realized that he was being very publicly expelled. With his upper-lip quivering, and his head hanging in shame, he walked out of the hall and left the school – never to return as a pupil. The shame of it was enormous, and so too was his fear of telling his father about his disgrace.

He started working his way up soon thereafter.

There, at the Ipswich Hippodrome, he met the zany American comedian Don Barclay, who was playing on the headline act that week. Barclay was 12 years older than Archie, but he took an interest in Archie when he saw some of the Pender boys pretending to teach this inexperienced kid how to apply stage make-up, but actually making-up his face like a clown. Barclay intervened and offered to teach Archie properly. He was charmed to find that this runaway boy “was so polite, such a little gentleman.” When Archie addressed him as “Sir” or as “Mr Barclay”, he said, “Call me Don.” But Archie, who had been taught by his mother always to call older men “sir”, could only manage to call his new friend, “Don, sir.” In later years, after they met again many times, Cary Grant never forgot Barclay’s kindness to him, and occasionally when he called him, and Barclay answered the phone, he would ask, “Is that you, Don, sir?”

Glancy makes Archie's story come alive, from the streets of Bristol to performing acrobatic stunts for paying audiences across Great Britain, on to the USA.

As Cooper made his fortune in America, he continued to struggle, both in romantic relationships as well as that with his mother, whom he had found to be alive. The lives of Gary Cooper were legion, not withstanding how he found his footing as an actor in the USA.

Glancy makes fine use of his brief style of writing paragraphs, as with this one:

By the late 1950s, Cary himself had finally come to realize how troublesome his own reinvention of himself had been; how much he had buried and denied in order to live his new life. As a means of grappling with this revelation, and dealing with the breakdown of his third marriage, he had gone into a form of therapy based on the hallucinogenic drug LSD. He soon declared that LSD was a wonder drug, and told reporters that he was a new and saved man. Over time, however, he would find that personal transformations are not as swift and seamless as the movies suggest, and that inner demons are not so quickly or easily evaded as crop-dusting assassins.

To me, there was a bit of a lull in the book, about a third in, where I felt not much was happening. Sure, that's to be expected in anybody's life, but, rhythmically speaking, it could have been written in a snappier way to make the book flow in a steadier way.

To read of how Grant handled the media, gossip, becoming one of the most well-known movie actors in the world, while creating some of the most brilliant scenes ever recorded on celluloid (e.g. together with Alfred Hitchcock), and his old age, is enthralling.

Buy this book. It's worth it.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Cary Grant!

[Virginia Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Mark Glancy had a unique advantage in researching "Cary Grant, the Making of a Hollywood Legend"--he was given full access to Grant's personal collection of diaries, scrapbooks, press clippings, correspondence, and memorabilia. Grant was his own archivist, and self-analysis was a lasting trait throughout his long career and lifetime. His troubled beginnings as Archie Leach from Bristol, England would affect him through every stage of his career and personal life. The transformation from Archie to Cary was lengthy and complex, and Grant worked tirelessly to reinvent himself and maintain his polished image. He was an incredibly gifted entertainer, able to handle broad physical comedy with his amazing athleticism, to captivate both leading ladies and audiences with his dazzling charm, to play dramatic roles with a darker edge, and to engage film-goers when roles called for thrilling action sequences. Grant and famed director Alfred Hitchcock made four fabulous films together and became close friends as well as favored film-making associates. Grace Kelly, Cary's costar in "To Catch a Thief", was his favorite leading lady, and she remained a dear friend until her untimely death. Grant celebrated two milestones at age 62--he retired from acting and became a first-time father. He found happiness later in life with his fifth wife, Barbara Harris, but it was his daughter Jennifer who brought him the greatest joy. There is much to explore in the storied life of screen icon Cary Grant, and author Mark Glancy has given the beloved star a deservedly respectful treatment. He offers a detailed and interesting biography which does not shy away from the controversies in Grant's life. However, the information is presented in a factual, non-salacious manner that is very readable. Glancy, a noted film historian, also contributed to the 2017 documentary, "Becoming Cary Grant". In preparation for writing the biography, he watched all 72 of Grant's films. He knows his subject well.

Book Copy Gratis Oxford University Press

[Maja - BibliophiliaDK ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been halfway in love with Cary Grant since I first got into classic movies five years ago. Reading this book - and learning that Cary Grant was an archivist at heart - made me fall all the way in love ❤️

[J.J. Lair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a good book about an actor I enjoy watching. The book hype promised something the book didn’t fully deliver on. There is a difference between man and myth.
The book is detailed; early life, early career, every movie. The author makes it sound like Grant played the same role in every movie regardless of the movie and I never thought that. He wasn’t always the fast talking smoothly in every movie. The author gives a reason why Grant didn’t get an Oscar for any role.
I enjoyed the insight in to friendships and favored partners. There was insight, but it was removed from the people. We didn’t dive into the whys and hows of the relationship ending. Dylan Cannon is barely mentioned.
So the myth of the actor gets plenty of words. The real guy is defined but I don't know how Grant thought about his life. How he thought about a role. The author tries at times, but never enough.
Overall I really enjoyed this and I wanted more.

[Ann Otto · Rating 2 out of 5]

This new one of many Grant biographies provides few new insights on the actor. It does include more interesting background information about his mother Elsie.

[Anja Nikkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

really well written and informative
i love cary grant
him and kate hep will always be my faves

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, well-researched and (most importantly) fair biography. Went beyond the celebrity gossip and avoided speculation.

[Dennis Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished Cary Grant: The Making of a Hollywood Legend by Mark Glancy, a film historian specializing in American and British film history. This book was written in 2020 and traces the life of Archie Leach, a working class Brit who became one of the most unforgettable screen icons of all time, Cary Grant. Glancy goes deep in describing the work Grant put into his films that result in what looks like effortless performance. I’m a huge Cary Grant fan, and one film in particular North by Northwest, the Alfred Hitchcock thriller. Interesting that Cary Grant films generated numerous Oscars for everyone but Grant. He was a famously generous actor who went out of his way to help others with their performances and was especially loved by the people behind the scenes in movies, the set designers, writers, electricians etc.for his kindness and respect for their work.

[Oscarandlucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this very superficial. Almost everything is already in the common lore about Cary Grant (True, I've read everything) and very little critical analysis. The possibilities regarding his sexuality, his spousal abuse, his alcoholism and other mental health challenges deserved a more balanced consideration. Perhaps the author is too big a fan to see the Archie Leach behind the Cary Grant?

[Helen Robare · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives much information about Cary Grant but makes one wonder what the author didn't tell. As far as the actor is concerned all the pertinent phases of Mr. Grant's life are covered. The story moves along quickly from his childhood to his teenage years then to his movie life, and then finally his death.

I enjoyed reading this book because I knew little about Cary Grant and his life. I now have a better understanding of the man and the movie idol.

[Rosemary Markham · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to read about Grant's early life when he was in acrobatics in England.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always loved Cary Grant as an actor, but knew nothing of his life story. It was quite a life! Thoroughly enjoyed it. And now I have a long list of movies to watch or rewatch.

[Gwendolyn H]

Betsy Drake I Will Avenge You

[John Marricco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great biography! A lot of information but never a dull moment. Highly recommended.

[Enrique · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much information, I am interested in his life but not that much

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive

This is a good overview of Cary Grant's life and films. I was very appreciative of the fact that the author did not stoop to sensationalism and based the biography on what is known about Cary Grant's life and not conjecture.