HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Cary Grant: A Biography

by Marc Eliot

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
375867,458 (3.46)17
“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 Biographyis a complete, nuanced portrait of the greatest Hollywood star in cinema history.… (more)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 17 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
Good read if you like old Hollywood. I've always been a fan of Grant along with Kate Hepburn. It was fun to go behind the scenes of his films and learn more about him. ( )
  Crystal423 | May 1, 2017 |
For some reason, I have been on a Cary Grant bio binge. It must have been that dratted NORTH BY NORTHWEST movie, which I saw on the big screen this year, along with a sold-out crowd. Or perhaps it was BRINGING UP BABY...also seen on the big screen and with an SRO crowd. Grant appears to be the only movie star, past or present, who can actually fill a movie theatre on his name alone. Even though he's been dead for 26 years. Now that's star power.

This bio was actually better than I anticipated. It's the usual chronological approach with some notes on the movies and some notes on what was happening behind-the-scenes. What I definitely appreciated was the extensive notes and sources section, which is rare when it comes to Mr. Cary Grant. It is far easier for most of his biographers to fly off on a whimsy based on pure rumour, without providing actual backup facts. Marc Eliot put some actual research into this project, and I the reader appreciated it.

Eliot's tone throughout is one of the serious biographer who tisks-tisks the other writers who have written some fairly outrageous tomes on the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) movie star. Still, he'll suddenly throw some events together in one group, even though the years aren't correct, and he himself does the guessing game when he states that Grant was desperate to marry Dyan Cannon. As her own book [b:Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant|10788566|Dear Cary My Life with Cary Grant|Dyan Cannon|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327886364s/10788566.jpg|15700797] testifies, it was quite the reverse. And Eliot can really go all, um, wonky on descriptions.

...the camera quickly discovered...the perfection of his features...and that remarkable cleft in his chin, whose two smooth and curved bulges resembled nothing so much as a beautiful woman's naked behind while she was on her knees in sexual supplication before the godlike monument of his face.

Whoa...what...huh?

I do walk away with a greater liking for Cary, aka Archie Leach of Bristol, England. He transformed himself from nothing into something, but more importantly, he did it his way. He refused to kowtow to the film studios, which incurred their wrath forever. He was the first star to go it alone, when such a thing meant career suicide. He was also the first to see where Hollywood was headed, resulting in his hooking up with MCA and Universal in the 1950s to begin the 'package' deals that were to become the standard of business some thirty years later.

But mostly, I remember what my co-worker at Paramount Studios, a well-respected agent, told me about Cary Grant. He said that Cary was always an outsider, always reclusive, and he always did things his way. For that unforgivable sin, most of the industry resented him and thus the rumours began. This agent only had respect for Grant. When I asked him if he ever had this same respect for any other entertainment figure, he thought about it, and answered, "no".

That answer overwrote all the rumours.

"In NORTH BY NORTHWEST during the scene on Mount Rushmore, I wanted Cary Grant to hide in Lincoln's nostril and then have a fit of sneezing. The Parks Commission of the Department of Interior was rather upset at this thought. I argued until one of their number asked me how I would like it if they had Lincoln play the scene in Cary Grant's nose. I saw their point at once." (Alfred Hitchcock)

Book Season = Summer (Cary, Cary, Cary) ( )
1 vote Gold_Gato | Sep 16, 2013 |
We regularly commented to one another that Eliot's narrative voice is irritating, that his assertions and emphases strained credulity. On occasion we asked: why not get another book? Our answer to that is a good summary of our overall experience. Eliot's account is comprehensive in addressing Grant's performing life, and we got a sketch of the entire arc of his career; the detail of Grant's vaudeville roots and early film work was especially interesting; and admittedly, the book was ready to hand.

The most rewarding parts of the book were descriptions of anecdotes during film shoots; the lasting influence of Grant's time with the Pender troupe, first in Britain and then on tour in the U.S.; and Eliot's argument that Archie Leach's public persona, 'Cary Grant', guided him onstage and off. I'm convinced Eliot got right at least the outline of this personality analysis, however speculative or original his thesis may be.

The problem is that Eliot regularly gives reason not only to doubt the veracity of his account, but to question his motivations. At best, his style relies on melodramatic novelization, describing conversations and internal emotional states he scarcely could be privileged to know. At worst, his overall outlook seems focused on celebrity gossip if not an outright eagerness to uncover (create?) scandal. In an afterword, Eliot relates his formative studies under Andrew Saris (known for his auteur theory of cinema), and Eliot's own efforts to excavate emotional truths from cinematic substrates, but for me this background amounts to a pallid attempt at justification rather than any believable account of his underlying methods or objectives. I find Eliot to be a bottom-feeder who doesn't seem actually to admire Cary Grant. A shame, for all the research (at least into secondary sources, primary research was watching the films and reviewing letters and occasional diary entries) provides plenty of material for a sound account of Grant's life and career achievements, without either ignoring his faults and mistakes, or lending credence to rumour or prurient supposition.

//

What is wanted is a film-by-film account of Grant's career, supplemented perhaps with details on his production deals (Grant formed several companies in his career, all to produce his own films outside the studio system) as well as the offers he declined and the scripts he considered but ultimately didn't produce.

Took a year to read, in part as we had to coordinate schedules to read aloud in bed. ( )
  elenchus | Jan 19, 2013 |
Cary Grant was one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood in the mid-20th century. He made 72 films in his career, and was – and is – loved by fans the world over. However, there was another side to Cary Grant. He married five times, experimented with LSD, and was constantly the subject of specualtion over his alleged homosexuality.

This book charts his life, and attempts to compare and contrast the persona of Cary Grant with whom audiences are so familiar, with the private Cary Grant behind the scenes.

I actually found the first half of this book intensely irritating. It is the job of a biographer to give the details about their subject’s life, not to take speculation and discuss it as if it is fact. After a good description of Grant’s troubled childhood, and his start in showbusiness with an acrobatic troupe, with whom he went to America and decided to carve out his future in the movie business, Eliot seemed to become preoccuppied with Grant’s alleged homosexuality (this being at a time when being homosexual could destroy an actor’s career). Grant always denied any attraction to men, yet the author seems to ignore that fact, and give details of relationships with men that Grant apparently had (although he is unable to cite any sources for his information). When discussing the friendship between Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, Eliot describes the domestic set-up in the bachelor pad which the two men shared, and muses that “sex was an afterthought.” But where did he get this information?! (There were also a few minor factual errors elsewhere in the book. For example, when discussing Director George Cukor, Eliot states that Clark Gable had Cukor fired as Director of Gone With the Wind, because he didn’t like the fact that Cukor was gay. Although this has been erronously stated elsewhere, it is simply not true. Cukor actually lost the job because of he found Producer David O. Selznick hard to work with, or get along with.)

The book did improve the further along I got. There was lots of information about many of Grant’s films, goings on behind the set, and the casting processes. Most films also have a fairly detailed synopsis (some readers may want to skip these parts if they have not seen the films, because the synopses generally give away the endings to the films).

Grant’s marriages and the possible reasons for the breakdown of four of them are given. Again, some of this is speculation, but much of it can be verified. However, I did get the impression that the author spent too much time on the less savoury aspects of Grant’s life – for example, towards the end of the book, casual mention is made of the extensive charity work that Cary Grant did for numerous Jewish charities. However, this is not mentioned elsewhere in the book at all – surely, such extensive charity work should warrant more than one throwaway line? Instead, there are numerous references to Grant’s apparent meanness with money – I sometimes got the impression that Marc Eliot did not actually like Cary Grant very much!

Eliot’s writign does flow well – he would probably make a great novelist – if at times, he does tend towards the cringeworthy – when describing the dimple on Cary Grant’s chin, he says, “…whose two smooth and curved bulges resembled nothing so much as a beautiful woman’s naked behind while she was on her knees in sexual supplication before the godlike monument of his face.” I’m not making this up! Fortunately however, there aren’t too many of these kinds of statements.

My overall feeling after reading this book was that it seemed somewhat mean-spirited towards its subject, but there were some interesting aspects – mostly about the movies which we love Cary Grant for giving us. In fact, had Eliot written a book solely about Grant’s film career, it would have probably made for terrific reading. This book isn’t awful, but such a major celebrity certainly deserves better. Grant always tried to keep his personal life private, but he left his legacy of 72 films behind – and maybe those are how he should be remembered. ( )
1 vote Ruth72 | Feb 15, 2012 |
An interesting look at the timeless film legend. Eliot uses most of the book to compare the movies that Grant makes with what is simultaneously going on in his life - everything from finding his estranged mother; romancing lovers, chasing leading ladies, and falling out of love with wives; his use of alcohol and LSD therapy; and the friends and directors (like Hitchcock) who helped shape his life.

A good read for anyone who admires Hollywood's Golden Age. ( )
2 vote running501 | Jul 2, 2010 |
Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

Belongs to Publisher Series

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Information from the Spanish Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
“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 Biographyis a complete, nuanced portrait of the greatest Hollywood star in cinema history.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.46)
0.5
1 1
1.5 1
2 7
2.5 1
3 16
3.5 4
4 17
4.5 1
5 8

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,661,016 books! | Top bar: Always visible