GAY actor Cary Grant

Handsome Cary Grant




Cary Grant was one of my mother's favorite leading actor. She'd be rolling in her grave if she knew that he was GAY...




Cary Grant born 18 January 1904 (d. 1986)

Archibald Alexander Leach, better known by his screen name, Cary Grant, was an English film actor. With his distinctive mid-Atlantic accent, he was noted as perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man, not only handsome, but also witty and charming. He was named the second Greatest Male Star of All Time of American cinema by the American Film Institute.

Grant starred in some of the classic screwball comedies, including The Awful Truth with Irene Dunne (the pivotal film in the establishment of Grant's screen persona), Bringing Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn, His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell and Arsenic and Old Lace with Priscilla Lane. These performances solidified his appeal, and The Philadelphia Story, with Hepburn and James Stewart, presented his best-known screen role: the charming if sometimes unreliable man

Grant was one of Hollywood's top box-office attractions for several decades. He was a versatile actor, who did demanding physical comedy in movies like Gunga Din with the skills he had learned on the stage.

In the mid-1950s, Grant formed his own production company and produced a number of movies distributed by Universal, such as Operation Petticoat, Indiscreet, That Touch of Mink (co-starring Doris Day), and Father Goose.

Grant's personal life was complicated, involving five marriages and speculation about his sexuality.



In 1932 he met fellow actor Randolph Scott on set, and the two shared a rented beach house (known as 'Bachelor Hall') on and off for twelve years. Rumours ran rampant at the time that Grant and Scott were lovers.

Authors Marc Elliot, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley consider Grant to have been bisexual, with Higham and Moseley claiming that Grant and Scott were seen kissing in a public car park outside a social function both attended in the 1960s. In his book, Hollywood Gays, Boze Hadleigh cites an interview with director George Cukor, who said about the alleged homosexual relationship between Scott and Grant: 'Oh, Cary won't talk about it. At most, he'll say they did some wonderful pictures together. But Randolph will admit it – to a friend.'

According to screenwriter Arthur Laurents, Grant was 'at best bisexual'. William J. Mann's book Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 recounts how photographer Jerome Zerbe spent 'three gay months' (his words) in the movie colony taking many photographs of Grant and Scott, 'attesting to their involvement in the gay scene'. Zerbe says that he often stayed with the two actors, 'finding them both warm, charming, and happy.' In addition, Darwin Porter's book, Brando Unzipped (2006) claims that Grant had a homosexual affair with Marlon Brando.

Many writers seem to have no doubt about the actor's bisexuality; Grant, however, did not identify himself as such. He had many gay friends, including Cukor, William Haines, and Australian artist and costume designer Orry-Kelly, but he is not alleged to have had relationships with them, well, with Haines, at least.

Wives of Cary Grant

Grant's third wife was actress and writer Betsy Drake. This was his longest marriage (1949 - 1962). In a 2004 interview for the Turner Classic Movies production, Cary Grant: A Class Apart, Drake mocked rumors of Grant's homosexuality. 'I didn't have time to think about his homosexuality,' she says, 'we were too busy fucking.'

His fourth marriage, to actress Dyan Cannon, on July 22, 1965, in Las Vegas, resulted in the birth of his only child, Jennifer, when he was 62. The marriage was troubled from the beginning (Grant was 61 and Cannon was 28), and they separated within 18 months, with Cannon claiming that Grant spanked her for disobeying him. The divorce, finalised on May 28, 1967, was bitter and messy, and the custody disputes over their daughter went on for years.

Grant married British hotel PR agent Barbara Harris (47 years his junior), on April 11, 1981, a marriage which lasted until his death.


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