Biography of Cary Grant, Famous Leading Man

Biography of Cary Grant, Famous Leading Man Cary Grant (born Archibald Alexander Leach; January 18, 1904–November 29, 1986) was one of Americans most successful actors of the 20th century. He made his way out of an unhappy home life in Bristol, England, by joining a troupe of British comedians, then crossing the Atlantic to try his hand at vaudeville before becoming a suave screen presence and one of Hollywood’s favorite leading men. Fast Facts: Cary Grant Known For: One of filmdoms favorite leading menAlso Known As: Archibald Alexander LeachBorn: January 18, 1904 in Bristol, EnglandParents: Elias James Leach, Elsie Maria KingdonDied: November 29, 1986 in Davenport, IowaFilms: Topper, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest, CharadeSpouse(s): Virginia Cherrill, Barbara Woolworth Hutton, Betsy Drake, Dyan Cannon, Barbara HarrisChildren: Jennifer GrantNotable Quote: So would I, when told by an interviewer that Everybody would like to be  Cary Grant. Early Life Grant was the son of Elsie Maria Kingdon and Elias James Leach, a suit presser in a clothing manufacturing plant. The working-class family of Episcopalians lived in a stone row house in Bristol, England, kept warm by coal-burning fireplaces. When Grant was young, his parents often argued with one another. A bright boy, Grant attended the Bishop Road Boys’ School, ran errands for his mother, and enjoyed movies with his father. When Grant was 9, however, his life tragically changed when his mother disappeared. Told that she was resting at a seaside resort, Grant wouldn’t see her for more than 20 years. Now raised by his father and his father’s distant parents, Grant took his mind off his unsettled home life by playing handball at school and joining the Boy Scouts. In school, he loitered in the science lab, fascinated by electricity. The science professor’s assistant took the 13-year-old Grant to the Bristol Hippodrome to show him the lighting system he had installed. Grant became infatuated- not with the lighting, but with the theater. English Theater In 1918, the 14-year-old Grant took a job at the Empire Theater assisting the men working the arc lamps. He frequently skipped school to attend matinees. Hearing that the Bob Pender Troupe of comedians was hiring, Grant wrote Pender an introductory letter, forging his father’s signature. Unbeknownst to his father, Grant was hired and learned to walk on stilts, pantomime, and perform acrobatics, touring English cities with the troupe. Grants devotion was thwarted when his father found him and dragged him home. Grant got himself expelled from school by peeking at the girls in the restroom.  With his father’s blessing, Grant then rejoined the Pender troupe. In 1920, eight boys, Grant among them, were selected from the troupe to appear at New Yorks Hippodrome. The teen sailed for America to begin a new life. Broadway While working in New York in 1921, Grant received a letter from his father saying he had fathered a son named Eric Leslie Leach with another woman. Grant gave little thought to his half-brother, enjoying baseball, Broadway celebrities, and living beyond his means. When the Pender tour ended in 1922, Grant stayed in New York, selling ties on the street and performing on stilts at Coney Island while watching for another vaudeville opening. Soon he was back at the Hippodrome using his acrobatic, juggling, and mime skills. In 1927, Grant appeared in his first Broadway musical comedy, Golden Dawn, at the Hammerstein Theater. Because of his good looks and gentlemanly ways, Grant won the leading male role in a 1928 play, Rosalie. He was spotted by Fox Film Corp. talent scouts and asked to take a screen test, which he flunked: They said he was bowlegged and his neck was too thick. When the stock market crashed in 1929, half of the Broadway theaters closed. Grant took a pay cut but appeared in musical comedies. In the summer of 1931, Grant, hungry for work, appeared at the outdoor Muny Opera in St. Louis, Missouri. Movies In November 1931, the 27-year-old Grant drove cross-country to Hollywood. After a few introductions and dinners, he had another screen test and received a five-year contract with Paramount, but the studio rejected his name. Grant had played a character named Cary on Broadway; the plays author suggested that Grant take that name. He picked Grant from a studio list of last names. Grant’s first feature film, This Is the Night (1932), was followed by seven more films that year. He took parts rejected by seasoned actors. Although Grant was inexperienced, his looks and easy working style kept him in pictures, including the popular Mae West films She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I’m No Angel (1933). Marrying and Going Independent In 1933, Grant met actress Virginia Cherrill, 26, the star of several Charlie Chaplin films, at the William Randolph Hearst beach house and sailed for England that November, his first trip home. They married on February 2, 1934, in London’s Caxton Hall registry office. After seven months, Cherrill left Grant and claimed he was too controlling. They divorced in 1935. In 1936, rather than re-signing with Paramount, Grant hired an independent agent to represent him. Grant could now choose his roles and took taking artistic control of his career, which gave him unprecedented independence at the time. Between 1937 and 1940, Grant honed his screen personality as an elegant, irresistible leading man. He appeared in two moderately successful films, Columbias When Youre in Love (1937) and RKO’s The Toast of New York (1937). Then came box-office success in Topper (1937) and The Awful Truth (1937), which received six Academy Awards- Grant, the leading actor, was not the recipient of any of those awards. Grants Mother Resurfaces In October 1937, Grant received a letter from his mother, saying she wanted to see him. Grant, who thought she had died years before, booked passage to England after he finished filming Gunga Din (1939). At 33, Grant finally learned that his mother had suffered a nervous breakdown and his father put her into an asylum. She had become mentally unbalanced from guilt over losing an earlier son, John William Elias Leach, who had developed gangrene from a torn thumbnail before he turned 1. After watching him around the clock for several nights, Elsie took a nap and the child died. Grant got his mother released and purchased a Bristol home for her. He corresponded with her, visited often, and financially supported her until she died at age 95 in 1973. Marrying Again In 1940, Grant appeared in Penny Serenade (1941) and received an Oscar nomination. He didnt win, but he became a box-office star and, on June 26, 1942, an American citizen. On July 8, 1942, Grant married 30-year-old Barbara Woolworth Hutton, the granddaughter of the founder of Woolworths and one of the worlds wealthiest women. Later, Grant received his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor for None but the Lonely Heart (1944). After several separations and reconciliations, the marriage ended in divorce on July 11, 1945. Hutton had lifelong psychological problems; she was 6 when she found her mother’s body after her suicide. In 1947, Grant received the Kings Medal for Services in the Cause of Freedom for meritorious service during World War II, when he had donated his salaries from two movies to the British war effort. On December 25, 1949, Grant got married for the third time, to 26-year-old Betsy Drake- his co-star in Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). Brief Retirement Grant retired from acting in 1952, sensing that newer, grittier actors such as James Dean and Marlon Brando were the new draw rather than light-hearted comedic actors. Drake introduced Grant to LSD therapy, which was legal at that time. Grant claimed he found inner peace regarding his troubled upbringing. Director Alfred Hitchcock coaxed Grant out of retirement to star in To Catch a Thief (1955). Its acclaim followed two earlier Grant-Hitchcock successes: Suspicion (1941) and Notorious (1946). Grant starred in more films, including Houseboat (1958), where he fell in love with co-star Sophia Loren. Although Loren married producer Carlo Ponti, Grant’s marriage to Drake became strained; they separated in 1958 but didnt divorce until August 1962. Grant starred in another Hitchcock film, North by Northwest (1959). His suave performance made him the archetype for Ian Fleming’s fictional spy James Bond. Grant was offered the role by producer Albert Broccoli, but Grant thought he was too old and would commit to just one film of the potential series. The role ultimately went to 32-year-old Sean Connery in 1962. Grant’s successful movies continued with Charade (1963) and Father Goose (1964). Becoming a Father On July 22, 1965, the 61-year-old Grant married his fourth wife, 28-year-old actress Dyan Cannon. In 1966, Cannon gave birth to daughter Jennifer, Grants first child. Grant announced his retirement from acting that year. Cannon reluctantly joined Grant’s LSD therapy, but her scary experiences strained their relationship. They divorced on March 20, 1968, but Grant remained a doting father. On a trip to England, Grant met hotel public relations officer Barbara Harris, 46 years his junior, and married her on April 15, 1981. They remained married until his death five years later. Death In 1982, Grant began touring the international lecture circuit in a one-man show called A Conversation with Cary Grant, during which he talked about his films, showed clips, and answered audience questions. Grant was in Davenport, Iowa, when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while preparing for the show. He died that night, Nov. 29, 1986, at age 82. Legacy In 1970, Grant received a special Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his acting achievements. Coupled with his two previous best actor Oscar nominations, five Golden Globe best actor nominations, 1981 Kennedy Center honors, and nearly two dozen other major nominations and awards, Grants place in film history is secure, as is his image of grace and civility. In 2004, Premiere magazine named him the greatest movie star of all time. Sources â€Å"Cary Grant.† IMDb.Cary Grant Biography. Biography.com.Cary Grant: British-American Actor. Encyclopaedia Britannica.10 Things You Never Knew About Cary Grant, Hollywood’s Greatest Leading Man. Littlethings.com.

Biography of Louise Nevelson, American Sculptor

Biography of Louise Nevelson, American Sculptor Louise Nevelson was an American sculptor best known for her monumental monochromatic three-dimensional grid constructions. By the end of her life, she was met with much critical acclaim. She is remembered through many permanent public art installations throughout the U.S., including New York City’s Louise Nevelson Plaza on Maiden Lane in the Financial District and Philadelphias Bicentennial Dawn, made in 1976 in honor of the bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Fast Facts: Louise Nevelson Occupation: Artist and sculptorBorn: September 23, 1899 in present-day Kiev, UkraineDied:  April 17, 1988 in New York City, New YorkEducation: Art Students League of New YorkKnown For: Monumental sculptural works and public art installations Early Life Louise Nevelson was born Louise Berliawsky in 1899 in Kiev, then part of Russia. At the age of four, Louise, her mother, and her siblings set sail for America, where her father had already established himself. On the journey, Louise fell sick and was quarantined in Liverpool. Through her delirium, she recalls vivid memories which she cites as essential to her practice, including shelves of vibrant candies in jars. Though she was only four at the time, Nevelson’s conviction that she was to be an artist was present at a remarkably young age, a dream from which she never strayed. Louise and her family settled in Rockland, Maine, where her father became a successful contractor. Her father’s occupation made it easy for a young Louise to interact with material, picking up pieces of wood and metal from her father’s workshop and using it to construct small sculptures. Though she began her career as a painter and dabbled in etchings, she would return to sculpture in her mature work, and it is for these sculptures that she is best known. Though her father was a success in Rockland, Nevelson always felt like the outsider in the Maine town, notably scarred by the exclusion she suffered based on her height and, presumably, her foreign origins. (She was captain of the basketball team, but this did not help her chances at being crowned Lobster Queen, a distinction awarded the most beautiful girl in town.) Though her father was known around Rockland due to his professional activities, Nevelson’s mother secluded herself, rarely socializing with her fellow neighbors. This hardly could have helped young Louise and her siblings adjust to life in the United States. The feeling of difference and alienation drove young Nevelson to escape to New York by any means possible (a journey that reflects somewhat of an artistic philosophy, as she has been quoted as saying, â€Å"If you want to go to Washington, you get on a plane. Someone has to take you there, but its your voyage†). The means that presented itself was a hasty proposal from Charles Nevelson, who young Louise had only met a handful of times. She married Charles in 1922, and later the couple had a son, Myron. Advancing Her Career In New York, Nevelson enrolled in the Art Students League, but family life was unsettling to her. In 1931, she escaped again, this time without her husband and son. Nevelson abandoned her newly-minted family- never to return to her marriage- and departed for Munich, where she studied with the famous art teacher and painter Hans Hoffman. (Hoffman would himself eventually move to the United States and teach a generation of American painters, perhaps the most influential art teacher of the 1950s and 60s. Nevelson’s early recognition of his importance only reinforces her vision as an artist.) Louise Nevelson with her work in the 1950s.   Getty Images After following Hoffman to New York, Nevelson eventually worked under the Mexican painter Diego Rivera as a muralist. Back in New York, she settled in a brownstone on 30th Street, which was filled to bursting with her work. As Hilton Kramer wrote of a visit to her studio, â€Å"It was certainly unlike anything one had ever seen or imagined. Its interior seemed to have been stripped of everything...that might divert attention from the sculptures that crowded every space, occupied every wall, and at once filled and bewildered the eye wherever it turned. Divisions between the rooms seemed to dissolve in an endless sculptural environment. At the time of Kramer’s visit, Nevelson’s work was not selling, and she was often by her exhibitions at the Grand Central Moderns Gallery, which did not sell a single piece. Nevertheless, her prolific output is an indication of her singular resolve- a belief held since childhood- that she was meant to be a sculptor. Persona Louise Nevelson the woman was perhaps more well-known than Louise Nevelson the artist. She was famous for her eccentric aspect, combining dramatic styles, colors, and textures in her clothing offset by an extensive collection of jewelry. She wore fake eyelashes and headscarves that emphasized her gaunt face, making her appear to be somewhat of a mystic. This characterization is not contradictory with her work, which she spoke of with an element of mystery, as if it arrived from another world. Louise Nevelson in the eccentric costume she was known for, photographed in her New York studio in 1974. Jack Mitchell / Getty Images Work and Legacy Louise Nevelson’s work is highly recognizable for its consistent color and style. Often in wood or metal, Nevelson primarily gravitated towards the color black- not for its somber tone, but for its evincing of harmony and eternity. [B]lack means totality, it means contains all†¦ if I speak about it every day for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t finish what it really means, Nevelson said of her choice. Though she would also work with whites and golds, she is consistent in the monochrome nature of her sculpture. A characteristically monochrome abstract sculpture by Nevelson. Corbis/VCG via Getty Images / Getty Images The primary works of her career were exhibited in galleries as â€Å"environments†: multi-sculpture installations which worked as a whole, grouped under a single title, among them â€Å"The Royal Voyage,† â€Å"Moon Garden One,† and â€Å"Sky Columns Presence.† Though these works no longer exist as wholes, their original construction gives a window into the process and meaning of Nevelson’s work. The totality of these works, which were often arranged as if each sculpture were a wall of a four-sided room, parallels Nevelson’s insistence on using a single color. The experience of unity, of disparate gathered parts which make up a whole, sums up Nevelson’s approach to materials, especially as the spindles and shards she incorporated into her sculptures give off the air of random detritus. By fashioning these objects into grid structures, she endows them with a certain weight, which asks us to reassess the material with which we come in contact. Louise Nevelson died in 1988 at the age of eighty-eight. Sources Gayford, M. and Wright, K. (2000). Grove Book of Art Writing. New York: Grove Press. 20-21.Kort, C. and Sonneborn, L. (2002). A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts. New York: Facts on File, Inc. 164-166.Lipman, J. (1983). Nevelsons World. New York: Hudson Hills Press.Marshall, R. (1980). Louise Nevelson: Atmospheres and Environments. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.Munro, E. (2000).  Originals: American Women Artists. New York: Da Capo Press.