Cary Grant: A Class Apart - Softcover

McCann, Graham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857025741 ISBN 13: 9781857025743

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 1997

Synopsis

The ultimate biography of this ever-popular star and icon, from a young Cambridge don who has already made his name with a much praised biography of Marilyn Monroe.

Cary Grant made men seem like a good idea. Tall, dark and handsome with a rare gift for light comedy, he played a leading man who liked to be led, a man of the world who was a man of the people. Cary Grant was Hollywood’s quintessential democratic gentleman. Born in England as Archie Leach, made famous in America as Cary Grant, he was a star for more than 30 years, in more than 70 movies, his popularity still intact when he brought his career to a close. He was never replaced: nobody else talked like that, looked like that, behaved like that. He was a class apart. Cary Grant never explained how he came to play ‘Cary Grant’ so well. ‘Nobody is every truthful about his own life,’ he said. ‘There are always ambiguities.’ This book explores the ambiguities in the life and work of Cary Grant: a working class Englishman who portrayed a well-bred American; the playful entertainer who became a powerful businessman; the intimate stranger who was often the seduced male. Thorough and meticulously researched, this book is a dazzling and entertaining account of Cary Grant’s broad and enduring appeal.

About this title

Review:

Writing with the low-key stylishness his subject deserves, academic Graham McCann pays tribute to the working-class Englishman who became "a democratic symbol of gentlemanly grace" to moviegoers world-wide. Aptly subtitled A Class Apart, the book sympathetically depicts Archie Leach--born into poverty, his mother committed to an asylum when he was nine--reinventing himself as Cary Grant, whose debonair screen persona showed no signs of these difficult origins. A decorous account of Grant's private life (McCann dismisses talk of bisexuality as mere rumour) accompanies cogent descriptions of his performances. --Christine Buttery

Review:

"More than a dozen previous books about the actor are available, but McCann's well-researched addition is particularly valuable for its careful investigation of old canards." -- "Publishers Weekly"

"British-American film critic David Thomson, who considers Grant 'the most important actor in the ceinma, ' calls this the best book about him so far." -- "Desert Sun (Knight Ridder Newspapers)"

"British-American film critic David Thomson, who considers Grant 'the most important actor in the ceinma, ' calls this the best book about him so far." -- Desert Sun (Knight Ridder Newspapers)

"More than a dozen previous books about the actor are available, but McCann's well-researched addition is particularly valuable for its careful investigation of old canards." -- Publishers Weekly

"British-American film critic David Thomson, who considers Grant 'the most important actor in the ceinma, ' calls this the best book about him so far." -- "Desert Sun (Knight Ridder Newspapers)"

"More than a dozen previous books about the actor are available, but McCann's well-researched addition is particularly valuable for its careful investigation of old canards." -- "Publishers Weekly"

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1857025741
• ISBN 13: 9781857025743
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432