Cary Grant Net Worth

How much was Cary Grant worth?

About Cary Grant

English-American actor Cary Grant, real name Archibald Alec Leach, was born on January 18, 1904, and died on November 29, 1986. His estimated net worth is $65 million. In the 1940s and 1950s, Grant was one of the most recognizable leading males in classic Hollywood. His transatlantic accent, dapper bearing, and sense of humor helped him to become well-known. The American Film Institute named Cary Grant as the second-greatest male star of Hollywood’s Golden Age, after Humphrey Bogart. But before Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando, and James Stewart.

Cary Grant, one of the most endearing leading men in classic Hollywood, created a carefree on-screen character that made him a tremendous box office hit even if it concealed his humble and somewhat turbulent upbringing.

As one of the most in-demand actors of the time, Grant had the opportunity to collaborate with such attractive leading ladies as Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn, and Irene Dunne. He was one of the few actors Alfred Hitchcock liked working with, beginning with 1946’s Notorious and continuing throughout the rest of his career.

Grant was only nominated for an Oscar twice, despite his widespread recognition and financial success. Regardless, he is still regarded as one of the finest actors to ever grace the silver screen and his contributions to cinema are immeasurable.

Early Years

Grant, the only child of working-class parents Elias and Elsie Leach, was born Archibald Leach on January 18, 1904 in Horfield, England. Elias put his mother in an institution when he was nine years old because she had clinical depression brought on by the loss of another child. Grant was informed that she was sent on a lengthy vacation and that she didn’t go to the hospital until many years later.

Grant attempted to flee his home during his miserable youth, and at the age of 14, he was expelled from grammar school. He eventually became a member of the Bob Pender Stage Troupe, where he acted as

a juggler and stilt walker. He travelled to America with the group in 1920 and decided against going back to England.

Career Start-Up

Grant had a number of odd jobs while playing vaudeville and in musical comedies after relocating permanently to New York City. He debuted on Broadway in The Three Musketeers (1931), Rio Rita (1931), A Wonderful Night (1929), and Golden Dawn (1927).

His stage performances attracted Hollywood’s notice in 1931, which resulted in his earning a contract with Paramount Pictures that same year. He had been performing up to that point with his given name, but the studio insisted he change it because they knew Archibald Leach wouldn’t ever work on a marquee. Grant created the name Cary Grant by combining the initials of Gary Cooper and Clark Gable.

Grant made his acting debut in the romantic comedy This Is the Night, playing Thelma Todd’s Olympic husband (1932). He advanced to the role of leading man the following year with Marlene Dietrich’s Blonde Venus (1932), and Mae West’s choice to cast him opposite her in She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I’m No Angel (1933) further enhanced his prominence.

On-Screen Romance

Grant and Katharine Hepburn made their first of many on-screen matches in George Cukor’s romantic comedy Sylvia Scarlett in 1935. Two years later, Grant’s performance in Leo McCarey’s classic screwball comedy The Awful Truth (1937), costarring Irene Dunne, brought his legendary charm-ridden persona into full bloom.

Grant took the uncommon risk of working without another home studio after his contract with Paramount expired in 1937, and he succeeded where others might have failed. In two timeless classics, George Cukor’s Holiday (1938) and Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby, one of the best screwball comedies ever made, he again featured beside Katharine Hepburn.

Hollywood fame

Grant expanded his career beyond comedy, appearing in George Stevens’ action adventure Gunga Din (1939) and showing a more somber side in Rita Hayworth and Jean Arthur’s supporting roles in Howard Hawks’ Only Angles Have Wings (1939).

Grant gave iconic performances with Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (1940) and Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story (1940), a box office hit that is remarkable for reviving Hepburn’s waning career. Of course, screwball comedy remained his bread and butter.

Grant was the standout performance in the 1941 melodrama Penny Serenade, in which he and Irene Dunne played a married couple who are yearning to adopt a child because they are unable to have children of their own. He received the first of his two Best Actor Academy Award nominations for the role.

Enter, Hitchcock

In Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion, which was released in 1941, Grant played a rogue accused of murdering a wealthy woman (Joan Fontaine) and marrying her for money. This was the beginning of Grant’s most major actor-director partnership.

Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), Mr. Lucky (1943), and Once Upon a Time (1944) all experienced a drop in box office performance as viewers lost interest in Grant’s type of upbeat romantic comedies while World War II raged throughout the globe (1944).

Grant’s only notable achievement during this time was his second Best Actor Oscar nomination for the 1944 film None But the Lonely Heart, in which he played against type by portraying a shiftless and irresponsible guy who lacked the frivolous daring-do of earlier roles. Critics praised the movie, but it did poorly at the box office.

Grant, who was in desperate need of a hit, responded to the call with his second Hitchcock thriller, Notorious (1946), in which he portrayed a government agent who coerces the daughter of a traitor to join a postwar Nazi group by marrying their leader (Claude Rains), only to fall in love with the woman himself. Ingrid Bergman played the traitor’s daughter, and Grant played the agent. One of the greatest on-screen partnerships of all time from the classic age, Grant and Bergman’s chemistry practically ignited the film industry.

A New Era

In the following films, including People Will Talk (1951), Room for One More (1952), which also starred Grant’s third wife Betsy Drake, I Was a Male War Bride (1949), Every Girl Should Be Married (1948), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949), Grant continued to give performances that were distinctly his own. However, by this time in his career, a new wave of performers, led by Marlon Brando and James Dean, had begun to seize the attention of the public, and Grant had begun to openly discuss his impending retirement.

Grant, though, costarred with Grace Kelly in one of his most well-known Hitchcock thrillers, To Catch a Thief, years before he would experience such a destiny (1955). He later starred alongside Deborah Kerr in the 1957 romantic comedy An Affair to Remember, and they collaborated once more on the worldwide romance Indiscreet (1958).

Grant saved the best for last with his legendary performance as advertising executive Roger Thornhill in North By Northwest, who is mistaken for a spy and drawn into a web of intrigue that involves connection with a deceitful Eva Marie Saint (1959).

Growing Discontent

In the late 1950s, Grant struggled to reconcile his carefree demeanor with his more problematic past and the dissolution of his marriage to Drake. He also grew increasingly disenchanted with the Hollywood business. Grant took part in the LSD trials that were being undertaken at the time, which were legal at the time, in an effort to discover some sort of enlightenment, and he was able to find some momentary relief.

That Touch of Mink, in which Doris Day also appeared, Operation Petticoat (1959), The Grass Is Greener (1960), and Charade, a screwball comedy/spy picture, were all produced at this time (1963).

Grant divorced Drake in 1962 and wed Dyan Cannon, his fourth wife, in 1965. Jennifer Grant, an actress, was the only child he ever had. He made two more movies, the jovial Father Goose (1964) and Walk, Don’t Run (1965), before quitting acting to spend more time with his daughter.

Retirement

Grant continued to be active as a board member for various businesses and organizations, including Fabergé, Hollywood Park, Western Airlines, and MGM, notwithstanding his retirement from acting. In 1970, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar, and in 1981, he wed Barbara Harris, his fifth and last wife.

A Conversation with Cary Grant, a one-man show that Grant performed in later in life, saw Grant return to the stage. He experienced a brain hemorrhage two years after having a stroke when he was getting ready for one of his performances in Davenport, Iowa. At 82 years old, Grant passed away on November 29, 1986, leaving behind a legacy as one of classic Hollywood’s most enduring actors.

Cary Grant had an estimated net worth of $65 million at the time of his passing in 1986. One of the wealthiest actors of the Golden Age was Grant.