Known for his blended British and American accent, debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he was one of classic Hollywood 's definitive leading men. Grant was born into an impoverished family in Bristol , where he had an unhappy childhood marked by the absence of his mother and his father's alcoholism.
He became attracted to theatre at a young age when he visited the Bristol Hippodrome. After a series of successful performances in New York City, he decided to stay there. These pictures are frequently cited among the greatest comedy films of all time. During the s and s, Grant had a close working relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock , who cast him in four films: Suspicion , Notorious , To Catch a Thief , and North by Northwest For the suspense-dramas Suspicion and Notorious , Grant took on darker, morally ambiguous characters, both challenging Grant's screen persona and his acting abilities.
Toward the end of his career he starred in the romantic films Indiscreet , Operation Petticoat , That Touch of Mink , and Charade He is remembered by critics for his unusually broad appeal as a handsome, suave actor who did not take himself too seriously, and in comedies was able to toy with his dignity without sacrificing it entirely. Grant was married five times, three of them elopements with actresses Virginia Cherrill β , Betsy Drake β , and Dyan Cannon β He had daughter Jennifer Grant with Cannon.
He died of a stroke in at the age of He had such a traumatic childhood, it was horrible. I work with a lot of kids on the street and I've heard a lot of stories about what happens when a family breaks down β but his was just horrendous.
Grant's mother taught him song and dance when he was four, and she was keen on his having piano lessons. Grant's biographer Graham McCann claimed that his mother "did not know how to give affection and did not know how to receive it either". When Grant was nine, his father placed his mother in Glenside Hospital , a mental institution, and told him she had gone away on a "long holiday", [ 29 ] later declaring that she had died. After she was institutionalised, Grant and his father moved into Grant's grandmother's home in Bristol.
