GRACE KELLY~

~An American Princess ~


  

  EARLY LIFE

      Grace Patricia Kelly was born the third of four children on November 12, 1929, to one of the leading families of Philadelphia, PA.  Grace's grandfather, an Irish bricklayer, had migrated to the United States, and her father, John Kelly, had made a fortune in the building industry.  John Kelly, a sports enthusiast, was very proud of his eldest son, who like him was an Olympic champion in rowing.  He was not so proud of his daughters, however, especially Grace, a frail and introverted child who had to work to gain her proud father's recognition.
   One of Grace's uncles was the stage actor Walter Kelly; another was the well-known playwright George Kelly who penned "The Show-Off" and "Craig's Wife," and was a winner of the Pulitzer Prize.  It was George Kelly who gave Grace her passion for acting at a very early age, even though her parents, who deplored her taste for solitude and reading, were reluctant to see her pursue an acting career.
                                       ~adapted from Grace Kelly Biography at Beam of Classics




CAREER  

    In July 1949, Kelly made her professional debut at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where she appeared in a revival of her uncle George Kelly's comedy Torch Bearers.  She appeared on Broadway in The Father and made several television programs before being summoned to Hollywood to make her film debut in Fourteen Hours (1951).  Kelly's lithe and elegant blonde beauty made her an instant Hollywood sensation, and she soon landed a major role in High Noon (1952) with Gary Cooper.  She then signed a contract with MGM to make John Ford's Mogambo with Clark Gable, for which she garnered an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.  She had a brief fling with Gable while filming in Africa, beginning a habit of getting romantically involved with her leading men.  She also had a serious affair with Ray Milland while filming Dial M For Murder (1954), playing his doomed wife.  She so impressed director Alfred Hitchcock in the role that he immediately cast her as a bold and glamorous fashion model in Rear Window (1954), opposite Jimmy Stewart, and as an independent heiress in To Catch a Thief (1955) with Cary Grant.
 Grace's acting career was short, prolific and successful.  She made five films in 1954, and won a Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Country Girl.  In the tough and unglamorous role as the wife of a drunken former actor, played by Bing Crosby, Kelly donned dowdy clothes, dulled down her beauty, and proceeded to stun audiences with her striking and skilled performance.   In 1956, Kelly appeared in High Society, a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story featuring a score by Cole Porter, opposite Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.  High Society would prove to be her last film.
     ~adapted from information found at www.biography.com


                                                                    To check out Grace's complete filmography, go to www.imdb.com.



FAMILY

The Cannes Festival of 1954 would prove to be a life-changing event for Kelly.  In a brief meeting with Prince Ranier Grimaldi of Monaco in connection with a photo essay for French magazine, Kelly proceeded to capture his heart.  The bachelor prince sought her out over the next few months and desperately tried to create another opportunity to meet.  The opportunity came on Christmas Day 1955, when Ranier, his priest and his doctor were invited to dinner at the Kelly's home in Philadelphia.  On January 5, 1956, after a whirlwind romance, Ranier and Kelly formally announced their engagement in New York and Monaco.  Kelly and Rainier were married on April 18, 1956, in a short civil ceremony at the royal palace.  The next day, they married again in a large formal ceremony at Monaco's Cathedral of St. Nicholas.  For the three-hour public event, watched on television by 30 million people, Kelly wore an ivory dress made by Hollywood designer Helen Rose and was attended by seven bridesmaids.  On January 23, 1957, Princess Grace gave birth to Caroline Louise Marguerite--the first heiress to the throne.  However, the birth of a son, Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre, 14 months later made him the rightful heir under Monegasque law.  The birth of a third child, Princess Stephanie Marie Elizabeth, on February 1, 1965, completed the royal family.

            ~adapted from information found at www.biography.com.


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