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.