A hunk named Cary Grant

60 years ago the big screen gave us one of the most stylish and glamorous couples in the history of cinema. Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn both coincided in the movie Charade, a tape that does not age. A friendship emerged from that encounter that Audrey recounted many times with emotion, especially during a tribute to Grant in Hollywood, with some moving words, “friendship is accompanying, and for me Grant is a very special person who has always been a friend, to For him, friendship was generosity, giving smiles where there were tears, comfort when there was fear, fantasy and fun. A friend gives our life brightness and joy, with love and gratitude I tell you, you are a true friend.

A magical meeting, but it seems that at first Cary Grant did not want to do a Charade with Audrey Hepburn because of the age difference, the actor was 25 years older than the star, but there was prodigious chemistry together with a masterful script, as well as glamorous details like Hubert de Givenchy’s wardrobe, which established Hepburn as the universal icon of glamor and elegance, and for the designer the actress was his great muse.

Surprisingly they did not appear in any more movies together. Stanlye Donen’s Charade (1963) was a masterpiece in which Grant assumes a dozen identities and Audrey falls in love with them all, seducing Hepburn in her own way with lines like: “I don’t bite, you know… unless I have to.” . A parody of Hollywood itself, a genius. This masterful work has not lost interest and continues to be full of humor, great music, fashion, romance and mystery. Although it did not win any Oscars, and was only nominated for music. When Cary Grant filmed it, he was in the last stage of his career, at the age of 59, an amazing journey that began in 1932 with The Blonde Venus.

Born in Bristol, England, Alexander Archibald Leach, known as Cary Grant, became the face of comedy and mystery films in the golden age of cinema. After modest beginnings in vaudeville and on Broadway, at just twenty years old, in 1932 he made the leap to the cinema. Among his filmography are Bringing up baby, (The adorable troublemaker or The beast of my girl), by Howard Hawks, Arsenic for Compassion, by Frank Capra, Cukor’s Philadelphia Stories and several with Hitchcock such as The Suspicion, Chained, among others.

This great seducer, sure of himself, “everyone loves that Cary Grant, even I want to be Cary Grant,” he claimed, was discreet in his private life. He had five marriages: Virginia Cherril, Barbara Hutton, Betsy Drake, Dyan Cannon, and Barbara Harris. But he was associated with: Joan Fontaine, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman and Sophia Loren. A lover of horse racing, he experimented with LSD and tried to hide a tough childhood. When he was nine years old, his father told him that his mother was going on a long vacation, in fact she was admitted to a hospital for depression. Many years passed until Grant learned the truth about her missing mother and found her abandoned at the age of 56 in a mental institution, from there he took her out to give her special attention until her death.

His last tape was Apartment for three, Walk, don’t run, and he decided to go into business, his biographer Sterling pointed out that he was one of the most astute and daring businessmen in the world of cinema. A universal example of the great gentleman, Audrey Hepburn always fondly remembered his friendship, “When I saw you, I opened my arms wide, hugged you, smiled, and that’s how you knew I loved you.” For many, after Charade, the golden age of cinema ended.