GRACE KELLY

PRINCESS, FILM ACTRESS (19291982)

A highly popular film actress in the 1950s, Grace Kelly starred in movies such as
Dial M for Murder and To Catch a Thief. She married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
SYNOPSIS

Born in Philadelphia in 1929, Grace

Kelly became a popular actress in the
1950s starring in movies such as DIAL
M FOR MURDER (1954), TO CATCH A
THIEF (1955) and THE SWAN (1956).
She gained even greater fame after
having starred in the film THE
COUNTRY GIRL (1954), for which she
won an Academy Award for Best
Actress. She married Prince Rainier III
of Monaco, with whom she had three
children, in 1956. She died after
having been in a car accident on
September 14, 1982. Nicole Kidman
won the role of Kelly in the 2014 biopic GRACE OF MONACO.
EARLY LIFE

Actress and Princess Consort of Monaco Grace Patricia Kelly was born on
November 12, 1929, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, John Brendan
"Jack" Kelly, was a champion sculler who won three Olympic gold medals as
part of the U.S. rowing team. A self-made millionaire, he owned one of the
most successful brick businesses on the East Coast. Her mother, Margaret
Katherine Majer, was the first coach of women's athletic teams at the
University of Pennsylvania. Kelly was the third of four children and was
named after her father's sister, who died at a very young age.
Kelly expressed a deep love of performance at a young age. In addition to
participating in school plays and community productions, she occasionally
modeled with her mother and sister. While attending Stevens School, a small
private high school in Philadelphia, she continued to dream about acting. The
arts held a prominent place in the Kelly family. Her uncles Walter C. Kelly, a

vaudevillian performer, and George Kelly, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright,

both had a huge affect on her. It was George who later encouraged his niece
to pursue a full-time acting career, mentoring her through her rise in
Hollywood.
After high school, Kelly decided to pursue an acting career in New York City
despite her parents' objections. According to Kellys close friend Judith
Balaban Quine, Jack Kelly thought that acting was "a slim cut above
streetwalker." Despite this, Kelly enrolled in the American Academy of
Dramatic Arts. As a student, she modeled part-time and appeared in ads for
Old Gold cigarettes and on the covers of magazines like COSMOPOLITAN and
REDBOOK. Her final performance at the Academy was in A PHILADELPHIA
STORY. Years later she would reprise her role in HIGH SOCIETY (1956), a
musical adaptation on the big screen.
After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York at
age 19, Kelly sought a career on Broadway, but she found it tough going.
Don Richardson, one of her directors and teachers later said, "She would
never have had a career in the theater," because she had "great looks and
style, yes, but no vocal horsepower."
Whether or not that assessment was correct, Kelly soon found that film was
more amenable to her talents. In the years just following World War II, the
film and television industries were both booming, and Kelly soon moved to
Hollywood. She would eventually feature in 11 films and star in over 60
television productions.
FIRST HOLLYWOOD FILM

Gary Cooper discovered Grace Kelly on the set of her first film, FOURTEEN
HOURS (1951), when she was 22 years old. He arranged for her to play his
very young wife in HIGH NOON (1952), an acclaimed Western that put her on
the path to stardom. A year later, Kelly was offered a role in MOGAMBO
(1953), a film set in Kenya, starring Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. While
filming MOGAMBO, Kelly had an affair with Gable. Later she said, "What else
is there to do if you're alone in a tent in Africa with Clark Gable?" MOGAMBO
marked a turning point in Kelly's career: She was nominated for her first
Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
MGM offered her a seven-year contract, which she accepted on the condition
that she live in Manhattan every other year so that she could pursue stage
work.

Kelly turned down the role of Edie Doyle in ON THE WATERFRONT (opposite
Marlon Brando) so that she could work with her soon-to-be friend and mentor
Alfred Hitchcock. In the 1950s, Kelly made three films with the legendary
master of suspense: REAR WINDOW (1954), DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954)
and TO CATCH A THIEF (1955). Hitchcock considered Kelly the epitome of
the femme fatale: She had beauty, style and "sexual elegance." Jimmy
Stewart, her co-star in REAR WINDOW, said, "She's too perfect She's too
talented. She's too beautiful. She's too sophisticated. She's too everything
but what I want."
In 1954, Kelly won the role of Georgie Elgin in THE COUNTRY GIRL opposite
Bing Crosby and William Holden. It was not a glamorous role for Kelly, who
portrayed the dowdy and neglected wife of an alcoholic. She gave a raw and
uncharacteristically stripped-down performance, which garnered an Oscar
nomination for Best Actress. This time she won, beating Judy Garland in A
STAR IS BORN (1954) to claim the Academy Award.
A ROYAL WEDDING

At this point in her career, Kelly was one of the highest paid and most
respected actresses in the world. In 1955, she was asked to join the United
States Delegation Committee at the Cannes Film Festival in France. During a
photo shoot, she met Prince Rainier III of Monaco, who happened to be
seeking a bride. If he didn't produce an heir, Monaco would become part of
France. The prince once described his ideal bride: "I see her with long hair
floating in the wind, the color of autumn leaves. Her eyes are blue or violet,
with flecks of gold." The press glamorized their courtship, depicting it as a
fairytale romance. A year later, their wedding date was set.
After marrying Prince Rainier on April 19, 1956, in a very public and ornate
ceremony, Kelly abandoned her acting career in order to become Princess
Consort of Monaco. She was also required to give up her American
citizenship, and Prince Rainier banned her films in Monaco.
The royal couple had three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and
Princess Stphanie. Despite many attempts by filmmakers to lure Princess
Grace back into the film industry, she resisted, embracing her role as a
ceremonial leader of Monaco. She became very involved in many cultural
and charitable organizations over the course of her life. Though some believe
she deeply missed her acting career, she often spoke of the rampant
problems afflicting the film industry: "Hollywood amuses me. Holier-thanthou for the public and unholier-than-the-devil in reality."

TRAGIC DEATH

Tragedy struck on September 14, 1982, when Princess Grace and her
younger daughter was driving along the steep cliffs of the Cte d'Azur region
of southern France. She suffered a stroke and lost control of the vehicle,
which spun off the cliff's edge and plunged down a 45-foot embankment.
Mother and daughter were rushed to a hospital where Princess Grace spent
24 hours in a coma before passing away at the age of 52. Princess Stphanie
survived with minor injuries.
Grace Kelly remained in the public eye for most of her life. Her on-screen
beauty, self-confidence and mystery enchanted the world, and her serenity
and poise as Princess Consort piqued the media's attention. Of this attention,
she remarked with typical humor and grace, "The freedom of the press works
in such a way that there is not much freedom from it." Kelly's very public life
is set to be portrayed by Nicole Kidman in the film GRACE OF MONACO
(2014).