Grant was the perfect leading man and offered audiences an escape from their ordinary lives in the movie theater. However, for years he dealt with inner turmoil and his difficult past. It seems that by the end of his life, he had come to terms with his demons and had found some peace, although he never quite bought the dream he was selling.
He said, “I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each, suspecting each.” When an interviewer once told him, “Everybody would like to be Cary Grant”, Grant replied, “So would I.”
Cannon and Grant - The Musical
Dyan Cannon, who is now in her eighties, is working on a Broadway musical that she will also star in. She has been writing it for years, and it focuses on insatiable cravings. She explains, “It’s about all the things we need in life until we get them and then think, ‘There’s something else I need…’ All those things that we need in life.”
The play has received the support of Tony Award-winning director, John Doyle, and Cannon has written a special part which is based on the life of Cary Grant.
Saying Goodbye
Cannon sums up the relationship she had with Grant by saying, “As much as I loved him then – and how could I not as he was kind and funny and charming – I’d have to say I’d also fallen in love with his image and expected that image to make me happy, which was impossible.”
Following his death, she stated, “I felt so much love for him. I love him more now than when we were together — I understand him much better.”
Still an Icon
Although Grant passed away more than 30 years ago, his status as a movie star has not diminished. He was ranked the #1 Movie Star of All Time by Premiere magazine in 2005. The American Film Institute named him the second Greatest Male Star of All Time of American cinema, after Humphrey Bogart, in 1999.
He was voted the sixth Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly and was chosen by Empire (UK) magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history.
Commemorated in Art
Grant has also been immortalized in art. A life-sized bronze statue of the actor is on display in his native town of Bristol in Millennium Square. It was unveiled in 2001, by his widow, Barbara Jaynes, to commemorate 70 years since his Hollywood debut.
Grant was also commemorated in the form of street art. Graffiti artist Stewy added him to his library of hand-cut, life-size stencils of British icons and animals, which can be found in the streets of the city of Bristol.