Grace Kelly

Born on November 12th, 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Academy Award-winning actress Grace Kelly traded a stellar career in cinema and television for the status of royalty in Monaco, the second smallest state in the world. In 1956, after appearing in eleven successful Hollywood films, she retired from acting and, following a year-long courtship, she married Rainier III Prince of Monaco, a member of the House of Grimaldi and one of the longest ruling monarchs of the 20th century, thus becoming Princess of Monaco. Despite the fact that Grace Kelly s Hollywood career was relatively short ( her screen debut was a small role in the 1951 drama ”Fourteen Hours” directed by Henry Hathaway, while her last two films were the 1956 romantic comedy ”The Swan” and the musical comedy ”High Society”, the latter co-starring Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby), she remains one of the top female movie stars in the history of American cinema. 

Grace Kelly photo

The sexual elegance

Grace Kelly rose to stardom with her memorable and critically-acclaimed role of Linda Nordley in MGM s 1953 adventure film/romantic drama Mogambo directed by John Ford, which won her an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, both in 1954. Although the legendary actress was the not the first choice for the part of Linda, she gave an outstanding performance playing Donald Nordley s wife who becomes infatuated with the character of Clark Gable, big game hunter Victor Marswell. According to actor Donald Sinden, who played Donald Nordley, Grace Kelly and Clark Gable began an affair during filming of Mogambo, which continued in 1954, while Grace Kelly was filming The Country Girl. James Spada, her biographer, insists that the two famous actors had strictly a professional relationship, with no romantic connotations. Although the poster of the movie reads ”Filmed on safari in Africa”, Mogambo was actually filmed in MGM s studios. 

after appearing in eleven successful Hollywood films, she retired from acting and, following a year-long courtship, she married Rainier III Prince of Monaco

The 1954 drama The Country Girl directed by George Seaton and co-starring William Holden and Bing Crosby features Kelly s deglamorized performance as the dowdy wife of an alcoholic has-been actor played by Bing Crosby, for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress in a leading role. Nevertheless, Kelly s most memorable and captivating performances and which she is mostly known for were in Alfred Hitchcock s crime thriller films including Rear Window (1954), co-starring James Stewart, Dial M for Murder (1954) and To Catch a Thief (her final film with Hitchcock), starring opposite Cary Grant. Epitomizing what Hitchcock referred to as ”sexual elegance”, Kelly embodied the ideal mysterious heroine for his films. 

The iconic Hollywood actress, famous both for her stately beauty and extraordinary talent passed away at the age of 52, on September 14th, 1982. A day earlier, she had experienced a stroke while she was driving, causing her to lose control of the vehicle, allegedly on the same road as her renowned chase scene in To Catch a Thief. She was survived by her husband and their three children, Caroline ( now Princess of Hanover), Albert (Prince of Monaco) and Stephanie, Princess of Monaco. In 1960 she was recognized for her remarkable achievements in the film industry with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

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