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Grace Kelly

"The idea of my life as a fairy-tale, is a fairy-tale itself"

By Ruth Elizabeth StiffPublished 2 years ago 6 min read
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Grace Kelly

Fourteen Hours. High Noon. Dial M For Murder. The Bridge of Toko-Ri. High Society. Five of the fourteen films this brilliant actress starred in. Her leading men included Gary Cooper, Clarke Gable, James Stewart, Bing Crosby and Cary Grant. Her talent and persona influenced one of the greatest directors of all time — Alfred Hitchcock. Her greatest performance was as the Princess of Monaco. This is another article on Grace Kelly.

Her father was an Olympic champion and owned P.H.Kelly Building Company. Grace was born on 12th November, 1929, to Jack and Margaret. The family lived in the affluent Philadelphia suburb Germantown. They lived in a large 17 room mansion built entirely of Kelly bricks. Grace had everything she could want materially, but being more shy and timid than her three siblings, she felt ‘neglected’ emotionally. Grace preferred reading and the arts, very much like her uncle George, who was a famous screenwriter and who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1926. It was partly through her uncle’s encouragement that Grace joined the East Falls Old Academy Players in 1941 when she was 12 years of age. This was the unofficial start of Grace’s acting career.

Grace ‘snagged’ the leading role in the production of “Don’t Feed the Animals”, and continued to pursue her acting career through junior high and high school. After graduating, Grace told her mother: “Now I’m really going to do what I’ve always wanted to do” — acting! Having been accepted to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York, Grace left Philadelphia. Being conservative Irish Catholics parents, her mother and father set up lodgings for their daughter at the Barbizon Hotel for Women. It was a strict hotel with a strict curfew and the ultimate rule “no boys are allowed back to the dormitory”. This didn’t matter to Grace, who still managed to sneak in her love interests, Herb Miller being a regular.

Grace always “showed” a demure and austere facade but deep down she was wild and free. The only time this really came out was at the student get-togethers, when once after a few drinks she stood on a table and ‘danced’. However, she was a serious student and followed her teachers advice, even ‘smoothing’ out her accent, taking speech exercises. When Grace went home, her family couldn’t recognize her voice — the exercises were successful.

Grace started a modeling career and finally got her own money, her parents respecting their daughter for working so hard. By 1948, she was making $7.50 an hour modeling, which was good money back then. Now Grace could ‘pay her own way’. Many at the Academy were jealous and she had to put up with some bullying. It was at this time that Grace met Don Richardson, who was 27 years of age and a future big time director. She was being bullied and Richardson put a stop to it; he felt immediately protective of Grace. The two became very quickly romantically involved and Grace had thoughts of marrying. Richardson met Grace’s family who immediately ‘disliked’ him and ordered their daughter to stop seeing him after her graduation.

Grace had to leave New York and live at the family vacation home in Ocean City, New Jersey. It was a full month before Richardson heard from Grace again, when she walked a mile to a payphone to make the call. She still loved him and would see Richardson again when she showed up in New York that fall. Her parents had allowed their daughter to return to New York, providing she didn’t see Richardson. However, Grace rebelled and saw him — and other men as well.

Grace now had a very ‘rude’ awakening when it came to the theater world. She wanted to try out for a Broadway production. Richardson dropped Grace off and waited for her at a local coffee shop. Half an hour later, this inspiring actress walked through the cafe doors a total mess. Sitting down, she burst into tears and told Richardson the whole story. Grace had gone into, what she thought, was an interview for the part and the ‘director’ had tried to rape her. Her dress was torn, lipstick smeared across her face and her hair a complete mess. She has to run out of the office to ‘save herself’. Richardson was mad and wanted to give ‘him’ a good thrashing but Grace stopped him and ‘brushed the whole thing under the carpet, (like so many actresses before and after her).

This didn’t put Grace off and she eventually landed a part with the Bucks County Playhouse back in Pennsylvania. It was a role in “The Torch Bearers” written by her uncle George. His niece excelled in her role and it wasn’t too long before Broadway came calling for Grace!

In 1949, Grace was chosen for a role in the Broadway hit “The Father”. She played the daughter so convincingly that she “stole the show”. From 1950, the young actress starred on over 60 broadcasts, including the Ed Sullivan show. Grace’s recognition on the small screen was a stepping stone onto the big screen. She caught the attention of Edith Van Cleve, who was a talent scout for the movie giant MCA. It was the golden age for television and movies.

Grace’s opening into movies came with a role in “Fourteen Hours”, where she met Gary Cooper and starred alongside him in the classic movie “High Noon” in 1951. The couple became romantically involved and the rumors soon spread to Pennsylvania and her parents. Grace’s mother came straight out to California to correct her daughter and the romance was quickly ‘snuffed out’. The film itself was a box office hit, ranking in $18 million.

Grace’s next film was “Mogambo” where she starred opposite Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. Grace received $750 a week which was very good money for an up and coming actress. Again, she fell in love with her leading man, but recognizing the 30 years difference in age, Gable did not return her advances. Grace was ‘heart-broken’ and not used to being spurned. After waving goodbye to Gable, she burst into tears.

The film “Mogambo” made Grace famous. The film itself grossed more than $4 and a half million just in the USA alone, and “Look Magazine” picked out Grace as Best Actress for 1953. She caught the attention of Alfred Hitchcock, who wanted Grace to star in his film “Dial M for Murder”. The young actress found him to be a good mentor, who would answer her questions and even go through her scenes with her. “He gave me a great deal of confidence in myself,” Grace said of Hitchcock. Grace went on to star in several other films directed by Hitchcock. One of them was “Rear Window” when Grace’s leading man was James Stewart. “She was so pleasant on the set; she was completely cooperative. She was really in a class by herself as far as cooperation and friendliness are concerned,” Stewart said of Grace. This film made Grace a household name.

It was around this time that Grace met some-one who she would marry, playing the best “role” of her life as Princess of Monaco.

If you enjoyed this article, have a read of "From Actress to Princess" at https://vocal.media/humans/from-actress-to-princess

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About the Creator

Ruth Elizabeth Stiff

I love all things Earthy and Self-Help

History is one of my favourite subjects and I love to write short fiction

Research is so interesting for me too

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  • james ladyabout a year ago

    She is so beautiful and talented https://lol-beans.io

  • branesunabout a year ago

    She is so talented https://lol-beans.com

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