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Cary Grant was born Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, England in 1904. After a bizarre childhood (he came home one day when he was nine and was told his chronically depressed mother had died, when actually his father had put her in a mental institution!), young Archie was kicked out of school and ran away and joined a group of stage acrobats. When he was 16 the group went on a two year tour of the U.S., and when the tour ended, he stayed and acted on the stage. In 1931 he had much success in regional theater in St. Louis, and he moved to Hollywood. At this point he changed his name to Cary Grant. After a few minor roles he starred in Blonde Venus opposite Marlene Dietrich, and in She Done Him Wrong, opposite Mae West (it is Grant she invites to come up and see her sometime). He was under contract to Paramount, and was the first choice for every romantic comedy and melodrama, and when his contract was up he refused to re-sign, and he remained independent for the rest of his career, and he made excellent choices in what movies he made. He remained a major star throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and he was equally successful in comedy as he was in dramas and thrillers. His best movies span his entire career. Just a few of them are Penny Serenade (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), None But The Lonely Heart (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels Have Wings, Mr. Lucky, Arsenic and Old Lace, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, An Affair to Remember, and of course the movies he made with Alfred Hitchcock. His personal life was very different from his onscreen persona (supposedly, when he was told "everybody would like to be Cary Grant" he said "So would I!"). He was married five times, but he spent most of the years in-between those marriages living with Randolph Scott, and many have suggested he was bisexual. Chevy Chase once publicly joked that Grant was gay, and Grant sued him over it. In the early 1960s he took LSD over 100 times, and in 1965 he married the much younger Dyan Cannon, and they had a daughter together, the only child either ever had. He retired in 1966, and passed away in 1986 at the age of 82. I don't know that there was ever a more appealing romantic leading man than Cary Grant and he had great romantic chemistry with every one of his leading ladies. He was the inspiration for the line, "Women want to be with him, men want to BE him".

Important Added Info: Note that this REPRODUCTION still has been personally autographed (signed) by Cary Grant! Also note that many celebrities kept multiple 8" x 10" (or smaller) copies of good publicity images of themselves to sign for fans, and also many memorabilia shops sold such copy stills themselves. While they are not original stills, they are usually excellent clear copies, with a great shot of that celebrity in their heyday, which, when signed by the celebrity, makes for a wonderful framed picture on any fan's wall!

About the Collection this Item Comes From
Note that this item (and 126 others we are auctioning this week, each in its own auction) was consigned to us by a man who was a successful business man, and in late 1989, he decided to take up the hobby of obtaining autographed stills! He obtained current addresses of many celebrities of the 1920s through the 1950s who were still alive, and he also purchased original vintage stills on those celebrities (when he could find vintage ones), or he purchased repro stills when he could not find vintage ones. He then wrote a nice detailed handwritten letter to each of those stars, enclosing one or more photos, and he described in detail what he liked about their career, and how much of a fan he was. The celebrities who received his letters mostly replied by sending back the item(s) signed, and sometimes they wrote nice letters as well! Our consignor continued with this hobby for around 2 1/2 years, and over that time he was able to acquire a large number of signed stills, which he has consigned to us. In this set of auctions we are auctioning 127 of his autographed items (and we will auction others from his collection in future "all signed" auctions). We feel certain that the autographs on these items are authentic! Note that each of the 127 items from this consignor all have this paragraph on them.

UPDATED 10/19/2010: Note that the consignor of this still had sent us other items that were from the 1980s and 1990s and we mistakenly listed this still as '90. However, this still is from the 1970s (and it would have been impossible for Cary Grant to sign it in 1990 because he died in 1986!).

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