Happy Birthday Grace Kelly

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE KELLY

If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I love old actors such as Audrey Hepburn, Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, and Grace Kelly. I haven’t done one of these posts in a while but Grace Kelly is my all time favorite actress and today is her birthday so of course I had to do a Grace Kelly birthday post! Grace Kelly was so effortlessly beautiful, the epitome of grace, a kind person, style icon, and a wonderful actress. 

Named after her father’s late sister, Grace Kelly was born in Philadelphia to John and Margaret Kelly on November 12, 1929. Grace Kelly was one of four children, she had an older sister, Peggy, an older brother, John Jr., and a younger sister, Lizanne. Grace came from an otherwise athletic family; her mother was the first woman to head the Physical Education Department at the University of Pennsylvania, her father a triple Olympic-gold-medal-winning sculler, her brother followed in their father’s step, and both of her sister were always active. Two of Grace Kelly’s uncles were prominent in the arts; one being a vaudeville star and the other being a renowned dramatist, screenwriter and director. It is said that Grace Kelly was somewhat introverted as a child and could often times be found in her room inventing new plays and acting them out with her dolls. Kelly family was a close-knit one. 

Grace Kelly along with her mother and sisters modeled fashions at local social events, while attending Ravenhill Academy, a Catholic girls’ school. Dancing and Acting in school plays all through high school, she graduated from Stevens School in May 1947. To her parents dismay, due to her low mathematics scores Grace was rejected by Bennington College. Grace decided to pursue her dreams of a career in the theater. For her audition into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York she decided to use a scene from her uncle’s play, “The Torch-Bearers”. Kelly obtained an interview with the school’s admission officer and was admitted due to her uncle George. Grace Kelly worked as a model to pay for her studies. Her early acting pursuits lead her to Broadway. 

 In 1950 John Ford first noticed Kelly in a screen test; the studio flew Kelly to LA to audition in 1952. After her screen test Kelly won the role along with a seven-year contract. Two months after signing her contract Kelly left for Nairobi to begin the production of the film Mogambo. Grace Kelly’s role in Mogambo earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Alfred Hitchcock also saw the 195s screen test and became one of Kelly’s last mentors. Kelly was cast in some of Hitchcock’s many well-known films. Dial M for Murder was one of the first movies Hitchcock and Kelly worked on together. One of my favorite movies Grace Kelly started in is Rear Window, another Hitchcock film. Kelly worked along side of Jimmy Stewart {one of my favorite actors from this time period}. Kelly was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in the film The Country Girl. Needless to say Grace Kelly had a very successful film career. 

While attending the Cannes Film Festival in April 1955 Kelly met the prince of Monaco, Prince Rainier III. After returning home Kelly started work on The Swan, in which she played a princess. Meanwhile she privately began a correspondence with Rainier. In December, Rainier came to America on a trip officially designated as a tour. While in America Rainer met the Kelly family and after three days Rainer proposed. The couple has both a civil and religious wedding in April 1956. The same year she was married Kelly’s last film, High Society, was released.

*Side note: It is believed that Prince Rainier was searching for a wife, because a 1918 treaty with France stated that if Rainier did not produce an heir Monaco would revert to France as a result of the Monaco Succession Crisis of 1918. It is also rumored that Prince Rainier was aiming to marry an American film star in order to boost tourism in Monaco; Marilyn Monroe was first approached about marrying Prince Rainier, it is said that she just laughed and called him Prince Reindeer. I prefer the more romantic version, that it was a whirlwind romance between Grace Kelly and the Prince. 

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier had three children together, Caroline, Albert II, and Princess Stéphaine. After the wedding Prince Rainier banned the screening of Grace Kelly’s films in Monaco. In 1962 Hitchcock offered Kelly the lead in his film Mamie; she was eager to take the part, but due to her new title and status she rejected the part due to the public outcry in Monaco against her involvement in a film that portrayed her as a kleptomaniac. In 1977 Kelly returned to the arts in a series poetry readings on stage and the narration of the documentary “The Children of Theater Street”. The Princess Grace Foundation was later formed in Monaco to support local artisans. On September 13, 1982, while driving her daughter, Stéphanie, Princess Grace suffered a stroke, causing her to drive her Rover off the road down a mountainside. Grace died the following day at the Monaco Hospital. Grace Kelly was an accomplished individual who left behind an unforgettable legacy.