Cary Grant: A Class Apart - Softcover

Writing with the low-key stylishness his subject deserves, British academic Graham McCann pays tribute to the working-class Englishman who became "a democratic symbol of gentlemanly grace" to moviegoers worldwide. Aptly subtitled "A Class Apart," the book sympathetically depicts Archie Leach--born into poverty, his mother committed to an asylum when he was nine--reinventing himself as Cary Grant, whose debonair screen persona showed no signs of these difficult origins. A decorous account of Grant's private life (McCann dismisses talk of bisexuality as mere rumor) accompanies cogent descriptions of his performances.

More than a biography, this is a savvy portrait of how Archie Leach, born to a poor working-class family in Bristol, England became Cary Grant, one of Hollywood's most irresistible and admired celebrities of all time.