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Cary Grant..

So was he bi, gay or just the victim of constant rumors that amounted to nothing?

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by Anonymousreply 100July 9, 2023 10:08 AM

In the 2022 biography 'Cary Grant A Brilliant Disguise By: Scott Eyman' towards the end a conversation was recorded. It was between CG and some other (the name escapes my elder-brain) during which CG said something along the lines of 'I started out sleeping with men, then men and women, then ended up only sleeping with women'. Also recorded were the words of the delightful Dyan Canon 'I don't know where the gay rumours started- we fucked all the time'! Make of these as you will.

by Anonymousreply 1March 17, 2023 1:58 PM

All the modern biographers agree he was bi for real, but had issues in relationships with both men and women.

Probably Grant's happiest relationship was with Randolph Scott, when they were old they'd occasionally be seen out in Hollywood, holding hands under the table. But Grant kept trying to make it work with women, but it never worked, presumably his heart wasn't in it even if his dick was.

by Anonymousreply 2March 17, 2023 3:29 PM

Which biographers, r2?

by Anonymousreply 3March 17, 2023 4:34 PM

They were so handsome together. The perfect gay power couple.

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by Anonymousreply 4March 17, 2023 5:53 PM

OP, the latter

by Anonymousreply 5March 17, 2023 5:55 PM

Both Carleton Carpenter and Dick Sargent said Grant hit on them when they were young actors starting out

by Anonymousreply 6March 17, 2023 5:57 PM

Cary Grant was a "victim" of nothing except the insane side of his beautiful genes and his own peevish, self-obsessed, cheap-ass vacancy.

by Anonymousreply 7March 17, 2023 6:12 PM

Well, someone has an ax to grind…..

by Anonymousreply 8March 17, 2023 9:27 PM

I read some of that book R1. I didn't finish it because Grant was revealed to be increasingly unappealing. And I'm a fan! It was interesting to see, in the beginning of his movie career, how he invented "Cary Grant" by copying other men, Douglas Fairbanks JR., Leo McCarey, who directed an early hit The Awful Truth. He created a very successful persona, which didn't really change for the rest of his career.

by Anonymousreply 9March 17, 2023 9:56 PM

As a young man, Archibald Leech chipped an upper central incisor and had it removed at a dental college. He had the upper teeth slowly squeezed together to fill the hole.

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by Anonymousreply 10March 18, 2023 5:48 AM

He was a mincing fairy and everyone knew it.

by Anonymousreply 11March 18, 2023 5:56 AM

Jesus fucking Christ he was gorgeous—

Missing smashed in teeth and all.

by Anonymousreply 12March 18, 2023 5:59 AM

^^ he really was. The very definition of a movie star.

by Anonymousreply 13March 18, 2023 6:50 AM

Gay gay gay.

by Anonymousreply 14March 18, 2023 8:12 AM

A fucking homo.

by Anonymousreply 15March 18, 2023 8:13 AM

[quote] Cary Grant was a "victim" of nothing except the insane side of his beautiful genes and his own peevish, self-obsessed, cheap-ass vacancy.

What do you mean by 'vacancy'?

by Anonymousreply 16March 18, 2023 8:22 AM

For some reason though no one gets me hornier than a young Marlon Brando. I am not sure if there was anyone hotter than him at his prime.

And this thread reminds me of the crazy homeless guy in NYC who used to go around shouting - "I Fucked Tony Curtis up the Ass!" He was so insistent it makes you half-wonder if he did.

by Anonymousreply 17March 18, 2023 8:41 AM

Orlry-Kelly, the openly gay Hollywood movie clothing designer, was Cary Grant's roommate in NYC and sometimes lover. (This was in the late 1920s) . He wrote a tell-all autobiography not to be published until after his death. He names names and brings the receipts. I'm pretty sure you could take his anecdotes to the bank. I think Cary Grant was probably bisexual with a more pronounced feeling for men, but super ambitious and protective of his reputation, hence his marriages to women. He was a fine looking man who stayed good looking into old age. I think the biggest love of his life was Randolph Scott, and I'm sure that their relationship was broken up by their respective agents for the sakes of their careers. I think there's a deep sadness in the back of Cary Grant's expressions, even in all the zany comedies he made in the 40s and 50s, but even more so in his more serious films (see stills from Affair to Remember below) . If you can possibly get your hands on it, watch the documentary made about Orry-Kelly's life., called "Women he's undressed" , made in 2015.

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by Anonymousreply 18March 18, 2023 9:05 AM

I don’t know, honey. He never sucked my dick.

by Anonymousreply 19March 18, 2023 9:33 AM

So OP had no ideas but had to post something, anything. So OP rehashes this dreadful beaten-to-death topic. So this is very DL.

by Anonymousreply 20March 18, 2023 10:12 AM

He's very beautiful for an Englishman. Very swarthy.

by Anonymousreply 21March 18, 2023 10:19 AM

I wouldn’t take Orry-Kelly’s word on anything.

by Anonymousreply 22March 18, 2023 10:22 AM

Too right, R22, he was an Oirishman.

by Anonymousreply 23March 18, 2023 10:26 AM

Cary Grant was beautiful and sexy, he had the best of both worlds, he lived a long life, left a legacy of wonderful films, he certainly had immense sex appeal into old age, he was still cute to the very end. .. :-)

by Anonymousreply 24March 18, 2023 10:37 AM

He had a very dysfunction childhood from what I remember reading. Wasn't his mother committed to an asylum because of mental health problems?

by Anonymousreply 25March 18, 2023 12:10 PM

An older friend of mine spoke to him in a gay sauna in London back in the late 70’s.

by Anonymousreply 26March 18, 2023 12:44 PM

He's extraordinarily handsome, but for me, not at all sexy. There's no sexual heat from him. Compare him to his contemporaries; Clarke Gable, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, Spencer Tracy, men you can actually imagine getting sweaty in bed. Grant is sort of blank. No sexual heat with a lot of his co-stars, ok, maybe Ingrid Bergman in Notorious, but usually on screen Grant is sort of passive or neutral.

by Anonymousreply 27March 18, 2023 12:48 PM

R27I6 Yes, you are right. What is the word - dispassionate?

by Anonymousreply 28March 18, 2023 12:49 PM

Total fag.

by Anonymousreply 29March 18, 2023 12:52 PM

Mel Brooks tells a funny story about him in a documentary. That he showed up at his bungalow at one of the studios wanting to have lunch, and Mel couldn’t believe THE Cary Grant wanted to spend time with him. Then he showed up again the next day, and Mel was pleased. By the 3rd day he was hiding so he didn’t have to go to lunch again. The implication was all Cary did was talk about himself, and he wasn’t that interesting.

by Anonymousreply 30March 18, 2023 12:59 PM

Interesting comment, r27, i find him very attractive but completely get what you mean, and maybe that was the secret of his success, a cerise aloofness, an inability to let himself go. To me he is at his sexiness as the repressed professor in Bringing Up Baby.

by Anonymousreply 31March 18, 2023 12:59 PM

^certain, not cerise, or maybe both

by Anonymousreply 32March 18, 2023 1:00 PM

I am going to be at the hotel he stayed at before he died, and is rumored to haunt. I will ask him then.

by Anonymousreply 33March 18, 2023 1:33 PM

I’d grant Cary anything he wished.

by Anonymousreply 34March 18, 2023 2:21 PM

R25, the story I remember from a biography I read is that he was born out of wedlock to a dirt-poor married man and a mentally unstable woman. When he was a baby, his father brought him home to his wife, and basically told her that she had to bring up his bastard from an affair, and Cary/Archie didn't find out that his "mother" wasn't his biological mother until he was an adult, until then he'd never understood why she was utterly cold to him. He reportedly found out in the late 1939s, and there was tension on the set of "Gunga Din" because Victor McLaglen was anti-semitic and pro-Nazi, and Grant now knew his biological mother had been Jewish.

Grant kept his family secrets, and took care of the adoptive mother who'd treated him badly for as long as she lived, and continued to visit her like a dutiful son. Ajnd nobody will ever know if that was because he was motivated by a sense of duty or family feeling, or because it would have been bad for his image if he hadn't.

by Anonymousreply 35March 19, 2023 4:07 AM

All I know is... he did an awful lot of acid

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by Anonymousreply 36March 19, 2023 4:12 AM

Stop this hate. He ate cunt. Not boy ass.

by Anonymousreply 37March 19, 2023 4:18 AM

[quote] he certainly had immense sex appeal into old age

No, it ended in 1956.

by Anonymousreply 38March 19, 2023 4:22 AM

Very handsome and charismatic. And obviously gay.

by Anonymousreply 39March 19, 2023 5:24 AM

Yes, R39, as 'obviously gay' as Rock Hudson and George Nader and George Maharis.

by Anonymousreply 40March 19, 2023 5:42 AM

Barbara Hutton said he was her only husband that loved her, and the only one who didn't ask for money in a settlement.

by Anonymousreply 41March 19, 2023 6:47 AM

Cary Grant wore women's underwear to avoid a visible panty line, no straight man would do that

by Anonymousreply 42March 19, 2023 7:51 AM

R27, I feel the same way. Impossibly handsome, especially in the late '30s and '40s, but utterly lacking in sex appeal. He may have been the horniest man in Hollywood in real life, but on screen he came across to me as someone who could take or leave sex,. There's no smolder.

In a totally different class, but as a similar example: I had the same reaction to Tom Selleck as Magnum PI. I should have thought he was hot. He was everything I like physically, but somehow he seemed almost sexless. The funny thing is I've seen Selleck in a couple of pre-Magnum roles (The Washington Affair, Daughters of Satan), and he's pretty sexy. I guess it was the Magnum role that didn't turn me on ...? That and his lightweight voice. Couldn't stand his voice.

by Anonymousreply 43March 19, 2023 11:28 PM

Agree R43. He was charming but if you want a screen man of sex there's no one more masculine sexy than Sean Connery.

by Anonymousreply 44March 20, 2023 1:58 AM

He was a mess playing a throughly obnoxious pseudo-intellectual in this throughly pretentious movie.

The trailer suggests it's to be a comedy but he's playing an egomaniacal whacko-guru like Frank Lloyd Wright or John Harvey Kellogg.

The movie is as painful as Mankiewicz at his worst.

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by Anonymousreply 45March 21, 2023 7:50 AM

[quote]his own peevish, self-obsessed, cheap-ass vacancy.

R7 nails it. Beyond his terrific acting skills and Hollywood persona, he was a nightmare of a classic, self-obsessed, selfish luvvie.

[quote]He wrote a tell-all autobiography not to be published until after his death. He names names and brings the receipts.

R18 clearly hasn't read Orry-Kelly's book at all. It's the very opposite of a tell-all. Very discreet.

In his autobiography Richard Blackwell, the fashion figure who was actor at RKO as 'Dick Ellis', said he'd slept with both Grant and Scott, preferring the latter. Jerome Zerbe, who took the now famous publicity photos of Grant and Scott in their house, also said he'd had them both. Zerbe's photo archive was purchased by the gay Koch brother and donated to Yale.

by Anonymousreply 46March 21, 2023 8:00 AM

[quote] Richard Blackwell … said he'd slept with both Grant and Scott.

OK, I can top that. I slept with Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington!

by Anonymousreply 47March 21, 2023 8:05 AM

Gay or Just British?

by Anonymousreply 48March 21, 2023 8:06 AM

The solid Scotty Bowers also said he'd fucked them both. So lots of people in Hollywood knew the score, but the bullshit overrides everything. A lot of later biographers rely on the generally solid Charles Higham without acknowledgement.

As for Darwin Porter and Boze Hadleigh – I wouldn't trust a word written by either. The latter's Wikipedia entry is constantly rewritten to hide mention of disputable aspects of his work.

Below is the link to Blackwell's biography with the entry on Grant and Scott.

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by Anonymousreply 49March 21, 2023 8:13 AM

Def bi at the very least.

by Anonymousreply 50March 21, 2023 8:18 AM

Effortlessly charismatic. Hollywood is utterly charmless today.

by Anonymousreply 51March 21, 2023 10:43 AM

Here is a bit of the documentary, with many excerpts of Orry-Kelly's writing mixed in with analysis, interviews, and discussions with others.

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by Anonymousreply 52March 22, 2023 4:43 AM

He and Gene Kelly would sing in the rain

by Anonymousreply 53March 22, 2023 5:04 AM

I read somewhere years back that Grant could have been a great executive at the studios had he chosen to pursue that at any time. He was an incredibly sharp operator and knew what he was doing with complex contracts. He got the better of some of the toughest negotiators in the business in his time.

by Anonymousreply 54March 22, 2023 5:23 AM

R10. Cary Grant chipped a front tooth so he had it REMOVED and had the rest of his teeth squeezed together so you couldn't tell?!! Wasn't there anything easier to do?

by Anonymousreply 55March 22, 2023 5:39 AM

Jennifer Grant apparently knows of all her fathers' love affairs before she was born when he was 62!

by Anonymousreply 56March 22, 2023 7:55 AM

He was handsome but had zero sex appeal.

by Anonymousreply 57March 22, 2023 1:18 PM

"with many excerpts of Orry-Kelly's writing"

Nope. Not at all. If you check the memoir you'll see they made a shitload up to suggest that a very discreet memoir was anything but. I don't doubt Grant and Kelly were sometime fuck buddies, but I hate it when original non-fiction material is 'nudged' for dramatic purposes.

by Anonymousreply 58March 22, 2023 2:24 PM

Jennifer Grant, speaking with The Guardian on her father's rumored past: "Perhaps earlier in his life he had an affair [with a man]. I’ll never know, but if he did, fantastic. I hope he enjoyed it.”

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by Anonymousreply 59July 6, 2023 12:42 AM

Gay and gorgeous and Jewish. He was forced to marry women and have a child to preserve his professional career.

by Anonymousreply 60July 6, 2023 12:45 AM

He was a great movie star who starred in classic films

by Anonymousreply 61July 6, 2023 12:46 AM

He was a classic pussy hound.

by Anonymousreply 62July 6, 2023 12:53 AM

R2 story of my life.

by Anonymousreply 63July 6, 2023 12:55 AM

I think the LSD was all about trying to reprogram himself as a heterosexual man. Part of me suspects that Morrissey has tried something similar.

by Anonymousreply 64July 6, 2023 12:58 AM

Handsome as fuck his whole life.

by Anonymousreply 65July 6, 2023 12:58 AM

Grant and Scott in a domestic moment.

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by Anonymousreply 66July 6, 2023 1:28 AM

I'd jump into that pool with my clothes on. I wouldn't hesitate.

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by Anonymousreply 67July 6, 2023 1:31 AM

Randolph Scott looked like he was hung like a horse.

by Anonymousreply 68July 6, 2023 1:34 AM

Hottest and most attractive couple of all time. No one more attractive.

by Anonymousreply 69July 6, 2023 1:42 AM

Out and proud.

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by Anonymousreply 70July 6, 2023 1:49 AM

Grant’s daughter Jennifer wrote a good book in their relationship. She readily admits dad was bi.

by Anonymousreply 71July 6, 2023 2:07 AM

*of their

by Anonymousreply 72July 6, 2023 2:07 AM

R71, That’s quite different from what’s quoted at R59.

by Anonymousreply 73July 6, 2023 2:09 AM

I was starting to read a bio of him, but he was so troubled and nasty, especially to the women he married it was a very unpleasant read. Frankly he seemed completely disordered. It is a wonder he was so professionally productive for so long.

by Anonymousreply 74July 6, 2023 2:13 AM

Cary Grant and Randolph Scott - A Love Affair

"Cary Grant's 'friendship' with the devastatingly handsome Randolph Scott was remarkably open and fairly candid in the dangerously oppressed 1930s.There were several photo shoots for the fan magazines of the two 'merry bachelors,' who for several years shared a beach house in Santa Monica, as well as a mansion in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, which was commonly referred to in the press as 'Bachelor Hall,' both before, during, and after their seven marriages to women they had seven between them. The photos included in this article, are just a few of the many that exist, where it so perfectly clear that they were much more than just 'roommates.' It's obvious that they shared a great love and were just about the most physically gorgeous couple in Hollywood history."

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by Anonymousreply 75July 6, 2023 2:13 AM

I just can't watch Randolph Scott. He's so unattractive. I don't get him at all.

by Anonymousreply 76July 6, 2023 2:18 AM

Mae West's story about casting him in his first role is interesting...

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by Anonymousreply 77July 6, 2023 2:22 AM

Randolph Scott is devastatingly gorgeous. Are you thinking of someone else entirely, R76?!

by Anonymousreply 78July 6, 2023 2:22 AM

Nope R78. And I find lots of old Hollywood guys to be sexy and gorgeous. But Randolph Scott is like a dried up old leaf.

by Anonymousreply 79July 6, 2023 2:32 AM

Randolph Scott was a beauty on par with Errol Flynn. Stunningly beautiful.

by Anonymousreply 80July 6, 2023 2:35 AM

I think it's the lack of lips. I like lips on a man. And blond guys are not usually as good-looking as their darker fellows.

by Anonymousreply 81July 6, 2023 2:48 AM

r76 = Helen Keller

by Anonymousreply 82July 6, 2023 4:20 AM

Randolph should have played Ashley in GWTW.

by Anonymousreply 83July 6, 2023 4:40 AM

R81 must be into blacks and Latinos and those whose features resemble them.

by Anonymousreply 84July 8, 2023 2:49 PM

"......Spencer Tracy, men you can actually imagine getting sweaty in bed."

Was Spencer Tracy ever sober long enough to fuck anybody?

Say what you want about CG, he had the good sense to turn down the '54 version of "A Star is Born" since he didn't want to get involved with all of Judy's excess baggage and drama. (though the official version was Grant was then travelling extensively with his wife at the time).

by Anonymousreply 85July 8, 2023 3:13 PM

I’d never heard the Dick Sargent comment from upthread.

RESEARCH FINDINGS:

Sargent spoke about Cary Grant, with whom he made two films with. They went on several dates, but they didn’t have sex. According to Sargent:

“[Grant] hated being alone. He liked being around good-looking men. In fact, I heard all his secretaries were good-looking young men. He was indeed very closeted, but he didn’t avoid you if you were a good-looking guy, the way some others will. I was just thrilled to be socializing with Cary Grant. It was the two of us, we’d go out together, then we’d talk, but nothing else.”

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by Anonymousreply 86July 8, 2023 4:47 PM

From R86’s link:

[quote] Even the show’s lead, Montgomery, was an avid, enthusiastic activist for LGBTQ Rights.

What bullshit. I’m sure she advocated for GAY AND LESBIAN rights, yes, but “LGBTQ” was not a thing then. The T hadn’t even been added, let alone the Q. Fuck these people and their revisionism.

by Anonymousreply 87July 8, 2023 5:06 PM

Jennifer Grant on her father:

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by Anonymousreply 88July 8, 2023 5:53 PM

That was already posted at R59, R88.

by Anonymousreply 89July 8, 2023 6:01 PM

Most of the really beautiful people are bi to some extent

by Anonymousreply 90July 8, 2023 6:14 PM

The Women He's Undressed

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by Anonymousreply 91July 8, 2023 6:17 PM

Both Cary and Grace Kelly had very cool sex appeal. In To Catch a Thief they pulled it off - there was chemistry.

But Hitchcock liked the actresses with a sexy coolness.

by Anonymousreply 92July 8, 2023 6:20 PM

[quote]Say what you want about CG, he had the good sense to turn down the '54 version of "A Star is Born" since he didn't want to get involved with all of Judy's excess baggage and drama.

Huh? I'd say that was a total missed opportunity for Grant's career! He easily would have snagged a Best Actor nomination and would likely have won. Grant seemed a bit older than James Mason and would have been an even more pathetic Norman Maine, imo. I'm sorry he didn't have the smarts to accept the job.

by Anonymousreply 93July 8, 2023 6:25 PM

At a certain point, after you've achieved monumental success, you don't need to take any movie role. You do what you think will be fun.

Some actors never succumbed to the mystique of the Oscar. It didn't define their career, they'll tell you.

by Anonymousreply 94July 8, 2023 9:37 PM

His daughter insists that he was heterosexual, despite evidence to the contrary…

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by Anonymousreply 95July 8, 2023 11:42 PM

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

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by Anonymousreply 96July 8, 2023 11:43 PM

Weird how Grant’s daughter has alternately denied her father’s bisexuality and also celebrated him for being bisexual or at least trying homo-sex at least once.

What will she say tomorrow about it?

by Anonymousreply 97July 8, 2023 11:48 PM

She’s just as flaky as her mother.

by Anonymousreply 98July 8, 2023 11:53 PM

Well, having a father who was bisexual is not exactly like having a father who was a rocket scientist. I suppose people feel a little embarrassed about admitting it out loud. I'm not sure if Laurence Olivier's children have bragged about their father's bisexuality in print, or Leonard Bernstein's. In the case of these latter two, at least other people have been pretty forthright in spilling details, but the people who knew Cary Grant were more discreet.

by Anonymousreply 99July 9, 2023 9:28 AM

R1, It was wife Betsy Drake who questioned all the gay rumors because they were “always fucking”.

by Anonymousreply 100July 9, 2023 10:08 AM
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