Grant Cary This: His Hell Uplifted Us

How shocking our legendary actor Cary Grant was haunted by an outrageous childhood & so suffered thru debilitating self-doubt? 5 marriages? LSD therapy? How’d he pull-off so many reassuring rolls ala the angel in The Bishop’s Wife?

Was there ever an actor who inspired more faith & belief in his wholeness on the big screen than Mr. Grant aka Archibald Leach? Yet Fox News reports how ex-wife No. 5, Dyan Cannon, wishes she could have “helped a man who was going through hell,” despite their 33-yrs in age difference. As Ms. Cannon found out after 3 years trying to “fix” the 61-yr-old man she “just loved” between 1965-68: “…happiness is an inside job. You can’t make anyone else happy. And, so whatever I tried, failed.” Now 86, herself a 3-time Academy Award nominee, Ms. Cannon reveals it all as executive producer of the new ITV Studios/BritBox miniseries, “Archie.” The show is billed as chronicling the life & career of Grant, who plainly, if not publicly, “struggled to overcome a painful past that included an impoverished childhood in England with his alcoholic father Elias and Mother Elsie, who battled clinical depression.” While still a child, Grant’s mother had “suddenly disappeared.” But it wasn’t until his 30s that Grant discovered Elsie had been “committed to an asylum” by Elias. According to the miniseries plot, that deception was ‘one overpowering lie that shaped his life” & was reflected in what Cannon saw as a “controlling behavior, fiery temper & perfectionist nature.”

HOW could this be? That is, if like me, all you had done was marvel at Grant’s endearing qualities in such classic films as “Father Goose,” “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” “To Catch A Thief,” “An Affair to Remember,” “Arsenic & Old Lace,” “The Talk of the Town,” “The Philadelphia Story,” “His Girl Friday,” “Bringing Up Baby …” Say it wasn’t all too painful a “Charade,” Cary. But, thank you.

Davd Soul