I have looked forward to reading Scott Eyman's biography of Cary Grant ever since I heard it was coming out. Like most women in America who are fans of "old" movies and TCM, Cary Grant has always been a favorite of mine. Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise (#968) weighing in at almost five hundred pages, is never dull, even though it may change your perception of this brilliant actor's personal life.
It seems Archie Leach of the old British Music Hall circuits could never quite reconcile himself with the matinee idol he became on screen, and spent his life playing Cary Grant on and off screen, never believing until the end of his long career that he had actually become the suave, debonair man he projected. Anecdotes from friends and fellow actors as well as Grant's own words and actions illustrate how his insecurities played out. He's not the man I thought he was, but then neither was he!
The one thing that's missing from this intriguing biography is a list of Cary Grant's films, which I would have loved to have seen all in one place. Eyman does reference the fact that Grant thought he made
around "sixty-five" films, but in actuality, he made seventy-three. I would like to start checking off that list!
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