Biography
Who among our contemporaries is not familiar with the fairy-tale love story of the titular prince and a simple American girl? Of course, the girl was not entirely simple, and dubious rumors about the truth of the couple’s feelings still persist, but, nevertheless, this particular story is an example of how a fairy tale turns into reality.
The incredible fate of Grace Kelly, her transformation from a rich but simple American woman into an example for millions - the Princess of Monaco - is what people are still gossiping about.
Grace Kelly in childhood
The future style icon was born in 1929. From childhood, the girl was prepared for life in high society among rich and famous people. Grace was the daughter of a successful businessman and fashion model. However, she was a tense child, a little plump, not too confident in herself and not particularly promising for a great future. The girl graduated from a strict Catholic school, and here she first appeared on stage in a production based on a biblical story. The girl expected the fate of the sweet wife of a rich man, but she herself longed for fame and the acting path.
Grace Kelly in her youth
Grace had older brothers, and the family relied heavily on the older children. Grace's father never expected that it was the youngest daughter who would become the main pride of the family and bring fame and additional wealth to their family home, glorifying the Kelly surname among residents of several continents. Grace devoted many years to impressing her demanding dad and getting him to take her seriously. But even the Oscar he received could not do this.
Grace Kelly with family
Young Kelly, after completing her schooling, moved from Philadelphia to the Big Apple, entered the New York Academy of Arts (she was not accepted into the women's college, which her parents insisted on, due to low grades in mathematics), where she began to learn the basics acting skills. At the same time, she got a job as a fashion model and was quite successful in this direction - her photos were adorned in numerous magazines, on the pages of which she promoted brands of cigarettes, equipment, sportswear and household chemicals.
An interesting fact - unlike the success stories of other models who spent years flocking to well-known agencies and rushing to castings, Grace was immediately offered interesting projects and high fees. She was very beautiful, so the agents lined up in front of the door to the girl’s apartment and offered the best terms of cooperation.
The figure of Grace Kelly is an example to follow
Grace's canonical beauty, tall stature and chiseled figure - these characteristics, which made her a legendary actress and model, were liked by all producers without exception. But she didn’t get work in real cinema. Finally, she gets a role in a production on Broadway, and then begins to conquer cinema, receiving invitations to episodic roles in various films.
Actor career
Grace Kelly's Broadway debut happened when she was 19 years old. She took part in Strindberg's The Father. Her stage productions attracted the attention of television producers, which peaked during the post-war golden era of television drama.
Delbert Mann cast Kelly in Bethel Merriday, a dramatic adaptation of Lewis Sinclair's novel. After appearing on television, Kelly received millions of offers to participate in the filming. Her first role in the film “14 Hours” (1951) was episodic. She did not bring Grace popularity or audience interest, but the famous actor Gary Cooper was fascinated by the young actress. He stated that he sees something special in her that other actresses do not have. On the actor's recommendation, she received her first serious role in the film High Noon (1952) with Gary Cooper himself. Grace Kelly's films began to receive positive reviews from critics, and the actress began to receive recognition from viewers.
In 1952, she entered into a seven-year contract with director John Ford. Her first film, shot under the auspices of Ford, was Mogambo (1953). Filmed in Kenya, the film starring Grace Kelly won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. This film also brought the actress her first nomination from the Academy. She starred opposite Clark Gable, and the film's success helped bolster her growing reputation.
In 1954, she starred in Alfred Hitchcock's The Killing. The director and Kelly were incredibly close and had mutual admiration for each other. Grace once said that Mr. Hitchcock taught her a lot.
Hitchcock saw Kelly as an intriguing person. He described her this way: "Grace Kelly's apparent frigidity was like a mountain covered in snow, but that mountain was actually a volcano."
Encouraged by Hitchcock's enthusiasm for the project, she took part in the film Rear Window (1954) with James Stewart. The film was a commercial and critical success, becoming one of the highest-rated films of all time.
Another significant project in her career was The Country Girl (1954), where she played the role of Bing Crosby's wife. Her acting amazed the Academy and Grace Kelly won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She later starred in Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1955).
Movies
Grace meets famous actor Gary Cooper, who helps her get the lead role in his new project. Thus begins Grace's triumphant conquest of American cinema. True, after the premiere, the shocked Grace noticed how poorly she was acting, and rushed to her teachers to develop her acting skills. After some time, she starred in several films, for her supporting role in one of which she received her first Oscar nomination.
Kelly becomes the muse of the famous director Hitchcock, his “favorite blonde,” starred in his films and won an Oscar. In just less than five years as an actress, she has starred in 10 films.
Grace Kelly's success is truly phenomenal - she not only became the most sought-after versatile actress in Hollywood in a short time, but also maintained her position as the brightest film star many years later. She entered the lists of the best actresses from the beginning of the decade, and then the century, bringing fame to herself and her family.
Kelly presented the best films in Hollywood at international competitions (including Cannes, where she met Rainier). By the way, she was credited with having affairs with all her partners on the set, with an Arab sheikh, but she decided to connect her life with the Prince of Monaco.
Getting started in cinema
However, after this rejection, she showed more interest in acting. At that moment she realized: she needed to try to get into the cinema at all costs. Grace Kelly's biography as an actress began precisely at this moment.
Her father was initially disappointed, believing that his daughter had made the wrong career choice. Although it is ironic that Jack Kelly had two brothers - Walter and George Kelly (Grace's uncles) who were very influential in the film and drama industry. Thus, George Kelly won the Pulitzer Prize for his comedy drama The Show Off (1924–1925). However, he was separated from his family due to his homosexuality. It is rumored that in 1947 Kelly received recognition at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York thanks to the influence of her uncle George.
In October 1947, she began actively studying acting, practicing diligently in her room at night. She often turned on the tape recorder to develop her voice. Grace lived in a local sorority house in Manhattan and received little financial support from her parents. During that period, Kelly also worked part-time at the John Robert Powers modeling agency. She worked part-time from the age of 12: her photogenic appearance and blonde hair helped her to be in demand. At the time, she was one of the highest paid models in New York.
Personal life
The reception organized by the Prince of Monaco for representatives of American cinema was fateful. The young Oscar-winning actress of stunning beauty immediately struck Prince Rainier III in the heart. He decided that he had met his princess, whom he had been looking for for so many years, and immediately began the process of winning the girl’s heart.
Grace Kelly and Rainier III
Grace was fascinated by the courtship and attention that the prince showed her. He proved himself to be an attentive and well-mannered fan. They carried on a long correspondence across the ocean, as a result of which Rainier came to America.
Grace understood that the decision to throw in her lot with the prince would make her a princess, place incredible responsibility on her and be a turning point in her career and life. However, she was ready to exchange all her career achievements for the role of the prince’s wife and lover. Grace gave up her passion - cinema - for love.
Rainier came to America to ask her parents for her hand in marriage, received the blessing of new relatives and took Grace and her friends, a hairdresser and numerous suitcases containing a wedding dress and jewelry on a transatlantic liner to Monaco. A week after this, the legendary wedding took place, after which the people of Monaco were introduced to their new princess.
Wedding of Grace Kelly and Rainier III
The family settled in Monaco; after Grace’s arrival, the tiny state began to develop its tourism potential and gradually turned into a must-see place for ardent cinema fans, Hollywood representatives and simply lovers of romantic stories. Grace and Rainier became parents and children were born into their family. The family looked ideal: a beautiful, well-groomed wife, dressed to the nines; a sedate, dignified-looking husband with exceptional manners, who had an aura of power and royalty; wonderful children, well-mannered and obedient.
Grace Kelly with her husband and children
However, the idyll did not last long. Children, so submissive and exemplary in childhood, began to spin out of control as they grew older. The son stopped being interested in anything, narrowing his circle of interests to representatives of the fair half of humanity and fashionable cars. The eldest daughter experienced, at a young age, first a crazy marriage, and then an equally crazy divorce. The youngest daughter decided to exchange feminine outfits for a leather jacket and motorcycles, becoming a real “tomboy”.
Grace Kelly
Even Kelly’s husband let us down - over the years, he began to increasingly show those traits that usually come to people in old age. For example, he became excessively grouchy, stingy, and loved spending time away from his family, alone or surrounded by his favorite animals. He actually moved away from his family into a separate house. Moreover, throughout their life together, the unsociable Rainier was jealous of his wife for her success and universal love. Grace truly was the darling of the country, successful in all her endeavors. Her husband could not forgive her for this fact.
Grace Kelly with her husband
In general, the image of an ideal family, which Grace had painstakingly built over many years, was collapsing like a house of cards right before our eyes. And she experienced this extremely painfully. She was well aware of her need to continue to create and realize her potential as a dramatic actress, but in her position this was impossible, and her age began to approach a fatal mark for her.
She did something that disgraced her in the last years of her life - she had an affair with a young man. At first she maintained a relationship with one young man, then with another. This gave her some freedom and the feeling that she could make at least some important decisions and influence her destiny herself.
Grace Kelly in recent years
The actress had a peculiar attitude towards the process of growing up and aging. She always believed that from the age of 40 a woman no longer begins life, but a period of sad existence. In her youth, Grace took great care of her youthful beauty and fit figure, used her abilities and her charm as successfully as possible and received dividends from her appearance, working as a model, actress and simply being a “heartbreaker”.
As she grew older, the girl began to realize the illusory and elusiveness of her natural beauty, which very soon would begin to fade every day. She was really afraid of the first signs of aging, and was very upset about the approach of that “fatal” age. In her mind, failure to be an ideal - an ideal of beauty, youth, grace, fluidity and incredible charm - was comparable to death.
What happened before the wedding
Grace Kelly and Rainier fell in love almost immediately. Many believe that this was a true example of love at first sight. Completely fascinated by the beauty of the actress, the heir to the throne of Monaco was ready to lay almost the whole world at his beloved’s feet.
Their love story is simply amazing in its beauty and scale. The prince in love wrote long letters to Grace, in which he confessed his feelings to the girl, gave numerous gifts, striking in their luxury, and then made a solemn marriage proposal.
By answering it, a girl from Pennsylvania, who suffered from a lack of parental attention, became the Princess of Monaco.
Death
The sad fact is that Grace did not live long enough to sit, as she feared, in her old age and reminisce about her past victories. She died suddenly in a car accident.
Photo from the scene of the Grace Kelly accident
Grace almost never drove a car herself. She preferred to travel with a personal driver. However, on that ill-fated day, she decided to take her daughter to a neighboring city, and drive herself. The princess motivated her decision by the fact that she needed to discuss personal, “secret” matters and issues with her daughter. And it was worth doing this without witnesses.
Grace Kelly's funeral
What mother and daughter talked about that day will remain a mystery. It so happened that on the way, Grace lost control due to a sudden heart attack and got into a car accident, as a result of which she tragically died at the age of 52. Her daughter was also injured in this disaster, but survived. Grace's husband mourned his wife until his death.
Style icon
Grace Kelly was considered a style icon during her lifetime. Her dresses were copied, her looks were dissected and analyzed in fashion magazines, and her ability to wear gloves with unique grace was admired by top fashion designers. She, like no one else, knew how to emphasize all her advantages, create the ideal shape of her figure with the help of clothes and accessories, and she surprisingly selected outfits for any celebration.
Grace Kelly Outfits
In her days as a movie star, Grace favored “Hollywood chic” and “red carpet” classics, then, as the Princess of Monaco, she transformed her image, adding more elegant but modest things to it. But her favorites were always wide-brimmed hats and clothes in soft, soft pastel colors.
Grace Kelly on the red carpet
Grace's story has had a huge impact on popular culture. Her style began to be interpreted at fashion shows, her words were scattered into quotes and aphorisms, and her fate became a source of inspiration for directors and screenwriters. Designer accessories, dresses and jewelry are named and renamed in her honor. There is a perfume created in Kelly's honor.
Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly
In 2014, the film “Princess of Monaco” was released, which told about Grace’s emergence as head of state. The aristocrat, not by birth, but by choice, was played by the famous actress Nicole Kidman. This film played up the image of Kelly as an almost unearthly woman, like an angel, with a fire burning in her soul.
In fact, Grace was far from a gift. By her own admission, she was an ordinary woman, and not a fairy-tale character. According to contemporaries, Kelly was very liberated, lived with passions, was not afraid of society’s assessment and knew her worth. Moreover, she was adventurous and incredibly lucky - how else can one explain her sharp rise to the podium in cinema, her wedding with a prince on a white horse and many happy accidents and coincidences.
Grace hoped that her life story would be the story of a less-than-ideal woman who got lucky. However, everything turned out quite the opposite - she became the ideal woman for many generations.
Grace Kelly and Catherine Deneuve have certain similarities
Another famous actress, the inimitable Catherine Deneuve, is very similar to Grace. This played into Catherine’s hands at the initial stage of her career.
Personal life and children of Grace Kelly
The famous beautiful actress wanted to become the wife of designer Oleg Cassini. He was the son of a count from Russia and an aristocrat from Italy. True, the family did not allow the girl to marry him. Oleg was much older than Grace and had the fame of Don Juan. The girl was not left alone for long. Soon she met the Prince of Monaco, liked him at first sight, and married him at the age of 26. With the acquisition of the status of a married lady and princess of Monaco, she stopped acting in films. In her marriage, she had three children: two daughters (Carolina and Stefania) and a son, Albert.
