Grace kelly

Grace Patricia Kelly (Philadelphia, November 12, 1929-La Colle, Monaco, September 14, 1982) was an Oscar-winning American film actress, and later princess consort of Monaco as the wife of Prince Raniero III.

After beginning her acting career in 1948, three years later she made her film debut with the film Fourteen Hours and two years later, in 1953, with the premiere of Mogambo, became a Hollywood star and came to participate in a total of 11 films. With her performances, she garnered several Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, winning the Best Actress Oscar for her role in the film The Country Girl.

When she was at the peak of her career, she retired from the world of cinema, at the age of 26, to marry the sovereign prince of Monaco, with whom she had three children: Carolina, Alberto and Estefanía.

As Princess of Monaco, she managed to revitalize Monaco, increasing the number of tourists and money, which helped recover the Monegasque economy. In addition, in her role as president of the Red Cross, she promoted an annual charity gala that gained much prominence and helped improve the hospital as well as other hospital infrastructure in Monaco.

She has a star of her own on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6329 Hollywood Boulevard, for her film career, prior to becoming Princess of Monaco. She is considered one of the greatest cinematographic myths and one of the most recognized divas in the history of cinema, as well as being a benchmark for women's fashion in her time.

Biography

Early years and family

The daughter of John Brendan Kelly, a construction businessman, and Margaret Katherine Majer, an educator and former athlete of German descent, she was born Grace Patricia Majer Kelly in Philadelphia on November 12, 1929, at Hahnemann University Hospital.. She was the third of four children in the Kelly family, the eldest, Margaret Katherine, familiarly known as Peggy, was born in 1925, two years later, in 1927, John Brendan Jr., better known as Kell, was born. In 1933 her last daughter, Elizabeth Anne, known as Lizanne, was born.

Jack Kelly was a highly respected former Olympian in Philadelphia. He was born in 1890 into a humble family of Irish origin that had emigrated to the United States. His father was a day laborer who had ended up in the capital of Pennsylvania to work in the textile industry. He married Mary Costello with whom he had ten children, only eight of whom survived. In his teens, Jack became fond of rowing and became his obsession, to the point that he looked for a sponsor to participate in the 1919 Diamond Challenge Scull, the most renowned competition in this sport., but his application was rejected. But a year later, he won two gold medals at the Antwerp Olympic Games, one of them individually, and the other in pairs with his cousin Paul Costello. After this feat he organized, with his brother Charles his own brick factory Kelly for Brickwork, with a market oriented construction of larger buildings from which they became rich.. In 1917 he met what would be his wife, Margaret Katherine Majer, the daughter of some German emigrants who graduated as a professor of Physical Education at Temple University, and who married Jack Kelly on January 30, 1924. That same year Jack Kelly won a gold medal again with his cousin at the Paris Olympics.

Kelly family home in East Falls, Philadelphia, where Grace grew up with her family.

When Grace was born, the Kelly family was already enjoying something of a financial bonanza, and her father's Olympic feat made them a household name in Philadelphia. In the fall of 1934, her parents enrolled her in the Academy of the Assumption, in Ravenhill, where she received a Catholic education and where she completed her studies and made her first roles in the theater playing the role of the Virgin Mary. in Christmas plays and where she began to practice ballet, her first vocation. Here she became fond of reading and read many plays especially by her uncle George, who had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1926 for his play Craig's Wife.

At the age of fourteen, in 1943, he enrolled in the Old Academy Players in the East Falls neighborhood, which had a theater group where his sister Peggy had already performed for charitable foundations. This is where she Grace decides that she wants to make it on stage, be it as a ballet dancer or an actress. His uncle George Kelly, a renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright in the United States, and his other uncle Walter Kelly, who was a music hall singer and vaudeville actor who had some radio and acting success, surely influenced his decision to work. in the world of the scene.

In 1947, Grace finished high school at Stevens School. At that time his sister Peggy had already married and was expecting their first child, his brother Kell, who rowed like their father, was training on the Schuylkill River preparing to participate in the Diamond Challenge sculls, which he would win twice, and to participate in the Olympic Games the following year; and her sister, Lizanne, was just finishing her primary education. Grace decided that she wanted to continue her ballet studies at the Bennington Girls' College, in Vermont. Unfortunately, she could not enroll, since there they asked her for one more year of mathematics that Grace had not completed. She then decided to enroll in the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York where she, despite submitting her application after the deadline, was accepted because she was George Kelly's niece. So she Grace left her native Philadelphia to go live in New York, where she started her career.

Career as an actress

First works

Grace Kelly in Only in the face of danger (1951).

While studying in New York, Grace looked for a job on the side of her acting studies, and curiously this job was the same job her mother had had when she was single: a model. At that time she advertised various products, but mostly she advertised cigarettes, cleaning products and lingerie. She went on to patronize the Old Gold brand of cigarettes, which was advertised on large billboards in the downtown streets of Manhattan.

In 1948, just after completing her first year at the Academy of Dramatic Arts , Grace performed with The Bucks County Playhouse , in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where she performed a role from his Uncle George's play: The Torch Bearers. The following year the opportunity came for him to perform for the first time on Broadway, with the company of the famous Raymond Massey, with a play by August Strindberg entitled The Father, which opened first in Boston and on November 1949, it finally made its Broadway debut. The reviews about her acting were very favorable and after this success she received several offers to act on stage and on television. In the next two years she played more than sixty dramatic roles of all kinds, mostly for television.

Home to the movies

Success on television gave her the opportunity to make the leap to the big screen, where she made her debut with a minor role in Henry Hathaway's Fourteen Hours. The film went unnoticed by the general public, but for Grace Kelly it marked the beginning of her great film career. Soon after, 20th Century Fox contacted her agent to summon her for a casting for the movie Taxi . The director Gregory Ratoff was delighted with the performance of the actress, but finally the production company decided to bet on another actress.

With James Stewart in The indiscreet window1954.

Kelly in Catch a thief (1955).

In the summer of 1951, she was hired by Elitch Gardens, plays that she could perform at any time, as required by each theater and each contract. While she was working for this company she received the offer to act in Fred Zinnemann's film, Alone in Danger , with Gary Cooper and Katy Jurado as co-stars.

Shortly after shooting wrapped and before the film was released, legendary film director John Ford attended the film's preview and saw Grace Kelly perform for the first time. John Ford was satisfied with the performance and thought of her to participate in her next film, although he still had some doubts. But praise from her friend Gregory Ratoff convinced him to cast her in her next film, Mogambo , starring Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. But if Grace wanted to be in this movie, she had to sign a seven-year contract with MGM. She finally agreed to sign the contract but with the conditions that they let her live in New York and that she would only shoot three movies a year. This film would bring her a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and her first Academy Award nomination, making her a renowned actress.

Hollywood star

It was the year 1953 and after the success obtained with Mogambo, Warner Brothers requested the loan of Grace Kelly at MGM to participate in an Alfred Hitchcock film. It was the film Perfect Crime (in the original in English, Dial M for murder; 1954), starring Ray Milland. The film, like all of Alfred Hitchcock's, was well received, and Grace was delighted with Hitchcock's directing.

Grace Kelly emerged at this time as one of the main stars of the Hollywood star-system.

The following year, Paramount Pictures called her to participate in another Hitchcock film, it was Rear Window, starring James Stewart. She had a great friendship with the actor. After this film, Grace had participated with great movie legends such as John Ford, Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Gary Cooper and James Stewart. She, but she had always done it in the background, never as the protagonist, and she was questioned by some critics who did not believe that she could play an important role. That same year she also shot a Korean War film titled The Bridges of Toko-Ri , playing the wife of William Holden, who played the lead. Shortly after shooting the film, William Perlberg and George Seaton, who had been producers of The Bridges of Toko-Ri, asked her to play a drama that had been successful on Broadway, it was The Country Girl. In this film, Grace once again shared the screen with William Holden and this time she would also share it with another of the greats of the moment: Bing Crosby. The film was Grace Kelly's second nomination for an Academy Award, but this time for a leading actress. Although she had a contract with MGM, her success had come with other production companies, so MGM forced her to participate in a film right after finishing shooting The Country Girl . For this reason, once the filming was finished, she traveled to Colombia where Green Fire was filmed, a film that would go unnoticed by the majority public. At the end of the year, after Grace has shot five films in just eight months, Alfred Hitchcock convinces her to act in her new film: To Catch a Thief ( Catch a thief ) with Cary Grant as the protagonist. In this way she would become the first actress to act in three consecutive Hithcock films. The movie was filmed on the French Riviera. And it was thanks to this film that she met Monaco for the first time and who would be her husband there.

The year 1955 began very well for Grace, as the Oscars were held in February and she won the best actress statuette for her role in the film The Country Girl. This role also earned her a Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Actress.

Retreat

Grace Kelly arriving at the 1955 Oscar gala.

In 1955 while she was shooting the film The Swan, during her stay in Monaco, she was introduced to Prince Raniero III of Monaco who invited her to visit the palace gardens. A short time later she began a loving relationship with the prince. At the end of this film, MGM presented him with a new project, it was the film High Society (1956), which was a musical adaptation of The Philadelphia Story, a theatrical comedy by Philip Barry. During the two filmings, an event occurred that completely changed her life, Prince Raniero III of Monaco traveled by plane to the Kelly mansion in Philadelphia to ask for Grace Kelly's hand and agree on the terms of the engagement.

Grace Kelly later stated: “Suddenly the prince was one of the Kelly clan. He and my father had the same handshake. They shared the same sports tastes. For four years, the prince had fought to make his little kingdom more than just a casino. We both fought on our own and that's what brought us together."

On January 5, 1956, the engagement was announced to the world. The news caused a sensation in Hollywood, but it meant that she withdrew from it and ended her film career, since the people of Monaco could not allow her princess to appear as a couple with other men on the screen. The Philadelphia Princess she asked Grace what kind of family she wanted to have: «I can tell you that we will have many children». Once the shooting of Alta Sociedad finished, she announced to MGM that she was withdrawing from it, thus breaking the contract that she still had in force with the production company. Her president, Dore Schary, agreed to let her go without asking in exchange for the rights to broadcast the wedding. Bing Crosby declared, "She will be sorely missed in the movies." As for Alfred Hitchcock, he said, bitter at the loss of her actress fetish: "Marrying a prince is on Grace's path to success. She has done it with the ease of a trapeze artist. But I don't know if the platform where she has to land will be too narrow ».

In 1956 his last film was released, thus ending a career that included 11 films, as well as an Oscar and two Golden Globes.

Princess of Monaco

His Serene Highnesses Princes Grace and Ranier III of Monaco.

On April 4, 1956, Grace, along with her family, bridesmaids and poodle, along with more than 80 pieces of luggage, embarked exclusively on the ocean liner SS Constitution bound for the French Riviera. Some 400 journalists requested to take the trip on the boat, although most of them were denied. Thousands of fans said goodbye to the entourage at the port, at the start of the eight-day voyage. Upon her arrival, more than 20,000 people thronged the shoreline, docks, and streets to greet the future princess consort.

She entered into a civil marriage with Prince Raniero on April 18, 1956 in the Throne Room of the Palace of Monaco. The religious wedding took place a day later, in the Monaco Cathedral. Grace wore a wedding dress designed by American Helen Rose.

From then on his life and work were dedicated entirely to his family and his new country. His figure and his elegant style gave a new impetus to the Principality of Monaco, which grew economically thanks to luxury tourism and the arrival of great fortunes and investors, attracted by the economic concessions and tax advantages promoted by Raniero. This strength and the consolidation of a ruling family with descendants guaranteed the survival of Monaco as an independent state, which thus avoided being annexed by France.

The couple had three children:

• S.A.R. Carolina, princess of Hannover (born January 23, 1957).
• S.A.S. Alberto II, Prince Sovereign of Monaco (born 14 March 1958).
• S.A.S. Princess Stefania (born February 1, 1965).

In 1962, Grace invited Princess Antoinette, her husband's sister, who disappeared from Monaco for a while, to leave the palace. Antoinette's claims were to place her own son on the throne occupied by her brother, so the offspring between him and Grace Kelly dismantled her plans, causing tense relations between her and her sovereigns. Relationships that finally culminated in the invitation of the princess to leave the palace.

Death

The tomb of Princess Grace of Monaco, in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas (Monaco).

On September 13, 1982, Grace insisted on driving, disregarding her chauffeur, back to Monaco from her country house in Roc Agel and was involved in an accident when the Rover P6 B 3500 S skidded off the road in a curve in the road near Monaco, plunging down a 30m hillside, ending with the car overturned; the road is the same as the one in the movie To Catch a Thief, where the princess and Cary Grant have a picnic. The exact place of the accident is in the coordinates 43°43′41.23″N 7°23′43.43″E / 43.7281194, 7.3953972.

The circumstance that she took her daughter Estefanía as a companion would lead to rumors that it was the young woman who was driving the car at the time of the accident (despite being seventeen years old); Other assumptions suggested an argument between mother and daughter that distracted the driver.The day after the accident, the Princess died without regaining consciousness at the Princess Grace Hospital Center at the age of 52. Grace was buried in the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas on Saturday, September 18, 1982. Representatives of all the Royal Houses of the world attended; among them, kings, queens, princes, grand dukes and heads of government of some republics. Raniero III would be buried next to her after her death, on April 15, 2005.

Artistic influence

James Gill: "Grace Kelly in Sun" (2013).

American pop artist Andy Warhol made a portrait of Grace Kelly in 1984 for the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art as a limited edition silkscreen. Kelly has also been represented by other pop artists, including James Gill, who did a portrait of the aforementioned actress in 2013.

In 2007, Lebanese singer Mika released the single "Grace Kelly" with which he achieved fame.

Grace is one of the Classic Hollywood actresses and actors mentioned in the rap part of the song "Vogue" of Madonna.

Complete filmography

• Fourteen hours (1951). Henry Hathaway. Like Louise Ann Fuller.
• Only in the face of danger (1952). Fred Zinnemann. Like Amy Fowler Kane.
• Mogambo (1953). John Ford. Like Linda Nordley.
• Toko-Ri Bridges (1954). From Mark Robson. Like Nancy Brubaker.
• Green fire (1954). Andrew Marton. Like Catherine Knowland.
• The anguish of living (1954). George Seaton. Like Georgie Elgin.
• The indiscreet window (1954). Alfred Hitchcock. Like Lisa Carol Fremont.
• Perfect crime (1954). Alfred Hitchcock. Like Margot Mary Wendice.
• The swan (1955). Charles Vidor. Like Princess Alexandra.
• Catch a thief (1955). Alfred Hitchcock. Like Frances Stevens.
• High society (1956). Charles Walters. Like Tracy Samantha Lord.

Awards and distinctions

Oscar Awards

Discography

• "True Love" High SocietyI own Bing Crosby, 1956.
• "L'Oiseau du Nord et L'Oiseau du Soleil", in French and English (1978).
• "Birds, Beasts & Flowers: A Programme of Poetry, Prose and Music" (1980).

Grace Kelly's monogram as a Princess of Monaco.

In fiction

• Grace of Monaco (2014). Interpreted by actress Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly and directed by Olivier Dahan.
• In an episode of the Spanish series "Velvet", the role of Grace of Monaco is embodied by actress Kimberley Tell.

Titles and styles

• 12 November 1929 – 18 April 1956: Miss Grace Patricia Kelly.
• 18 April 1956 – 14 September 1982: Your Serene Highness the Princess of Monaco.

Honorary Distinctions

Monegasque honorary distinctions

• Lady of the Order of San Carlos (17/04/1956).

Foreign Honorary Distinctions

• Lady of the Order of Charity (Reino de Grecia, 13/05/1962).
• Lady of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (Vatican City).
• Lady of the Order Pro Melitensi of the Order of Malta [Special Civil Class] (Sovereign Order of Malta).
• Lady of the Order of Cultural Independence, Rubén Darío (Republic of Nicaragua).
• Conmemorative Medal of 2500 Anniversary of the Empire of Iran (Iran Empire, 14/10/1971).

Ancestors

Predecessor: Ghislaine Dommanget

Princess Consort of Monaco 18 April 1956 – 14 September 1982

Successor: Charlene Wittstock