Film historian and acclaimed New York Times bestselling biographer
Scott Eyman has written the definitive, "captivating" (Associated Press)
biography of Hollywood legend Cary Grant, one of the most
accomplished--and beloved--actors of his generation, who remains as
popular as ever today.
Born Archibald Leach in 1904, he came to America as a teenaged acrobat
to find fame and fortune, but he was always haunted by his past. His
father was a feckless alcoholic, and his mother was committed to an
asylum when Archie was eleven years old. He believed her to be dead
until he was informed she was alive when he was thirty-one years old.
Because of this experience, Grant would have difficulty forming close
attachments throughout his life. He married five times and had numerous
affairs.
Despite a remarkable degree of success, Grant remained deeply conflicted
about his past, his present, his basic identity, and even the public
that worshipped him in movies such as Gunga Din, Notorious, and
North by Northwest.
This "estimable and empathetic biography" (The Washington Post) draws
on Grant's own papers, extensive archival research, and interviews with
family and friends making it a definitive and "complex portrait of
Hollywood's original leading man" (Entertainment Weekly).
