Became seriously ill with infectious hepatitis and jaundice in 1948, and doctors gave him a less than ten per cent chance of survival. The problem was the damage that years of heavy drinking had done to his liver. Grant took more than six months to recover.
Became the director of Fabergé cosmetics firm in 1966.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 346-348. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 191-193. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Cary Grant is caricaturized in a Merrie Melodies short cartoon called Hollywood Steps Out directed by Tex Avery (Warner Brothers 1941). The action takes place in the famed Ciro's nightclub where the Hollywood stars are having dinner. Grant is seated alone talking to himself: "What a place! What a place! It's as pretty as a picture. But if I ever told my favorite wife the awful truth I'd land right on the front page. Yessireee Bobby."
Cary Grant was 'immortalized' in the Stone Age as "Gary Granite" in the cartoon, The Flintstones.
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#22). [1995]
Comedy director Leo McCarey accused him of ripping off his persona during the time that they shot The Awful Truth (1937) and using it as his own to become world-famous. What McCarey failed to notice was that many aspects of Cary's image were already developed in Sylvia Scarlett (1935) an otherwise poor Katharine Hepburn-George Cukor picture made 2 years before The Awful Truth (1937), and that his comic timing and versatility as an actor were all his own. Although ill at ease about it, they collaborated again several times.
Considered for the leading role of "Ladri di biciclette" (1948).
Donated his entire salary for Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) ($100,000) to the U.S. War Relief Fund.
Eagerly sought the role of Midshipman Roger Byam in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), but the part went to Franchot Tone instead.
Fell madly in love with Sophia Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion (1957) when he was 53 and she was 22, despite the fact that he was married to actress Betsy Drake. However, Loren was seriously involved with producer Carlo Ponti, and her passion fizzled when the film wrapped.
For a scene in The Grass Is Greener (1960), he refused to wear a smoking jacket, fearing he would immediately lose the support of the audience if he were seen dressed like that. The director later recalled that an old-fashioned kind of comedy had died that day, and it never came back.
For several years he had toyed with the idea of playing Hamlet in an attempt to prove to his critics that he could act. This idea was finally scuppered by Laurence Olivier's film Hamlet (1948).
From 1933 onwards, he occasionally shared a house with Randolph Scott. There were many rumors about their relationship. Scott often referred to himself, jokingly, as Grant's wife. Many studio heads threatened not to employ them unless they lived separately.
Grant eagerly sought William Holden's role in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), but the producers decided he wasn't right for the part, and in any case they felt he was too old at 53.
Grant introduced Frederick Brisson to future wife Rosalind Russell and acted as his best man at their marriage.
Grant was nearly 34 when he made Bringing Up Baby (1938) and had been worried that he might not ever become a major star, since younger actors like Errol Flynn and James Stewart were already established stars.
Grant, who was 59 at the time he filmed the romantic thriller Charade (1963), felt he was too old to play the love interest for Audrey Hepburn, who at 34 was 25 years younger than him. He demanded that the script make clear that it was Audrey pursuing him, not vice versa. He also added a number of wry jokes denoting the difference in age.
Had a benign tumor removed from his forehead in 1957.