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NOVEMBER 11, 2015 | 06:27PM PT
Betsy Drake, the former wife of Cary Grant who starred in films including "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" (1957), "Room for One More" (1952) with Grant and the 1950 film noir "The Second Woman" with Robert Young, died in London on October 27. She was 92.
Grant married Drake in 1949 (his best man was Howard Hughes) after seeing her onstage in London, and they separated in 1958 and divorced in 1962. She made out extraordinarily well in the divorce settlement, receiving more than $1 million in cash in addition to a percentage of the earnings from the 13 films he made during their marriage.
Drake and Grant met while traveling on the Queen Mary, but Drake was also aboard the Andrea Doria when that ship famously sank in 1956; the actress lost jewelry valued at more than $200,000 as well as a book manuscript on which she was working.
In "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?," adapted from the comic stage play, Tony Randall played an ad man who gets involved in shenanigans to land an endorsement for a brand of lipstick from a Marilyn Monroe-type played by Jayne Mansfield; Drake played his secretary fiancee, who's not happy when the ad man and the bombshell plan to announce their engagement on television as a publicity stunt.
Drake made her big-screen debut in 1948's holiday romantic comedy "Every Girl Should Be Married" with Grant - The New York Times declared that the actress's "phenomenal ascendance from obscurity to a leading role is itself a sort of Christmas story." Comedy "Room for One More" (1952), the other film in which she appeared with her husband, was also well reviewed. Variety said: "Cary Grant and Betsy Drake make a smart star team to head up this story of a real-life couple who open hearts and home to unfortunate children." The pair also starred together in the NBC radio drama "Mr. and Mrs. Blandings."
The actress made only nine films, the last of which was 1965's "Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion" with Marshall Thompson.
Drake was also a writer who contributed, without credit, to the screenplay of the 1958 film "Houseboat," which starred Grant and Sophia Loren.