Let me tell you a story about Cary Grant, one of Hollywood's most iconic leading men. When director Henry Hathaway was casting for an upper-class cavalryman opposite Gary Cooper in the 1935 film Lives of a Bengal Lancer, he initially dismissed Cary Grant. Hathaway reportedly asked, “You mean that Cockney guy with the long neck and the big ears? He’s no gentleman.” But boy, was he wrong. Cary Grant would go on to redefine the very notion of gentlemanly charm on the big screen.
Now, Cary Grant wasn’t always Cary Grant. He started life as Archie Leach, born in Bristol, England. By the early 1930s, he had made his way to Los Angeles via the Broadway stage, signing with Paramount Pictures under his new name, Cary Grant. For the first few years, he churned out at least four films annually but didn’t make much of an impact. That all changed in 1937 with the comedy The Awful Truth, where he played half of a wealthy couple navigating a rocky relationship. This hit film marked the birth of the “Cary Grant persona,” the suave and sophisticated man we all came to know and adore.
Here’s the thing: Cary didn’t just wake up one day knowing how to be a gentleman. In the 1930s, he learned the fine art of being one from his best friend and roommate, Randolph Scott. The two met as co-stars in 1932’s Hot Saturday and eventually leased a house near Griffith Park together. While both were tall, handsome young men, Randy had an enviable backstory. Raised in Virginia, his father worked as an accountant, and he was related to a wealthy North Carolina family on his mother’s side. Randy attended private schools where he excelled at swimming, football, and horseback riding. He dressed impeccably, spoke with a charming southern accent, and oozed refinement.
Read also:Hoda Kotb Reunites With Ex Joel Schiffman In Heartwarming Family Photos
For Cary, Randy’s upbringing must have seemed like something out of a fairy tale. “My father made no more than a modest living, and we had little money,” Cary once recalled. His mother vanished into an asylum when he was just 9 years old — he wouldn’t discover she was still alive until 1935. By then, Cary had already made his escape across the sea to become a star.
From Archie Leach to Cary Grant: The Journey to Stardom
Cary’s childhood poverty undoubtedly fueled his ambition. While Randy was content making a living as an actor, playing memorable cowboy roles, Cary set his sights on achieving legend status. To do so, he realized he had to leave Archie Leach behind. “I tried to copy men I thought were sophisticated and well dressed,” Cary admitted, according to Evenings With Cary Grant by Nancy Nelson. “I cultivated raising one eyebrow and tried to imitate those who put their hands in their pockets with a certain amount of ease and nonchalance.”
Even as Cary began to dress better, refine his accent, and develop the continental charm that would make him a success, he struggled to forget the past. One night at a nightclub with his soon-to-be first wife, actress Virginia Cherrill from City Lights, a stranger approached Cary. “He told him he remembered seeing him as a kid in vaudeville on the East Coast,” Virginia recounted in Cary Grant: Brilliant Disguise, a biography by Scott Eyman. “I’m not sure how pleased Cary was about that; he didn’t like talking about those early years.”
One of the few people who could coax Cary out of his melancholy was his roommate, Randy. When Cary started doing publicity for the studio, he insisted that Randy sit in on his interviews with journalists. “I’ve seen [Cary] actually lose sleep and weight after reading certain items that touched upon his personal life and thoughts,” Randy told a reporter in 1935.
A celebrity writer for Silver Screen described the pair’s dynamic. “Cary is temperamental in the sense of being very intense,” the writer noted. “Randy, on the other hand, is calm and quiet.” Virginia, who often went on double dates with Randy and his girlfriends, also acknowledged Randy’s influence on Cary — and its limits. “Randy was good with Cary when he was around,” she said. “But he wasn’t always there. It’s not like you read in the books. They lived in the same house and got along well, but they didn’t necessarily lead the same lives.”
Cary Grant and Randolph Scott: The Perfect Friendship
Cary and Virginia were married in 1934, still a few years before Cary would truly come into his own in the movies. After a honeymoon in Italy, the newlyweds returned to live in the house Cary shared with Randy. “Randy Scott has been constantly with us — the three of us get along so well,” Virginia said in Silver Screen. Cary insisted the arrangement wasn’t as odd as it seemed. “[The house is] so huge Randy couldn’t possibly be in our way,” he explained.
Read also:Sterling K Browns Impressive Journey Net Worth Career Highlights And More
Whispers about the nature of Cary and Randy’s relationship began then and grew louder as societal attitudes toward homosexuality evolved. In fact, Cary and Randy’s at-home publicity photographs from the 1930s look like a happy couple, but Virginia insisted it wasn’t the case. “Cary was crazy about women,” she said. “He was great in bed … [and] Randolph Scott was no more gay than Cary was.”
When they appeared together in 1940’s My Favorite Wife, Cary had top billing. Though his star eclipsed Randy’s, their friendship endured. “We have been the closest of friends for years, but we never butted into each other’s business,” Randy said. “We never even had friendly quarrels. It has been a perfect friendship.”
