Cary Grant (originally Archibald Alec Leach) grew up poor in the United Kingdom, and left home to join an acrobatic troupe while a teenager. After a tour across the United States, Grant elected to remain in the U.S., working as a carny barker, stilt walker and escort between vaudeville engagements and short stints on Broadway.
He was the owner of a half-assed entertainment career that kept him relatively poor into the last half of his 20s. But the tide turned in 1931 when Mr. Grant secured a long-term Hollywood contract and started making hit pictures and serious money. By then, he’d become adept at hanging onto every nickel that he earned, and kept up the practice the rest of his life.
Some of the practices he was credited with/accused of over the course of his life?
Charging fans for autographs.
Marking liquor bottles to make sure household staff wasn’t stealing the boozr. Cutting buttons off old shirts and saving them. Charging house guests for laundry.
Grant and Randolph Scott lived together for years, leading Carole Lombard to observe: “It’s the perfect relationship. Randy pays the bills and Cary mails them.”
When old friend Rosalind Russell mentioned she was flying to London for a week, Grant said: “Why don’t you use my Rolls Royce while you’re in London? The agent representing the car over there can give you the rental fee.” Ms. Russell declined the offer.
The story goes that Grant would eat at McDonald’s and get told by customers that he looked like … Cary Grant. He’d reply, “Do you actually think Cary Grant would eat at McDonald’s?
On the other side of the coin: Grant donated his fee from The Philadelphia Story (1940) to the British war effort and $100k salary for Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) to the U.S. War Relief Fund. His daughter Jennifer Grant never considered him cheap, but then why would she? He showered her with attention and gifts.
However, there was little question Cary was careful with a dollar. At the time of his death, his estate was worth $60 million.
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