It’s said that one quiet night in 1961, Cary Grant was sitting alone in his Beverly Hills home, watching television as midnight approached. A forgettable show was playing when suddenly a striking young woman appeared on the screen — a girl in her early twenties with a tumble of honey-blond hair falling over one eye, a button nose, wide, expressive eyes, and full lips.
Grant was instantly mesmerized. He quickly found out who she was and learned that the young beauty was already something of a television veteran. The smitten movie star began pulling every string he could, making call after call until he discovered where to find her.
“I loved him deeply and was committed to him,” she later said.
Yet their love came with expectations.
“He wanted me to quit my acting career, I did. He wanted to change my hair, the way I dressed, the way I walked, the way I wrote. And I so wanted to make him happy.”
She tried to become the woman he imagined, but the harder she tried, the more she lost sight of herself.
“I would try and close the cupboards more gently… try and drive with both hands on the steering wheel,” she recalled.Continue reading…
