American actress who was transformed by her marriage to Princess Rainier as Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1955 for her performance in “The Country Girl,” Grace was a Hollywood sensation in films including “”High Noon,” “Rear Window,” “High Society” and “To Catch a Thief.”
Kelly was one of four children born to high achieving parents. Her father, Jack Kelly, was a bricklayer turned contractor who, by 1929, built a mansion in fashionable East Falls, Pennsylvania. Though a champion oarsman, he was denied entry by the British in the Diamond Scull race on the grounds that he worked with his hands and was therefore not a gentleman sportsman. Channeling his anger at the class system, Kelly saw to it thirty years later that his namesake son was accepted into the race and came away holding first prize. Mom was the first female athletic coach at the University of Pennsylvania. Sports was the focus of the Kelly family and father Jack, a charming philanderer, could in no way relate to his frail, asthmatic and decidedly unathletic daughter Grace, who spent countless hours alone in her room in a fantasy world where she acted out roles with her dolls, using a different voice with each one. As a result Grace never gained attention or approval from her father, thus setting the pattern in her adult life to seek older, important men who were father substitutes. The biography be Robert Lacey related that she lost her virginity at 17 to a friend’s husband.
Living in a fantasy world was an escape route to acceptance and by age 12, she was acting in productions with the East Falls Academy Players. After attending a strict convent school, Kelly moved to New York to pursue a career in acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduation in 1949, Kelly got her first professional acting job in a stock company production of “The Torch Bearers” in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and made her Broadway debut that same year in “The Father.” Supplementing her acting income as a photographer’s model, Grace’s success earned her a screen test in Hollywood in 1951, where she won the role opposite Gary Cooper in “High Noon.” Her sheltered background did not prepare her for the fierce competition of Tinsel Town, and she gave an aloof impression, earning the nickname “The Ice Queen.” “Until I know people, I can’t give much of myself,” she said. Possessing the right amount of refinement, natural beauty and sexual charisma, Kelly became known as the “pious man’s Monroe.” Alfred Hitchcock, who directed Kelly in “Rear Window,” “Dial M For Murder,” and “To Catch a Thief,” once said that she was a “volcano covered by snow, but the public sees only the snow.”
Kelly’s love affairs with William Holden, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Oleg Cassini and Ray Milland caused great alarm to philandering Dad, to whom she always succumbed during his tantrums, along with MGM, which continually paid off journalists to keep her image pure. Her meteoric rise to success made her the No. 1 box office attraction of 1954, coupled with the fact that Kelly received more fan mail than anyone at MGM and was given more coverage that same year than Marilyn Monroe received in 1952.
While attending the Cannes Film Festival in France in 1955, Kelly met Prince Rainier of Monaco, who was taken by her elegance and charm. When the Prince was visiting friends of the Kelly family in the U.S. at Christmas of that same year, another meeting was arranged with the enticing young actress. Rainier proposed shortly after Christmas and, after Kelly accepted, the conditions were explained. After all, a Prince choosing a wife was a matter of state. First, Grace had to come with a dowry. Although Rainier held vast wealth in real estate, he was cash poor. After Father Jack’s initial livid objection, which nearly canceled further proceedings, he finally relented. Being related to a European Prince would assure him entry to Philadelphia Main Line society. Second, Grace would have to pass a physical exam proving she was able to bear children. Third, any children of the marriage would belong to him and Monaco should there be a divorce; Kelly herself could claim no legal custody. After all contingencies were agreed upon, the date was set.
On 18 April 1956, Kelly wed Rainier in the cathedral in Monaco, an affair of state and the first media social event to be televised.
After the fairy tale Princess had her Prince Charming complete with a castle and ladies-in-waiting, she gave birth to a daughter, Princess Caroline on 23 January 1957, followed by a son, Prince Albert on 14 March 1958 and a second daughter, Princess Stephanie on 1 February 1965. While Kelly enjoyed her royal image she felt quite trapped by it; with reporters being her particular scourge. Devoting herself to full-time motherhood, she kept her interest in the theater alive by establishing a school in Monaco for aspiring artists. The fact that Rainier took no interest in the arts nor Kelly’s wish to act on occasion stifled her creativity, so she sought an outlet in flower arranging, holding shows and contests.
Sharing a life with a partner with whom one shares no interests eventually took its toll on Kelly and, in her mid-40s, she separated from Rainier, moved to his apartment in Paris with her two unruly daughters and hit the bottle, becoming careless in her actions, appearance and personal safety. Frequent fender benders often resulted from Kelly’s intoxication that required discrete handling. Rumors circulated that she had lovers, reciprocating Rainier’s affairs. “You know, I have come to feel very sad in this marriage. He is not really interested in me. He doesn’t care about me…If I had the choice I would divorce him. But I have no choice. He would keep my children.”
While Kelly’s lifestyle no longer permitted an acting career, she nonetheless used her interpretive talent by reading poetry at recitals throughout the United Kingdom from 1976-1982. In between performances on 13 September 1982, a standard family row occurred at Roc Agel, the family summer home. Bypassing the chauffeur, Kelly bustled her notoriously recalcitrant daughter Stephanie into the car for a private conversation and a change of scene. Minutes later, Kelly suffered a mild stroke at the wheel and lost control of the car, which plunged over a cliff and crashed 120 feet below, seriously injuring both occupants. The local hospital to which they were immediately rushed had no cat-scan to determine the extent of Kelly’s head injury and she was placed on life support. The following night, at 10:55 p.m., she died at the age of 52 after Rainier decided to take her off life support.
Link to Wikipedia biography