Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise
Written by Scott Eyman
Narrated by Angelo Di Loreto
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Born Archibald Leach in 1904, he came to America as a teenaged acrobat to find fame and fortune, but he was always haunted by his past. His father was a feckless alcoholic, and his mother was committed to an asylum when Archie was eleven years old. He believed her to be dead until he was informed she was alive when he was thirty-one years old. Because of this experience, Grant would have difficulty forming close attachments throughout his life. He married five times and had numerous affairs.
Despite a remarkable degree of success, Grant remained deeply conflicted about his past, his present, his basic identity, and even the public that worshipped him in movies such as Gunga Din, Notorious, and North by Northwest.
This “estimable and empathetic biography” (The Washington Post) draws on Grant’s own papers, extensive archival research, and interviews with family and friends making it a definitive and “complex portrait of Hollywood’s original leading man” (Entertainment Weekly).
Scott Eyman
Scott Eyman was formerly the literary critic at The Palm Beach Post and is the author or coauthor of sixteen books, including the bestseller John Wayne and Pieces of My Heart and You Must Remember This with actor Robert Wagner. Eyman also writes book reviews for The Wall Street Journal, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. He and his wife, Lynn, live in West Palm Beach.
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Reviews for Cary Grant
27 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great overview of the life and career of Archibald Leach aka Cary Grant from his humble roots that left scars on him for the rest of his life to his untimely death this is filled with great stories of his life, lives friends and films of the suave, legend. Retire early and leave them wanting more!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very insightful, I just wish there was more about his political views, that's just something I was personally interested in
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A good book. There is alot of information and hens forth it's a long book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cary Grant (the Actor) was an extraordinarily handsome and talented man. His eyes always made me swoon and his accent was pitch perfect for me.
Every time I see PENNY SEREANDE I cry like a baby, it’s one of his best, also, Arsenic and Old Lace, The bishop’s wife and Operation Petticoat which I saw when I was a youngster.
In listening to this novel, Cary Grant (THE MAN) seemed a bit more complicated and introverted. It seems that he couldn’t quite get hold of his sense of self. He seemed closed off somehow and the novel portends that it had a lot to do with his mother.
The one thing I notice about the Bios of some actors (mostly the men it seems), is that once they’ve achieved fame, they hate and disparage the fame. It’s like that can’t be bothered with being rich and famous WHILE wanting to always BE rich and famous. All of sudden their fans are bothersome, and they tend to isolate themselves from friends, fellow actors and acquaintances.
In this novel Cary reiterated that he felt people were put on the earth to procreate. (well, what if we can’t, does that make us useless?). It seems that he was the one who sabotaged his marriages almost to the point of nonsense.
While it was always “teased” around Hollywood that he might have had a proclivity toward relationships with the same sex, it was never truly revealed. I sense that he was struggling somewhere along that line, but maybe not.
In any case this was a rather long novel that gave a lot of information about Cary’s co-stars, family and relationships.
He was a great actor and even though he said that his movies wouldn’t exist after he was gone, I still and will always watch my favorites. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Audio quality is terrible. I submitted a ticket last week, never heard back. Just checked again for quality, still the same. I have one more week of audible and wanted to switch, however I am questioning your customer service. Please help......
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I now see Cary in a different light. A real love/hate feeling. Great read. Highly recommend. It spurred me on to listen to Dyan Cannon’s book on her life with Archie.