Grace Kelly

 NAME Grace Patricia Kelly, later Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco. (1)

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Grace Kelly was an American actress who starred in eleven films between 1951 and 1956, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Country Girl, before retiring at age 26 to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco and become Princess Grace, one of the 20th century's most enduring style icons. (2)

BIRTH Grace Kelly was born on November 12, 1929, at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She was baptized a few weeks later, on December 1, 1929, at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in the East Falls neighborhood of the city. (3)

FAMILY BACKGROUND Her father, Irish-American John B. Kelly, Sr. (1889–1960), won 126 consecutive single scull rowing races between 1919 and 1920 and took three Olympic gold medals for sculling; he also built a highly successful brickwork contracting company well known across the East Coast. During the Second World War he was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as National Director of Physical Fitness, and he later ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Philadelphia. 

Her mother, Margaret Katherine Majer, was a former model and the first woman to coach women's athletics at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Grace was the third of four children, with an older sister, Margaret ("Peggy"), an older brother, John Jr. ("Kell"), who followed his father into competitive rowing, and a younger sister, Elizabeth ("Lizanne"). (1)

CHILDHOOD Grace grew up in the family home built in 1929 in the East Falls district of Philadelphia, in a household that prized athleticism, competition and boisterous confidence — qualities the shy, bookish Grace did not share with her siblings. 

She wore glasses, avoided competitive sports, and was drawn instead to make-believe games and the amateur theatricals staged by her Kelly and Godfrey relatives; her uncle George Kelly was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. 

By her own account the Kelly children were "always competing for everything – competing for love," and Grace often felt like the family's underachiever next to her celebrated father and glamorous older sister. (4)

EDUCATION Kelly was educated at Ravenhill Academy, a convent school, and then at the Stevens School in Philadelphia, before moving to New York City in 1947 to train at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which she graduated in 1949. She supported herself as a fashion and catalogue model while studying, appearing on the covers of magazines including Cosmopolitan. (2)

CAREER RECORD 1949 Kelly made her Broadway debut in a revival of Strindberg's The Father, having already begun appearing in television dramas broadcast live from New York. 

1951 She made her film debut in a small role in Fourteen Hours. Her performance was not noticed by critics and did not lead to immediate movie offers.

1952 Co-starred as Amy Fowler Kane alongside Gary Cooper in the classic Western High Noon, which established her as a rising Hollywood talent.

1952 MGM signed Kelly to a seven-year film contract paying $850 a week, and two months later she and the cast travelled to Nairobi to begin filming Mogambo; her role as Linda Nordley won her a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and her first Academy Award nomination. 

1952–1956, Kelly's four-year career as a Hollywood leading lady produced several classics, including three collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock — Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief.

1954 Her deglamorized performance in The Country Girl, opposite Bing Crosby, earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. 

1956 She starred in her final film, the musical High Society, released three months after her real-life wedding to Prince Rainier. 

1956, Kelly retired from acting at age 26 upon marrying Prince Rainier III of Monaco, who subsequently banned the showing of her films within the Principality; Hitchcock reportedly tried for years afterward to lure her back to the screen. 

APPEARANCE Kelly stood approximately 5 feet 6½ inches tall, with blonde hair, blue-grey eyes and the porcelain, symmetrical beauty that led Hitchcock to describe her as a "snow-covered volcano." (2) She reportedly disliked her own wide jaw, calling herself "too tall, too leggy, too chinny," and learned to tilt her head to make her face appear narrower on camera. (4)

Kelly in 1955

FASHION Kelly favored a polished, understated elegance of tailored suits, full skirts, gloves and pearls that made her one of fashion's most imitated women, and she is credited with popularizing the head-covering created by knotting a silk scarf under the chin — a look still known simply as "the Grace Kelly." The Hermès handbag she famously used to shield her pregnancy from photographers in 1956 was subsequently renamed the "Kelly" bag in her honor. (5)

CHARACTER Those who knew her described a woman of quiet reserve and self-discipline masking genuine warmth; designer Oleg Cassini, who dated her in the early 1950s, recalled that she was "warm, funny, and caring, but also very serious about her work" and never stayed out past 11 p.m. (6) 

Colleagues frequently noted a combination of shyness and steely professionalism inherited from a childhood spent proving herself against more extroverted siblings. (4)

SPEAKING VOICE Kelly cultivated a cultured, softly modulated mid-Atlantic voice during her drama training, distinct from her native Philadelphia accent, which became part of her poised on-screen persona. 

SENSE OF HUMOUR Despite her icy screen persona, friends and co-stars often spoke of her dry, cheeky, and earthy sense of humor off-camera.

RELATIONSHIPS Before Prince Rainier, Kelly had romances with several older, established men in Hollywood, including actors Clark Gable and Ray Milland, and a two-year, reportedly secret engagement to Russian-born fashion designer Oleg Cassini. (6)

She met Rainier III in the spring of 1955 during a Cannes Film Festival photo shoot arranged by Paris Match, ended her relationship with Cassini after apparent pressure from her parents, and became engaged to the Prince within days of his visiting her family in Philadelphia over Christmas 1955; Kelly later admitted to a friend, "Do you realize if my mother hadn't been so difficult about Oleg Cassini, I probably would have married him? ... That one decision changed my entire future." (7) 

The engagement was announced on January 5, 1956 — the same day Kelly topped the U.S. Best-Dressed list — and the couple married on April 18, 1956 in a civil ceremony at the royal palace, followed the next day by a formal religious ceremony at Monaco's Cathedral of St. Nicholas, televised to an estimated thirty million viewers. Kelly's ivory gown, designed by MGM's Helen Rose, used 450 yards of silk and lace; the religious ceremony itself lasted only 15 minutes, but the recitation of the 142 royal titles she acquired took a further 25. (8) 

The couple had three children: Caroline, born January 23, 1957, and now heiress presumptive to the Monegasque throne; Albert, born March 14, 1958, later Albert II, Prince of Monaco; and Stéphanie, born February 1, 1965. 

MONEY AND FAME Kelly moved from a comfortable but not fabulously wealthy Philadelphia upbringing into genuine global stardom during her brief screen career, then into the considerable wealth and near-mythic fame of Monegasque royalty. (2) 

In 1993, over a decade after her death, she became the first actress to appear on a United States postage stamp, issued jointly with a matching Monaco stamp on the same day. 

FOOD AND DRINK Kelly was a genuine gourmet who enjoyed cooking and relished classic French and Provençal cuisine, favoring dishes such as pissaladière and ratatouille Niçoise, and she made Perrier-Jouët's Belle Époque her favorite Champagne, sponsoring the house from 1970 as patron of Monaco's annual Rose Ball charity gala. 

Early in her marriage, friends noted she "knows and likes to drink good French wines," once serving guests a dinner of clear soup, roast lamb and Peach Melba with a 1949 Château Latour . Away from formal entertaining, however, her personal diet was strict rather than indulgent: she followed the nutrition philosophy of celebrity dietician Gayelord Hauser, built her mornings around oatmeal, and relied on raw salads, whole grains and occasional multi-day "cleanses" of fruit, skimmed milk and green tea, largely avoiding sugar, white bread and dessert . 

As Princess of Monaco she hosted numerous state banquets and gala dinners, including a 1959 Élysée Palace dinner with President Charles de Gaulle, a 1960 state banquet in Bern with Swiss President Max Petitpierre, and a 1961 State Banquet at Dublin Castle . Yet she never fully abandoned her American roots at the table: she insisted on a traditional turkey dinner at the Monaco palace every Thanksgiving, a custom her son Prince Albert has spoken about publicly, and she kept a private fondness for homemade cheeseburgers as an occasional treat. (9)

As a young actress reading scripts, Kelly was photographed snacking on celery, an image later cited by fashion writers as an example of her disciplined, understated approach to appearance and health. (5)

MOVIE CAREER Grace Kelly’s career as a Hollywood leading lady lasted just four years, from 1952 to 1956—a remarkably brief period in which she nevertheless managed to leave behind four films generally regarded as classics. Three of them were directed by Alfred Hitchcock: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief. Then, at the age of 26, she retired from the screen altogether. Hitchcock, who evidently had not yet learned that princesses are not easily summoned back to work, repeatedly urged her to return, but she never made another film.

Kelly’s retirement became still more complete after her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Showings of her films were banned in the principality—a rather extraordinary way of dealing with the problem of having a world-famous movie star for a wife. There was, however, one final cinematic curiosity. In High Society, Kelly’s bride-to-be character wears a magnificent diamond ring that was not a prop at all, but her actual Cartier engagement ring, given to her by Prince Rainier. The film reached American cinemas just three months after the royal wedding, allowing audiences to admire the future princess wearing the real thing while pretending, for professional purposes, to be someone else.

MUSIC AND ARTS Kelly's final film, High Society (1956), was a musical built around songs by Cole Porter and co-starring Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

As princess she remained a patron of the arts, establishing the Princess Grace Foundation in 1964 to support local artisans, musicians, dancers and actors. (2) 

In her later years she also became a recognized amateur artist, creating pressed-flower collages signed "G.P.K." that were exhibited at the Galerie Drouant in Paris in 1977 and 1980. (10)

LITERATURE In 1980, Kelly co-authored My Book of Flowers, a book combining horticultural advice with reflections on her pressed-flower artistry, in which she wrote that arranging petals brought "the same kind of tranquility as doing needlework, crocheting, or knitting." (10)

NATURE Kelly had loved flowers since childhood in Philadelphia and, once settled in Monaco, founded the Monaco Flower Show in 1966 and the Garden Club of Monaco, later serving as an international judge of floral displays. (10) 

She once said, "To have complete satisfaction from flowers you must have time to spend with them. I talk to them and they talk to me." (11)

A rose garden dedicated to the memory of Kelly was opened in 1984 by Rainier in Monaco's Fontvieille district.

PETS Kelly was frequently photographed with her French poodle, Oliver, one of several dogs she kept during her acting years and into her time in Monaco. (5)

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Unlike her athletic siblings, Grace avoided competitive sport as a child, gravitating instead toward theatre and, later in life, toward gardening and the delicate craft of pressed-flower collage-making, an art form known as oshibana. She described the hobby as her "best relaxation," working only when she had a quiet hour free from interruption. (4) (12)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Kelly supported medical advancements and public health initiatives through her charity work as President of the Red Cross of Monaco.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Kelly was raised and remained a practicing Roman Catholic throughout her life, attending Mass regularly and observing traditional Friday fasting as a child, though her biographers note her family's faith was more habitual than intensely devout. (3) 

As princess, she deepened her religious commitments, collaborating with Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton's Family Theater Productions on rosary-themed broadcasts and once telling an interviewer that helping the world's less fortunate must "find their origin in the hearts and minds of each of us." (13)

POLITICS Kelly did not pursue an independent political career, but her marriage carried political weight: Monaco's 1918 treaty with France stipulated the Principality would revert to French control if the ruling Grimaldi family failed to produce an heir, making the births of her children a matter of national significance. (7)

SCANDAL Kelly's swift shift from a reported secret engagement to Oleg Cassini to marriage with Prince Rainier fueled persistent tabloid speculation that her family had pressured her into an arranged-style match, with love letters auctioned decades later appearing to confirm the seriousness of the Cassini relationship. (6) 

Separately, biographer Wendy Leigh has alleged Prince Rainier had multiple affairs within months of the wedding, claims that have added to enduring speculation about the private strains behind the couple's public "fairy tale" image. (7) 

The Prince and Princess of Monaco arrive at the White House for a luncheon, 1961

MILITARY RECORD Her father, John B. Kelly, Sr., was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Second World War as National Director of Physical Fitness.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Kelly was generally reported to be in good health throughout her life, though medical opinion after her death concluded she had suffered a mild stroke, described as a "cerebral vascular incident," at the wheel of her car shortly before the fatal 1982 crash. (14) 

HOMES Kelly grew up in the Kelly family's home in the East Falls section of Philadelphia, built the same year she was born, and after 1956 divided her time between the Prince's Palace of Monaco and the family's country retreat at Roc Agel in the hills above the Principality.

TRAVEL Kelly travelled to Kenya in 1953 to film Mogambo on location in Nairobi, and crossed the Atlantic repeatedly between Hollywood, New York and Europe both during her acting career and afterward as Princess of Monaco engaged in charitable and diplomatic duties. 

DEATH On September 13, 1982, Kelly suffered a stroke while driving her 1971 Rover P6 3500 from the family's country home at Roc Agel back to Monaco, with her daughter Stéphanie in the passenger seat; Stéphanie's attempts to regain control of the vehicle failed, and the car plunged around 120 feet down the mountainside. 

Kelly never regained consciousness and died the following night, September 14, 1982, at the age of 52, after Prince Rainier and their children agreed to withdraw life support. (14) )

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA . She has been portrayed in numerous biographical films, documentaries, and books, including the 2014 biopic Grace of Monaco. 

ACHIEVEMENTS Kelly won the Academy Award for Best Actress and three Golden Globe Awards during a Hollywood career that lasted barely five years, and was later ranked 13th on the American Film Institute's list of the 25 Greatest Female Stars of classic Hollywood cinema.

As Princess of Monaco she founded the Princess Grace Foundation, the Monaco Flower Show and the Garden Club of Monaco, and in 1993 became the first actress honored on a U.S. postage stamp. 

Sources: (1) Wikipedia (2) Encyclopaedia Britannica (3) The Catholic Company (4) BBC Culture (5) The Telegraph (6) People (7) Grunge (8) The Business Soirée (9) Tasting Table (10) Tres Bohèmes (11) Flower Power Daily (12) Le Figaro (13) OSV News (14) The New York Times