Archie Leach on Cary Grant:

In the passage sent to Eugene by a reader, Mark Kingwell misquotes Cary Grant as saying: “Every man wants to look like Cary Grant. I want to look like Cary Grant.” Grant is actually reputed to have said, “Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.” I think the actual quote properly downplay’s Grant’s looks–the principal focus of Eugene’s interesting thread on why men do not pay more attention to their appearance–in favor of the personna he created on and off the screen. This personna includes not only impeccable tailoring and grooming, a handsome visage and a uniquely suave if completely unidentifiable accent.







It also includes a warmth, charm, wit, consideration, and in many films a willingness to laugh at himself and his carefully cultivated image and to put himself in embarrassing situations.







This last was facilitated by his early vaudeville training that made him wonderfully acrobatic.



In Charade (from which the previous picture is taken), Audrey Hepburn’s character Regina Lampert asks Grant’s character, Peter Joshua: “Do you know what’s wrong with you?” “No, what?” replied Grant. “Nothing!” said Hepburn. Little wonder Archie Leach never stopped wanting to be Cary Grant.