Cary Grant

During Cary Grant's long life a great deal of testimony accumulated. Even early in the search for him, it can be established that he had a dark side and a light side. The source of Cary's art, argues Schickel, lay in his ability to colour his comedy with malice and self-absorption. The reverse was true also - he seemed easily able to get a laugh even in the midst of dramatic tension. This most private of men was an open actor, a performer willing to try anything to make a scene work. It is perhaps because he was able so artfully to reveal so much of himself in this way that he revealed almost nothing of himself under direct questioning.