Photos in black and white

Biography

Born:12 November 1929, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Death:14 September 1982, Monacoville, Monaco (injuries from car accident)
Real Name:Grace Patricia Kelly
Nick Name:Gracie
Spouse
Prince Rainier of Monaco (19 April 1956 - 14 September 1982) 3 children
Facts:
-A native of Philadelphia, Grace Kelly was born to John Brendan "Jack" Kelly, and his wife, Margaret Katherine Majer. The newborn was named in memory of her father's sister, who had died at a young age. She was raised Catholic by her parents, and was of Irish and German descent.Before her marriage, Majer studied physical education at Temple University and later became the first woman to head the Physical Education Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Jack Kelly was a local hero as a triple Olympic-gold-medal-winning sculler, and became wealthy as his construction company became the largest such enterprise on the East Coast.Registering as a Democrat, he obtained the party's nomination for mayor in the 1935 election and lost by the closest margin for any Democrat in the city's electoral history. In later years, he served on the Fairmount Park Commission and, during World War II, was appointed by President Roosevelt as National Director of Physical Fitness.
-Grace worked some as a model and made her debut on Broadway in 1949.
-The following year she landed the role of Amy Kane in High Noon (1952), a western starring Gary Cooper and Lloyd Bridges which turned out to be very popular.
-The film was Mogambo (remake of Red Dust) where Grace played Linda Nordley. The film was a jungle drama in which fellow cast members, Clark Gable and Ava Gardner turned in masterful performances. It was also one of the best films ever released by MGM, im my opinion i like more "Red Dust"
-Grace stayed busy in 1954 appearing in five films. Grace would forever be immortalized by winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Georgie Elgin opposite Bing Crosby in The Country Girl (1954).
-Grace had recently met and married Prince Rainier of Monaco. By becoming a princess, she gave up her career.
-Has three children with Prince Rainier of Monaco: Princess Caroline of Monaco
(1957), Prince Albert of Monaco (1958) and Princess Stephanie of Monaco (1966).
-Her movies were banned in Monaco by order of Prince Rainier of Monaco.
-Part of Prince Rainier of Monaco's attraction to marrying a movie star was to increase tourism in his tiny, cash-poor principality, and the Kelly family was turned off by his demands that a substantial dowry accompany Grace to Monaco. A figure of $2,000,000 was finally agreed upon, which was diverted from Grace's inheritance so that her brother and two sisters wouldn't be shortchanged.
-Rainier want´s to marry with Marilyn Monroe.
-When she left Hollywood, several roles she was slated to play were eventually filled by Lauren Bacall (Designing Woman (1957) and The Cobweb (1955)). Director George Stevens also wanted her for Giant (1956).
-She was voted the 27th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
-Hedda Hopper reported that Judy Garland's loss of the Academy Award to Grace for The Country Girl (1954) was the result of the closest Oscar vote up till that time that didn't end in a tie, with just six votes separating the two. In any event, it was a heartbreak from which Judy Garland never really recovered and which has remained a matter of some controversy ever since.
-Kelly and Rainier had both civil and religious weddings. The 40-minute civil ceremony took place in the Palace Throne Room of Monaco on April 18, 1956, and was broadcast across Europe. To cap the ceremony, the 142 official titles (counterparts of Rainier's) that Kelly acquired in the union were formally recited. The following day the church ceremony took place at Monaco's Saint Nicholas Cathedral. Kelly's wedding dress, designed by MGM's Academy Award–winning Helen Rose, was worked on for six weeks by three dozen seamstresses. The bridesmaid's gowns were designed by Joe Allen Hong at Neiman Marcus after Lawrence Marcus visited Monaco. The 600 guests included Hollywood stars David Niven and his wife Hjördis, Gloria Swanson, Ava Gardner, the crowned head Aga Khan, Gloria Guinness, Daisy Fellowes, Etti Plesch, Lady Diana Cooper and Conrad Hilton. Frank Sinatra initially accepted an invitation but at the last minute decided otherwise, afraid of upstaging the bride on her wedding day. The ceremony was watched by an estimated 30 million people on television. The prince and princess left that night for their seven-week Mediterranean honeymoon cruise on Rainier's yacht, Deo Juvante II.
-Princess Grace gave birth to the couple's first child, Princess Caroline, nine months and four days after the wedding. Twenty-one guns announced the event, a national holiday was called, gambling ceased, and free champagne flowed throughout the principality. A little over a year later, 101 guns announced the birth of their second child, Prince Albert. Prince Rainier and Princess Grace had three children:
Caroline Louise Marguerite, Princess of Hanover, born January 23, 1957, and now heiress presumptive to the throne of Monaco
Albert II, Prince of Monaco, born March 14, 1958, current ruler of the Principality of Monaco
Princess Stéphanie Marie Elisabeth, born February 1, 1965.
-Russian fashion designer Oleg Cassini, having just seen Mogambo earlier that evening, encountered Grace Kelly having dinner at Le Veau d'Or. Formerly married to actress Gene Tierney, the original choice to play Mogambo's Linda Nordley, Cassini was raised in Florence and had a cultured air with an abundance of charm and courtliness. He became just as captivated by Kelly in person as he had been while watching her in the film and soon piqued her curiosity by sending her a daily bouquet of red roses. His persistence paid off when she accepted his invitation to lunch, with the provision that her eldest sister, Peggy, join them. Although Kelly and Cassini almost married,[2] their relationship ended with her parents' refusal to accept a divorced non-Catholic as a future son-in-law.
-When she was a princess, Prince Rainier laid down a list of strict rules when it came to the encounters with the Princess at the palace, which included, no autographs, no photographs, no audio recording devices, and nobody was allowed to leave the room for anything, unless, and until, the Princess left the room first, so that she would avoid being trapped by a mob of fans.
-She was voted the 12th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
-Was named #13 Actress on The American Film Institute's 50 Greatest Screen Legends
-Cary Grant named her as his favorite co-star. His friends and family said Kelly's death hit him much harder than the deaths of Louis Mountbatten, Alfred Hitchcock and even Ingrid Bergman.
-Is immortalized in the song "Grace Kelly" by Mika (2006).
-On September 14, 1982, Grace was killed in an automobile accident in her adoptive home country. She was just 52 years old.Grace was pulled alive from the wreckage, but had suffered serious injuries and was unconscious. She died the following day at the Monaco Hospital (renamed Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace – "The Princess Grace Hospital Centre" in English—in 1985), having never regained consciousness. Kelly was 52 years old. It was initially reported that Princess Stéphanie suffered only minor bruising, although it later emerged that she had suffered a serious cervical fracture. Grace was overweight at the time of her death and a postmortem examination revealed that she had extensive arteriosclerosis and accumulation of fatty plaques in her circulatory system. The medical examiner listed this as a contributing factor in the stroke she had suffered.

Photos in color

Grace Kelly with Gentelmens