Name at birth: Archibald Alexander Leach

Cary Grant was a leading box-office star for three decades, and remains the silver screen's definition of the quick-witted and debonair gent. He co-starred with just about every leading lady in the business, from Katharine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe to Grace Kelly and Sophia Loren. His early films included the Howard Hawks comedies His Girl Friday (1940) and Bringing Up Baby (1938), and he had remarkable success as a leading man for Alfred Hitchcock in Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959).

Cary Grant was married five times: to actress Virginia Cherrill (1934-35), Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton (1942-45), actress Betsy Drake (1949-62), actress Dyan Cannon (1965-68) and Barbara Harris (1981-86)... Cherrill, his first wife, played the blind flower girl loved by Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin's 1931 hit City Lights... Cary Grant had one child: his daughter with Cannon, Jennifer Grant, was born in 1966.