(Originally published by the Daily News on Sept. 15, 1982. This story was written by Charles W. Bell.)
Grace Kelly was born with everything – great wealth, great beauty – and developed great talent and fame. A great love took her away to a real-life fairyland and as a real-life princess.
Through it all, she remained a rare, elusive personality who never quite lost her American character.
She never failed in anything she tried, from her days as a trophy winner for swimming and horsemanship, as a young New York drama student who modeled for magazine covers, as a Broadway beginner (her first show ran three months), and above all as a Hollywood star who literally became an overnight sensation.
She was raised as a child of privilege, studying ballet, piano, French (which she spoke fluently), Spanish and art. But she also was expected to clean her own room and do other chores.
She won an Academy Award as best actress, for her role in “The Country Girl” opposite Bing Crosby. She was nominated for another, for her role in “Mogambo” opposite Clark Gable. Her only record, “True Love,” a duet with Crosby from the film “High Society,” topped the Hit Parade. She appeared in 11 films, all but one of them a box office hit.
No matter what she did, or where when, Grace Kelly remained her own woman. Nor was there ever a hint of scandal in her life.
She also was a contradiction. President Charles de Gaulle of France once called her “the American aphrodite.” At the same time, Hollywood called her the “hot icicle,” and Bridgite Bardot pouted that she was an “American icebox.”
The paradox of dazzling beauty and elegance was born Grace Patricia Kelly in a solid, middle-class Philadelphia neighborhood on Nov. 12, 1929, the daughter of a poor man who became one of the city’s richest.
Her father, John Kelly, was a onetime bricklayer who founded his own construction company, which had helped build Rockefeller Center and the United Nations building. His worth was put at $20 million. He also was a power in city Democratic politics and the winner of three Olympic Games rowing championships. Her mother was a former champion gymnast and magazine cover girl.
Other members of the Kelly clan included a Pulitzer Prize-winner playwright, her uncle George Kelly, who wrote the Broadway hits “Craig’s Wife” and “The Show-Off,” and a vaudeville headlining comic, her uncle Walter.
Another member of her family was brother Jack, who won the American, Canadian and European rowing championships and rowed for the United States in the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games. In contrast to the robust health and vitality of her family, Grace was an introspective child who spent hours in her room acting out parts in children’s stories.
She was 18 when she left home, in 1947, to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Although she did not need the money, she helped pay her way as a magazine cover girl.
She was in drama school two years later when she won a role on Broadway, as the daughter of Raymond Massey in “The Father,” which ran for three months. It has her professional debut.
From this, she moved into television drama and summer stock. She once said that she appeared in more than 50 TV productions in less than three years.
She appeared in a Broadway flop, “To Be Continued,” which closed after three weeks. But the show led to a screen test, which led to a bit part in one film and then a year later in 1952 to a role as the Quaker wife in “High Noon.” Cooper won an Oscar for his performance and Grace Kelly won instant stardom.
Her elegance and versatility led MGM to sign her to a seven-year contract, at a weekly salary of $750. She was still earning that sum two years later as one of the hottest box office draws in the country.
Alfred Hitchcock cast her in two thrillers, “Dial M for Murder,” opposite Ray Milland, and “Rear Window,” opposite Jimmy Stewart. Then in 1954 came “The Country Girl,” in which she played the wife of a washed-up, neurotic singer, played by Bing Crosby. This time, she won the Oscar.
Even as a Hollywood star, New York remained her home. She lived alone, except for a pet parakeet named Henry, in an apartment on E. 66th St. When she went to Hollywood, she sent Henry for safekeeping to her family in Philadelphia.
When she arrived in Hollywood the first time, the studio wanted her to play rich girls and debutantes. She refused, but did play beautiful, wealthy women several times, most notably in “High Society,” with Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
Later Sinatra would say fondly, “She was the squarest person I ever knew.” He remained a close friend, performing at many of her charity benefits in Monaco.
A year before “High Society,” she had appeared opposite Alec Guinness in “The Swan,” playing a woman who marries a crown prince. It was a prophetic role.
It was while she was making another Hitchcock film, “To Catch a Thief,” with Cary Grant, on the French Riviera in 1954 that she met Prince Rainier, whose family had ruled the tiny principality of Monaco for seven centuries. Two years later, they announced their engagement and they were married one week after she finished “High Society.” It was her last Hollywood film.
Unlike her family, Grace Kelly was in the Social Register. Like her family, the listing of her name in the blueblood listing was not the most important thing in her life.
“Why should she?” Gary Cooper said when he was asked why princess Grace did not return to films. “She’s moved from an artificial stage to a real one.”
She settled down to become a devoted mother. Caroline, her first daughter, was born nine months and five days after her wedding. Albert, her son, was born 14 months later. Stephanie was born six years after Albert.
She also became deeply involved in a wide variety of charities, ranging from the Red Cross to the Friends of Children, and for several years, she gave poetry readings for charity in Britain, the United States and elsewhere.
Her last film appearance, for a religious documentary scheduled for screening at Christmas, was completed at the Vatican in June. It was done at the request of an old friend, the Rev. Patrick Patton, who said she had narrated the film and given a reading.
