CARY GRANT was born in Bristol, England on this date. Famous for his roles in such film classics as Philadelphia Story, North By Northwest, To Catch A Thief, Bringing Up Baby and Notorious to name just a very few) he was rumored throughout his time in Hollywood to be either gay or bisexual.
The evidence is varied and plentiful. He shared a home with the actor Randolph Scott for more than twelve years. Rumors ran rampant at the time that Grant and Scott were lovers. In 1957, Grant’s English chauffeur claimed to have been in a sexual relationship with Grant. Grant immediately filed a lawsuit against him. The driver attempted suicide. In their biographies of Grant, Marc Eliot, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley contend that Grant was bisexual. Higham and Moseley claim that Grant and Scott were seen kissing in a public car-park outside a social function both attended in the 1960s. In his book, Hollywood Gays, Boze Hadleigh cites an interview with homosexual director George Cukor, who commented on the alleged homosexual relationship between Scott and Grant: “Oh, Cary won’t talk about it. At most, he’ll say they did some wonderful pictures together. But Randolph will admit it – to a friend.”
In his memoir, the Oscar winning screenwriter Arthur Laurents indicated that Grant was bisexual, saying: Grant “told me he threw pebbles at my window one night but was luckless – I wasn’t home. … his eyes and his smile implied that … he would have liked doing what we would have done had I been home. William J. Mann’s book Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910–1969 recounts how photographer Jerome Zerbe spent “three gay months” in the movie colony taking many photographs of Grant and Scott, “attesting to their involvement in the gay scene.” Zerbe says that he often stayed with the two actors, “finding them both warm, charming, and happy.