Grace Kelly began as an aspiring actress in 1954 with three films. But by the end she was a sought-after star and had an Oscar in sight.
How did the Philadelphia native, who grew up in a brick colonial house in East Falls, manage to really turn her career around in a single year? Her poise and talent probably have something to do with it, but her back-to-back Hitchcock films — including Rear Window, which is being re-released for its 70th anniversary — certainly haven’t hurt either.
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Kelly appeared in five films in 1954: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Toko-Ri Bridges, Country Girl, and Green Fire. It was quite a rise after her early years in Hollywood, when she played almost exclusively supporting roles as a wife (though at least one of them, in Mogambo, did involve a torturous on-screen affair with Clark Gable). Life magazine chronicled her meteoric rise with an April 26, 1954, cover story that appeared just weeks before the release of her first new film, Dial M for Murder.
“In Hollywood, 1954 will probably be remembered as the year of Grace,” the article began. “The reason is…24-year-old Grace Kelly suddenly became the most valuable acting talent in the movie business. With four recently completed, big-budget films hitting theaters this year and a fifth already underway, Miss Kelly’s cool beauty (see cover) and her undeniable acting talent will soon become synonymous with buzzwords in the film world. What will not be as publicly apparent, however, is the determination – which one staunch producer described as ‘Miss Kelly’s stainless steel inside’ – that made it all possible.”
That determination and backbone of steel is likely thanks to her prominent Philadelphia family. Her father, Jack Kelly Sr., and brother, Jack Kelly Jr., were Olympic rowers, and her mother, Margaret Kelly, was the first women’s athletic director at the University of Pennsylvania. But the Kellys weren’t just athletes; they were a city institution. Jack Sr. ran a successful construction company and ran a less-than-successful campaign for mayor in 1935. Jack Jr. was also involved in politics, serving on the city council for 12 years and giving Kelly Drive its name.
But his sister Grace outdid them all when she left Philadelphia to study acting in New York and then perform on Broadway. (She shared her love of the stage with another Kelly, her uncle George, who was also a playwright.) She launched her Hollywood career with a small role in “Fourteen Hours,” a 1951 drama about a man on a rocky outcrop, then played Gary Cooper’s proper Quaker wife in “High Noon” and a married woman on a hot safari in “Mogambo.”
Her busy year in 1954, however, looked a little different. She still played many wives and girlfriends, but those with significantly more guts, inner turmoil and murderous husbands.
Consider Lisa Fremont, the glamorous and resourceful girlfriend of wheelchair-bound photographer LB Jefferies in Rear Window. When LB witnesses a possible murder, Lisa becomes an important part of her investigation, even breaking into the suspected killer’s house to find evidence. Lisa was the second Hitchcock heroine to play Kelly, following her role as the unfaithful Margot Wendice, whose husband plans to kill her for her money, in Dial M for Murder. Kelly’s roles in Toko-Ri and Green Fire are less remembered for good reason – her Green Fire co-star Stewart Granger once quipped, “I had the misfortune of being in the only really bad movie Grace ever made.” But her starring role as Georgie Elgin, the long-suffering wife of an alcoholic actor in Country Girl, gave her serious acting credibility and earned her a gold statuette at the 1955 Academy Awards, putting her up against heavyweights such as Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn and Dorothy Dandridge.
“The excitement of this moment prevents me from saying what I really feel,” she said in her acceptance speech. “I can only thank everyone who made this possible for me from the bottom of my heart.”
Kelly’s rise came almost in spite of the studio that had her under contract, MGM. The studio didn’t seem to know what to do with her, and frequently loaned Kelly out to competitors for a fee that rose to $50,000 as her fame grew. Only one of her films, 1954’s “Green Fire,” was owned by MGM, and Kelly didn’t agree to make it until after she got clearance to make “The Country Girl” for Paramount.
If MGM was unaware of her appeal, they were in the minority. Film magazines constantly published articles praising Kelly’s elegance and suggesting that she effortlessly stole the show from bombshells like Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth. The latter was the key to her appeal. Kelly was also seen as quite down-to-earth, despite her wealthy family and sophistication. Photoplay highlighted the glasses she wore off-screen, while Modern Screen praised her lack of “tantrums.” Perhaps she was just the right star for an increasingly conservative 1950s America, where feminine beauty and poise were crucial, but “diva” behavior was unacceptable.
After her stellar year, Kelly had enough influence to pursue her dream projects. But in a plot twist that even Hitchcock couldn’t have predicted, 1954 turned out to be one of her last years in Hollywood. At the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, the star met Prince Rainier III of Monaco. That Christmas, he proposed to Kelly at her family home in East Falls. Kelly spent the rest of her life as Princess Grace, appearing in films only as a dignified narrator or as herself, the Philadelphia socialite turned Oscar-winning actress turned European royalty who always looked camera-ready.
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