Grace Kelly

Lore & Background

Kelly was born into a prominent Catholic family in Philadelphia. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1949, she began appearing in New York City theatrical productions and television broadcasts. Kelly made her film debut in Fourteen Hours (1951) and gained stardom from her roles in Fred Zinnemann's western film High Noon (1952), and John Ford's adventure-romance Mogambo (1953), the latter of which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the drama The Country Girl (1954). Other notable works include the war film The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), the romantic comedy High Society (1956), and three Alfred Hitchcock suspense thrillers: Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955). Kelly retired from acting at age 26 to marry Rainier and began her duties as Princess of Monaco. Grace and Rainier had three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and Princess Stéphanie. Princess Grace's charity work focused on children and the arts. In 1964, she established the Princess Grace Foundation to support local artisans. Her organization for children's rights, AMADE Mondiale, gained consultive status within UNICEF and UNESCO. Her final film role was narrating The Children of Theatre Street (1977), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. She died at the age of 52 at Monaco Hospital, from injuries sustained in a car crash. Her son, Prince Albert, helped establish the Princess Grace Awards in 1984 to recognize emerging performers in film, theatre, and dance.

Reader's Guide

Grace Patricia Kelly was born on November 12, 1929, at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an affluent and influential family. Her father, John B. Kelly Sr., was born to Irish immigrants; he won three Olympic gold medals for sculling. He owned a successful brickwork contracting company that was well known on the East Coast. As the Democratic Party nominee in the 1935 election for mayor of Philadelphia, he lost by the closest margin in the city's history. In later years, he served on the Fairmount Park Commission and, during World War II, was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as National Director of Physical Fitness. His brother Walter C. Kelly was a vaudeville star, who also made films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures, and another brother named George was a Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist, screenwriter, and director. John Kelly Sr. built the family home at 3901 Henry Avenue in the East Falls, Philadelphia, neighborhood. Kelly's mother, Margaret Majer, was of German ancestry. Margaret had taught physical education at the University of Pennsylvania and had been the first woman to coach women's athletics at Penn. She also modeled for a time in her youth. After marrying John Kelly in 1924, Margaret focused on being a homemaker until all her children were of school age, following which she began actively participating in various civic organizations. While living in Germany, Margaret's father, Karl Majer, owned Schloss Helmsdorf (Castle Helmsdorf) in Immenstaad am Bodensee and lived on the estate. He managed the property as a German landowner, established himself as a local wine merchant, and constructed a large wine cellar on-site. In 1872, he sold the castle and its estate to Hermann Winter, a businessman from Backnang, for 54,000 guilders before relocating to the United States. Patrilineally, Grace's mother descended from Prof. Johann Christian von Majer (1741–1821) from Ludwigsburg, who worked as a political scientist, jurist and theologian, and was elected five times Rector of the University of Tübingen. In recognition of his distinguished service as a jurist and his contributions to legal scholarship and state administration Johann Christian was raised in 1808 to the personal nobility (Personaladel) by Frederick I of Württemberg in the Kingdom of Württemberg. Through him, Grace was descended from the Sche

Did You Know?

• Grace Kelly's father, John B. Kelly Sr., won three Olympic gold medals for sculling.
• Grace Kelly was descended from the Schenk von Stauffenberg family through her mother's patrilineal line.
• Grace Kelly died at the age of 52 at Monaco Hospital, from injuries sustained in a car crash.
• The civil marriage took place on April 18, 1956.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Kelly (1954) attributed to her in: Charlotte Chandler (2005) It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock: A Personal Biography. p. 212 : Kelly had mentioned this to Hitchcock during the preparations of the movie Rear Window." — Grace Kelly "I certainly don't think of my life as a fairy tale." — Grace Kelly "For a woman, forty is torture, the end. I think turning forty is miserable." — Grace Kelly "To create harmony in the home is the woman's right and duty." — Grace Kelly