The man who began life in England as a poor kid named Archibald Leach became one of the most famous and admired men in the world through a movie career that began in 1932 and continued right up until the end of the '60s. His versatility as an actor is often underrated, but his forte was always for comedy, whether sophisticated and verbal, as in "Holiday" (1938) and "His Girl Friday" (1940), or frenetically physical, as in "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1944) or "Bringing Up Baby" (1938).
He was hardly limited to comedy, however. As a Hitchcock hero ("Notorious" (1946), "To Catch a Thief" (1954), "North by Northwest" (1959)) and villain ("Suspicion" (1941)) we got a glimpse into darker, more serious sides of his persona. Throughout his career, he continued to challenge artificial limitations placed upon him as a "glamour boy," appearing in serious films such as "None But the Lonely Heart" (1944) and "Destination Tokyo" (1943).
In all his films, Cary Grant projects a lithe physicality. He moves with the grace and suppleness of a cat, attributes he first developed in his youth touring with a traveling acrobat troupe in his native England. He never seemed to grow old. Even at the end of his career, making films well into his '60s, age weighed lightly and well upon him. He seemed merely to grow more distinguished looking as the grey touched his temples, and his body remained fit and supple. Watch him, at the age of 61, in a fight scene atop the Paris American Express building in "Charade" (1964); the man is amazing.
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