Grace Kelly
Princess of Monaco
1929–1982 A.D.

Though we have no royalty in the United States, Americans today seem to be fascinated with the subject, as evidenced by popular media coverage of events that concern the British royal family. An interesting obsession indeed since ironically the United States has no official royal titles as the Constitution forbids them. (Article 1, Section 9).

However, there have been a few Americans who have attained royal status—usually by marriage—and one of these was award winning movie star Grace Kelly. As a Hollywood actress who left Hollywood to marry a prince of the tiny Mediterranean nation of Monaco, Grace was until her death in 1982 a beloved and beautiful figure in the international media.

The future Princess of Monaco was born Grace Patricia Kelly in November 1929, in Philadelphia, into a wealthy and socially prominent family.  As a child Grace was a shy girl who enjoyed reading, playing with dolls, writing poetry and whose first dramatic role was in a class play at her convent school. Later in high school, she was known to her classmates as a fun and friendly girl, who also wanted to become a professional actress.

However, her family did not entirely support that choice, even though there were already two well-known Kelly family members in the world of the theater. One uncle, Walter Kelly had appeared in several movies, and on Broadway. Another, George Kelly was a successful, prize-winning playwright.

After graduating from high school in 1947 Grace enrolled in a New York drama school despite her family’s displeasure.  As she put it later: “I rebelled against my family and went to New York to find out who I was – and who I wasn’t.” (Spoto, p. 61).  Her classes included reading and analyzing classic and modern theatrical works as well as lessons on voice, makeup, mime and even fencing.

To help with expenses, Grace worked as a model in print ads and as an actress on television dramas and commercials and on the stage. A small role in one Hollywood film led to her being offered other roles, such as in High Noon with Gary Cooper.  Her next part came when MGM executives planned a remake of the 1932 film Red Dust. As she joined Clark Gable and Ava Gardner in filming Mogambo, she began a lifelong friendship with Gardner.

Back in New York in October, in 1953 Grace continued her television work, until Alfred Hitchcock contacted her about his next film. She was to play a woman accused by her estranged husband of murdering the hit man who he had hired to kill her. It was  Dial M for Murder. With that film completed, she happily returned to New York, a city she much preferred over Hollywood.

Her next film was to be Rear Window with starring James Stewart.

Though she had already appeared in several important films, studio executives had a problem casting her. She was simply not like the popular stars of the time such as Marilyn Monroe.  In short, Marilyn was playfully sexy, and Grace was considered “genteel” and “elegant.” Yet her “ice maiden” image was certainly not the Grace that her friends knew—to them she was a warm appealing person as well as a skilled actress.

Between July 1953 and August 1954 Grace finished six of the 11 films that made up her entire movie career. She was particular about her choice of scripts, refusing some roles, which made the displeased studios sometimes put her on suspension. She simply had a different set of priorities than most actresses and she lived her own life on her own terms. For example, in a later interview Grace said that the most gratifying moment of her life was not her Oscar win, but when her oldest daughter took her first steps.

However, one important task for any movie star is publicity and it was while promoting The Country Girl that Grace met her future husband.

While she was attending the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in the south of France, part of the publicity was for her, as a Hollywood royal, to meet a real prince, Rainier III of nearby Monaco. Chatting, she and the prince briefly strolled through the palace gardens, with press cameras clicking. After that Grace returned to Cannes.

Even that brief encounter was fodder for the media and the result was press speculation about a royal romance, but to the prince it was not an issue. As he put it, “It was merely ‘hello’ and ‘good-bye’…Certainly no thoughts of marriage crossed my mind!’” (Spoto, p. 324-25)

Upon returning to the U.S., Grace sent the prince a thank you note, which began a correspondence and there seemed to develop a growing mutual attraction. Both were serious Catholics, and as private persons they did not always welcome public attention. Rainer had only assumed his position in 1949, and at the time was trying to change Monaco’s image from a playground for the wealthy, to a commercial and financial center. The pair still continued to correspond and occasionally meet, while Grace went back to work on filming High Society.

Then in December 1955, they met in New York where Rainier proposed, and Grace accepted.  After that their engagement was announced in January 1956 and Grace used her engagement ring—a 10.47 carat diamond —in her current movie.

Grace arrived in Monaco in early April 1956 to begin her new life and in a few weeks she and Rainer were married in a civil ceremony with a nuptial Mass the next day. As she assumed her royal duties, the prince later commended his bride. “She came back from our honeymoon to what must have looked rather a grim situation…but she faced up to it marvelously. There was not only the challenge of turning a palace into a home, but the very big problem of becoming accepted, liked and respected by the Monegasques and other local residents.” (Spoto, p. 382).

Grace later described in an interview how she felt the first years of her marriage and what she had learned: “I had to separate myself from what had been Grace Kelly, and that was very difficult for me. But I could not be two people—an American actress and the wife of the Prince of Monaco. So, during those first years, I lost my identity. My husband and his life absorbed me until the children came, and it helped when I began service work in Monaco. Then, gradually I joined up with myself again.” (Spoto, p. 384).

They were to have three children: Caroline born in 1957, Albert in 1958 and then Stephanie in 1965. Also, Grace’s celebrity as well as her own personal appeal brought new tourism to Monaco, as well as the desired banking and real estate interests. The changes were evident in the figures—in 1954 95% of the Monaco budget was gambling—but by 1965 it was only 4%.

Then came the tragic accident that ended the dream.

On September 13, 1982 Grace was driving her daughter Stephanie back to Monaco, over a curvy mountainous road. She may have suffered a series of strokes, as she missed a turn the car hurtled over a precipice. Princess Stephanie was injured, but Grace more severely. Doctors sadly told the family that she had suffered severe brain damage, and she was removed from life support and died on Sept. 14, 1982.  She was 52.

A few months earlier she gave what was probably her last interview when she was asked how she would like to be remembered. After hesitating a moment, she replied. “I would like to be remembered as a person who accomplished something, who was kind and loving. I would like to leave behind me the memory of a human being who behaved properly and tried to help others.” (Spoto, p. 425).

~*~

Anne Adams is a retired church staffer. She lives in East Texas and has an historical column for a local newspaper. She has published in Christian and secular publications for more than 40 years.

References:
Spoto, Donald. High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly Thorndike Press, Waterville, Maine, 2009
Wayne, Jane Ellen. The Golden Girls of MGM. Carroll and Graf Pub. NY 2002