Grace Kelly is a ubiquitous name in history. She was the symbol of a sort-of American fairytale as a famous actress in her own right who met and fell in love with the Prince of Monaco. Grace Kelly’s life and death are still the subject of modern intrigue, as she is one of the most famous Americans in history. The symbol of glamour in the 1950s, who was Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco?
Grace Kelly’s Early Life
Grace Patricia Kelly was born on November 12, 1929, at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her family was one of the most prominent in the city, and her father, John Kelly Sr., was already famous for his athleticism and business acumen.
John Kelly Sr., born to Irish immigrants, won three Olympic gold medals, two in Antwerp in 1920 and one in Paris in 1924, for sculling. He was the first triple Olympic champion in the sport of rowing. After retiring from his athletic career, Kelly became well known throughout the East Coast for his brickwork company and work in the construction business.
John Kelly was also the Democratic nominee for mayor of Philadelphia in 1935, losing by the narrowest margin in the city’s history. John’s brothers were similarly accomplished. Walter C. Kelly was a vaudeville actor who worked with Metro-Goldwyn Mayer and Paramount, while George Kelly was a Pulitzer-winning screenwriter and director.
Grace Kelly’s mother, Margaret Majer, was not without her own accomplishments. She taught physical education and was the first female coach at the University of Pennsylvania. After marrying John Kelly in 1924, she became a homemaker and a civic activist. The family built and lived in a home on Henry Avenue, in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia.
Grace Kelly had two older siblings, Margaret and John Jr., and a younger sister named Elizabeth. The family was Catholic, and the Kelly children grew up in an affluent and close-knit community. Grace Kelly attended elementary school at St. Bridget’s Parish, where she was also baptized.
Kelly began her acting career at age twelve, starring in Don’t Feed the Animals in a local East Fall production. She also modeled for charity events at the Catholic girls’ school, Ravenhill Academy, that she attended. Kelly graduated from Stevens School, a private school near to her childhood home, in 1947. In the school yearbook section titled “Stevens’ Prophecy,” it was predicted that Grace Kelly would become a “famous star of screen and stage.”
Grace Kelly: Model and Actress
After high school, Grace Kelly decided, to the chagrin of her family, to pursue her dreams of modeling and acting. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, after being admitted despite the school meeting its quota for the semester. She was also signed to the Walter Thornton Modeling Agency, where she famously modeled for Old Gold Cigarettes and graced the covers of magazines like Cosmopolitan and Redbook.
After her graduation from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Kelly was cast in the first of her nearly 60 television roles: a television-play adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel Bethel Merriday. Though she didn’t gain much critical acclaim in her early years, Kelly impressed director Henry Hathaway, who then cast her in a supporting role for the Twentieth-Century Fox film Fourteen Hours.
Though the Grace Kelly Fanclub was inaugurated after the film’s release, with chapters popping up throughout the country, Fourteen Hours did not garner much attention for the young actress, who continued starring in theater productions and television plays.
After starring in High Noon, a 1952 Western, Kelly was noticed by director John Ford, who flew her to Los Angeles. She was then signed to MGM in November 1952. The seven-year contract allowed her to maintain her residence in New York and take time off every other year to continue pursuing stage acting. Though she was able to set conditions, the salary of the contract, $850 per week, was considered relatively low.
The film that Ford wanted Kelly at MGM for was Mogambo, which she starred in alongside Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. She later told Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, “Mogambo had three things that interested me: John Ford, Clark Gable, and a trip to Africa, with expenses paid. If Mogambo had been made in Arizona, I wouldn’t have done it.” Though ambivalent about the film, she won her first Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and her first Academy Award nomination, also for Best Supporting Actress.
After starring in several other productions, Kelly began her mentorship with Alfred Hitchcock after being loaned by MGM to film Dial M for Murder in 1954. She went on to star in two other Hitchcock films: Rear Window and To Catch a Thief.
Perhaps her most well-known role is that of Georgie Elgin, the long-suffering wife of Bing Crosby’s alcoholic singer character in Country Girl. Kelly won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.
Kelly shot five films in succession in 1954, two of which were for Hitchcock. She began to get marquee credits that went beyond Hitchcock himself, and she was veritably one of the most famous actresses in the world at the time. She would go on to star in two more projects in 1956, as Princess Alexandra in The Swan, and, in her last film, High Society, as Tracy Lord.
Grace Kelly’s last role was a poetic full-circle moment to end her career. She had also starred in The Philadelphia Story (which High Society was adapted from) as Tracy Lord in her 1949 graduation performance from the American Academy for Dramatic Arts.
The Wedding of the Century
Grace Kelly was, in 1955, one of the most respected actresses in Hollywood. Thus, she was asked to be the head of the United States delegation at the Cannes Film Festival in April 1955. It was there, at a photoshoot, that Kelly met her future husband, Prince Rainier III, the ruler of the Principality of Monaco. Rainier, unbeknownst to Kelly, was searching for a bride, having ascended the throne in 1949 and needing an heir to continue the line of monarchs in Monaco.
The pair led an eight-month courtship before Rainier proposed during the Christmas holidays of 1955 at Kelly’s family home in Pennsylvania. While initially the prince proposed with a ring fashioned from two of the principality’s heirlooms, during the filming of High Society, Rainier presented Kelly with a second engagement ring from Cartier. The legendary ring was used in place of a prop for the film, and was comprised of a 10.5 carat emerald-cut diamond surrounded on either side by diamond baguettes. Kelly’s family paid a dowry for their daughter of around $2 million, half of which was paid by Kelly’s own money and half by inheritance.
Grace Kelly arrived in Monaco two weeks before her wedding, with 65 friends and family in tow. She was greeted with 20,000 of her future subjects and around 1,500 journalists. The wedding was to be held in two ceremonies, as required by the Napoleonic Code of Monaco. The first was a civil ceremony performed in the throne room of the Monégasque Palace on April 18, 1956. This ceremony was presided over by Monaco’s Minister of Justice and was witnessed by 80 guests, including representatives from 24 countries. The most important part of the ceremony was the recitation of Kelly’s 142 new titles, Princess of Monaco being only one of them.
The church ceremony was held the next day at Saint Nicholas Cathedral. It was performed in French, with Father John Cartin from Kelly’s hometown parish presiding along with Bishop Gilles Barthe. The ceremony was attended by 700 guests, and Kelly walked down the aisle with her father, as per tradition, before Prince Rainier, whose presence was announced with trumpets.
Kelly wore a wedding dress designed by Helen Rose, her former costumer for MGM, that was worked on by 36 seamstresses for six weeks. The gown, a gift from MGM, was fitted with 125-year-old Brussels rose point lace on the neck and long sleeves and was made from 25 yards of silk taffeta and 100 yards of silk net plus tulle. Her veil, fashioned over a juliet cap, was made from 90 yards of tulle. Prince Rainier wore a military uniform he designed himself, inspired by the uniform of Napoleon Bonaparte.
The couple performed their vows, exchanged rings, took communion, and then left the ceremony in a Rolls-Royce, which was a gift to the couple from their subjects. The reception was held at the Hotel de Paris, where 600 guests and 3,000 Monégasque citizens attended, dazzled by the six-tiered wedding cake which formed a replica of the Prince’s Palace and was cut by Rainier’s ceremonial sword.
The wedding was televised by MGM as a stipulation to release Kelly from her contract. It attracted an audience of over 30 million viewers. It was, truly, the biggest royal wedding spectacle to date. The show ended with the departure of the Prince and Princess on their yacht, Deo Juvante II, for a seven-week honeymoon cruise around the Mediterranean.
Monaco’s Princess
Princess Grace left her film career to become a full-time royal and philanthropist. She and Rainier welcomed three children: Princess Caroline in 1957, Prince Albert, the heir to the throne, in 1958, and Princess Stéphanie in 1965.
As princess consort, Kelly became the President of the Red Cross of Monaco and the Patron of Rainbow Coalition Children, run by former dancer Josephine Baker. She was also president of the Garden Club of Monaco and the organizing committee for the International Arts Foundation. She founded AMADE Mondiale, a non-profit that promotes and protects the “moral and physical integrity” and the “spiritual well-being of children throughout the world, without distinction of race, nationality or religion, and in a spirit of complete political independence.”
Princess Grace championed the arts in Monaco, advocating for and donating to several arts-based projects throughout the principality. Though she was thoroughly ingrained in Monégasque culture, Princess Grace retained her American citizenship. Every year, she hosted an “American Week” in Monaco. Guests ate ice cream and played baseball; the palace always observed American Thanksgiving.
The Death and Legacy of Grace Kelly
On September 13, 1982, while driving back to Monaco from her country home, 52-year-old Princess Grace suffered a mild cerebral hemorrhage. With her youngest daughter, Stéphanie, in the passenger seat, the princess lost control of her car and drove off the steep mountain road, dropping 120-feet down the cliffside.
Initially, the princess and her daughter were taken to Monaco Hospital, now called the Princess Grace Hospital Centre. Princess Grace had injuries to her thorax, femur, and brain, but was expected to make a full recovery. However, while in the hospital, a second, more severe hemorrhage occurred, leaving her with no chance of recovery. Princess Grace died the following night after her husband turned off her life support.
Princess Stéphanie suffered a concussion and a hairline fracture of her cervical vertebra. Though she eventually made a full recovery, she was unable to attend her mother’s funeral.
Princess Grace’s funeral was held on September 18, 1982 at the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate in Monaco-Ville. Over 400 guests attended the service, including Nancy Reagan, Cary Grant, Empress Farah of Iran, and Princess Diana. She was later buried in the Grimaldi family vault. In 2005, Rainier, who had never remarried, was laid to rest beside his wife.
Grace Kelly left an incredible legacy as an actress, a style icon, and a monarch. She is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 1982, her husband created the Princess Grace Foundation—USA to continue her anonymous charitable contributions to the arts in the United States.
Kelly’s family home was made a Pennsylvania historic landmark, and it is still owned by Prince Albert of Monaco today.
Princess Grace’s legacy also continues in her influence over fashion during her lifetime. Her iconic put-together but casual looks have inspired fashion designers into the modern age, notably Tommy Hilfiger and Zac Posen. Princess Grace was also known for carrying the Hermés Sac à dépêches, which is today simply referred to as the Kelly bag.
Kelly has been honored by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others, for her style. In Monaco, a rose garden with a statue of the princess was opened in her honor by her husband in 1984. In 2022, the Paris mint even issued silver and gold coins to honor the 40th anniversary of Princess Grace’s death with the consent of her son, Prince Albert II.
Grace Kelly’s legacy is vast but, in her own words, she wanted to be remembered as “someone who accomplished useful deeds, and who was a kind and loving person. I would like to leave the memory of a human being with a correct attitude and who did her best to help others.” Her name is still synonymous with style, class, talent, and, as her name suggests, grace.
