It was one of those news items that nobody could quite believe. The date was September 14, 1982. Her Royal Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco, one of the most famous and respected women in the world, had been killed in a car accident. The news left millions of her admirers in stunned silence.
Born in 1929, Princess Grace began life as Grace Kelly, the third of four children of a rich family in Philadelphia, United States. At an early age, Grace decided that she wanted to be an actress and, after graduating from high school, she moved to New York to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. Hollywood spotted Kelly in 1951 and she was given a supporting role in a movie called Fourteen Hours. A year later she won the female lead in the Western High Noon, the breakthrough movie that turned her into an overnight star.
After only two years in Hollywood, Kelly signed a contract with MGM Studios and, in her next film, Mogambo, her leading man was top Hollywood star Clark Gable. Influential filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock then noticed Kelly and a perfect relationship between director and star was born. Hitchcock was famous for making suspense thrillers and the cool, blond beauty was just what he needed in a leading lady.
Kelly made three classic films for Hitchcock - Dial M For Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954) and To Catch a Thief (1955). 1954 was a great year for Hollywood's new Golden Girl. Not only did she make two top-class Hitchcock films, but she also had the lead role in The Country Girl, for which she won the Best Actress award at the 1955 Oscars. Grace then represented Hollywood at the Cannes Film Festival in France and her career took an unexpected turn.
During the festival, Kelly met Prince Rainier of Monaco, a small principality in the south of France. The couple fell in love and when Kelly returned to Hollywood, she knew that her future was no longer in the US making hit movies.
When her engagement to Prince Rainier was announced, the media went into a frenzy. She was now one of Hollywood's biggest stars but everyone knew that her marriage to a European prince would mean that she had to give up acting for good.
