Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 in Bristol. Raised in the suburb of Horfield, he experienced a troubled home life. A weekend job at the Hippodrome theatre provided an escape from family tensions and sowed the seeds for a career in acting. “Those Saturday matinees free from parental supervision were the high point of my week.”

He also regularly visited the Bristol docks. “I sat alone for hours watching the ships come and go, sailing with them to far places on the tide of my imagination, trying to release myself from the emotional tensions which disarranged my thoughts.”

Aged fourteen, he joined the Bob Pender comedy troupe where he danced and performed as an acrobat and a stilt-walker. The troupe embarked on a tour of the United States in 1920. At the end of the two-year tour, Archibald Leach decided to stay behind and try his hand at acting. He eventually made his way to Hollywood where he took a new stage name and the glittering career of Cary Grant began.

Cary Grant maintained his links with Bristol. He returned every year to see his mother, Elsie, until she died. At age nine he had been told that she had gone away but during his adulthood discovered her alive, in a mental care facility. His humble Bristol origins and later glamorous persona often caused him conflict: “I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each, suspecting each.