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The coolest one!

Evergreen Cary Grant was style personified

You can explain words such as ‘debonair’, ‘suave’ and ‘sophistication’ with just one word — Cary Grant. At least, that’s the view of 4,000 British men who recently polled to vote for the ‘Greatest -ever Male Style Icon’.

No one who had watched Grant (who died in 1986 at age 81) on screen would disagree with the verdict. Be it earlier films such as “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “Philadelphia Story” or later ones such as “North by North West” or “To Catch A Thief”, Grant was style personified.He dressed to perfection in the traditional manner, never changing his tailors in Hollywood or the U.K.

Trousers and jackets ‘sat’ on him. Jeeves would have loved to be this gentleman’s personal gentleman, so perfect was his grooming! Standing over six feet, and with a beautifully proportioned body, he would have made a great male model. In films such as “Charade”, “Indiscreet” or “North by North West”, Grant played the diplomat.

No real life diplomat could have dressed better. Stewart Granger played the male lead in MGM’s 1950’s “Beau Brummel”, the dandy who was the close friend of the British king.

Wonder if Grant would have been a better choice though he would have hesitated to shed his conventional style for the frilled shirts and tight trousers.Grant continued to act in an era that saw the entry of stars such as Marlon Brando, Paul Newman and James Dean, but he would never have agreed to appear in torn jeans and t-shirts. Perhaps it was his dress sense that did not allow him to work in a Western and so we never saw him ride into the sunset in jeans, checked shirt and cowboy boots. Riding a horse and getting embroiled in gun fights would not be his style. But in a couple of movies, he did play the naval officer, and the uniform fitted him perfectly.

In one of them, “Operation Petticoat”, the uniform occasionally appeared un-creased and soiled. Mind you, he was the commander of a submarine where things got a bit crowded,but Grant carried on in style. The one film where a ruffled uniform was justified was Stanley Kramer’s “Pride and the Passion”, where Grant, a British naval officer, helps the Spanish revolutionaries fight French invaders by helping them cart a huge cannon through enemy territory.

Starring Frank Sinatra and sultry Sophia Loren, the film did not have Grant as the usual suave, immaculate diplomat, but then who cared. He won the battle and got the girl!

Who else but Grant could remain immaculate after being chased by a helicopter over the hot plains in Hitchcock’s “North by North West”? Grant ran like hell from his assassin and into his hotel, where he handed over his trousers and jacket to be pressed. In the next scene, immaculate as ever, he escorted his leading lady, Eva Marie Saint. No wonder women swooned over him.

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