Live Auction 14904Audrey Hepburn: The Personal Collection
CARY GRANT
Lot 142

CARY GRANT

Closed27 September 2017

Price Realised

GBP 12,500

Considering selling a similar item?

Discover its value with a complimentary estimate from our specialists.

More Information

How to sell

CARY GRANT
A typescript letter, signed, from Cary Grant to Audrey Hepburn on Grant's personalised stationery, dated 29 June, 1982, the one page letter addressed in black ink Dear Dear Audrey, thanking Hepburn for her letter of regret How kind of you to trouble to send me a letter explaining your inability to be in New York on May 16th. How thoughtful. How considerate; and how envious am I, who so uncleverly manage to cultivate no such qualities... You were greatly missed at that gala Friars banquet. It was quite a memorable evening. A four-tiered dais on which you, star-bright you, would have shone the brightest. Barbara and I send our fond, warm, loving and happy thoughts, signed Cary
10 ¼ x 7 ¼ in. (26 x 18.4 cm.)

Specialist note

Hepburn and Grant met for the first time in a Paris restaurant just before filming began on Charade, introduced by their mutual friend and director Stanley Donen. Audrey, admitting she was terribly nervous, knocked over a bottle of red wine, staining Grant's cream suit. Donen wrote the funny incident into the film, when Hepburn as Reggie accidentally tosses a scoop of ice cream onto Grant's jacket. Like all Hepburn's leading men, with the possible exception of Bogart, Grant was instantly charmed by her, telling a reporter after filming All I want for Christmas is another movie with Audrey Hepburn.

As evidenced in Grant's playful letter, the co-stars remained affectionate friends. Years after Grant's death in 1986, Hepburn reminisced Cary - such a lovely souvenir in my life... He had me down flat the minute he met me. I think he understood me better than I did myself.