Betsy Drake

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Betsy Drake (born September 11, 1923) is an American actress and writer, best remembered as the third wife of actor Cary Grant.

Drake, the eldest child of two American expatriates, was born in Paris in 1923. Although her grandfather, Tracy Drake, and great uncle, John Drake (1872-1964), had built the Drake Hotel in Chicago, IL, the Drakes lost their money in the 1929 stock market crash, which forced her to pay for drama lessons by modeling and working as a switchboard operator.

Cary Grant first spotted her in 1947, in the London production of Deep Are The Roots and the two, who happened to be returning to the United States on the same ship, struck up an instant rapport. Betsy Drake was subsequently signed to a movie contract by RKO and David Selznick, appearing in her first film Every Girl Should Be Married (opposite Grant) in 1948.

On Christmas Day 1949, they were married, and purposefully chose a low-key, introspective private life. In 1952, they appeared together in the film Room for One More, and Drake appeared in a number of supporting roles in such films as 1957's Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?.

In 1956, Drake survived the sinking of the Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria. At the time, she was a first-class passenger, on her way back from visiting Grant in Italy where he was involved in an on-location romance with Sophia Loren (later described in her autobiography).

Grant and Drake separated in 1958, remaining friends, and divorced in 1962. (Their marriage constituted his longest union.) Grant credited her with broadening his interests (outside of his career), and with introducing him to the (then-legal) LSD therapy, in which he claimed to have finally achieved a degree of mental peace. (Drake had apparently taken LSD as a way of recovering from the trauma of the Andrea Doria sinking).

Drake subsequently gave up acting in order to focus on her other interests, such as writing. In 1971, she published her first novel, and has since become a practicing psychotherapist. Her most recent screen appearance was in Cary Grant: A Class Apart, a documentary in which she reflected on Grant and their time together.