Farley Granger

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Farley Granger

from the trailer for Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948)
Born Farley Earle Granger II
July 1, 1925 (1925-07-01) (age 82)
San Jose, California, U.S.
Domestic partner(s) Robert Calhoun

Farley Granger (born July 1, 1925 in San Jose, California) is an American actor. In a career that has spanned over several decades, Granger is perhaps most closely identified with his film work of the 1950s, particularly his performance in the 1951 Alfred Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train.

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[edit] Early life

Farley Earle Granger II was born to Eva Mae and Farley Earle Granger I. He had a privileged childhood, with sentimental memories at the family's beach house in a nearby seaside town, Capitola. During the stock market crash in 1929, the Grangers were forced to sell the beach house and their home in town, along with personal valuables. The family relocated to the second floor of Mr. Granger's automobile dealership, in downtown San Jose, where they lived for the next two years.

Farley Granger, Sr., eventually worked as a clerk in a North Hollywood unemployment office. In their new home, Granger lived next door to Donald O'Connor, who appeared in a string of low-budget musicals for Universal Studios in the early 1940s and went on to star in the widely acclaimed musical, Singin' in the Rain. In his work at the unemployment office, Farley Sr. became acquainted with several actors, including Adolphe Menjou and Harry Langdon. When Granger was 17, Langdon's advice connected him to talent agent Phil Gersh and Bob McIntyre, the casting director for Samuel Goldwyn. The two men attended a play Granger appeared in, and the next day, Gersh asked Granger to come to his office at the Goldstone Agency in Hollywood. Gersh cast him in Sam Goldwyn's upcoming film The North Star. Soon enough after winning the role in The North Star, Goldwyn signed Granger to a seven-year contract with a weekly salary of $100. Granger was taken out of school halfway through his senior year and introduced to the world of a real motion picture studio.

[edit] Hollywood career

[edit] Early career

At the studio, the publicity department initially became worried that audiences would mix him up with the British actor Stewart Granger, so he was given a small list of names to chose from. "The names were all interchangeable, like Gordon Gregory and Gregory Gordon. I didn't want to change my name. I liked Farley Granger. It was my father's name, and his grandfather's name. They kept bringing me new combinations, and finally I offered to change it to Kent Clark. I was the only one who thought it was funny," recalled Granger in his autobiography. The name change was scrapped after a talk with Goldwyn.

Goldwyn originally cast him in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) to play a character with cerebral palsy, but before filming began Goldwyn had second thoughts about the character, and felt that someone suffering war injuries would be more topical. He therefore cast real life World War II veteran Harold Russell in the part intended for Granger.

Two more years passed and Granger later reported that he begged Goldwyn to be released from his contract, only to hear Goldwyn refuse. In 1948 Goldwyn cast him in a supporting role in Enchantment but the film failed to live up to Goldwyn's expectations. He was then approached by Alfred Hitchcock to loan him Granger for his new film. The film, Rope (1948), based partly on the Leopold and Loeb murder case, saw Granger costarring opposite John Dall as two friends who commit a "thrill killing". James Stewart played the part of their mentor. The film was not a box office success. Its subject matter was dark, the relationship between Granger and Dall had a homosexual subtext -- incidentally, Granger was bisexual and Dall was gay -- and Hitchcock's gimmick of filming the piece in continuous scenes and in real time produced a result that many critics dismissed as "stagey". Granger received very good reviews, however, and the film has achieved a level of appreciation in more recent years.

[edit] Leading roles

They Live by Night (1949) was Granger's first starring role. Directed by Nicholas Ray and costarring Cathy O'Donnell, it was a film noir romance that did well commercially and once again brought Granger strong reviews. During this time Goldwyn attempted to create a romantic couple for the movie-going public and so paired Granger with Joan Evans in Rosanna McCoy (1949), Edge of Doom and Our Very Own, which also featured Ann Blyth (both 1950). He also costarred with O'Donnell in Side Street (1950). These films, with the exception of Edge of Doom, were all fairly successful but did not achieve the result Goldwyn had been hoping for. Once again, he agreed to loan Granger to Alfred Hitchcock.

from the trailer for Strangers on a Train (1951)
from the trailer for Strangers on a Train (1951)

Strangers on a Train (1951) was a genuine box office hit, the first major success of Granger's career. Granger portrayed professional tennis player Guy Haines, who is introduced to the psychopathic Bruno (Robert Walker) who suggests that they "swap" murders, with Bruno murdering Guy's wife and Guy murdering Bruno's father. As with Rope, Hitchcock supplied a homosexual subtext to the two men's relationship, although it was toned down from Patricia Highsmith's original novel.

Granger's subsequent films were box office failures, and he entered into filming Hans Christian Andersen (1952) with misgivings, complaining about the poor quality of the script. Granger spoke out against the film after it was completed and became uncooperative with Goldwyn. The relationship had been uneasy in the past and Granger once again asked to be released from his contract. Goldwyn again refused, and instructed Granger to honor his agreement. Before long Goldwyn realized he had no further interest in Granger or his career and let him go, but not before Granger had "bought out" the last two years of his contract, leaving him in serious financial difficulties.

In 1954 he went to Italy and starred in Luchino Visconti's film Senso. During this period Granger appeared regularly on television but his film career began to founder. In 1957, he starred with Peggy Ann Garner and Shelley Winters in a television production of A. J. Cronin's novel, Beyond This Place. The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing was his only mainstream success during the 1950s and Granger made no films during the 1960s.

[edit] Later career

In the 1960s, Granger began to focus on theater, and achieved some success on Broadway, appearing in several productions including The Crucible and The Glass Menagerie. From 1970 until 1974, Granger made a series of Italian language films, the most notable of which was They Call Me Trinity, a film that was wildly popular in Italy. In 1980, Granger returned to Broadway and appeared in Ira Levin's successful play Deathtrap.

While on Broadway, he also appeared on several New York-based soap operas. The first was ABC's One Life to Live (1976-77), where he received a Daytime Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Dr. Will Vernon. He subsequently appeared on The Edge of Night as Trent Archer (1979), and then on As the World Turns as international man of mystery Earl Mitchell from 1985 to 1988.

Since the 1990s, Granger has appeared in several documentaries discussing Hollywood and often specifically Alfred Hitchcock. In 1995 he was one of the people interviewed on camera for The Celluloid Closet discussing the depiction of homosexuality in film, and the use of subtext in various films, including his own. Rope, for example, was based on the story of two gay men, the actors chosen to portray them were gay/bisexual, and one of the play's writers, Arthur Laurents, was also gay. In his book, Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood (ISBN 1-55783-467-9), playwright and screenwriter Laurents states that he had a long-term sexual relationship with Granger.

In 2001, Granger was due to appear in the 1926 Noël Coward play Semi-Monde. He came to London and completed rehearsals, but withdrew from the production before it opened.

In 2004, Granger made his last film appearance to date in a film by director friend Rick McKay, Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There. In the film Granger tells the story of leaving Hollywood at the peak of his fame, buying out his contract from mogul Samuel Goldwyn, and moving to New York City to work on the Broadway stage. Granger promoted the film and appeared at the premiere in New York City. He has not been as publicly present since, but is now promoting his new autobiography, co-written with Robert Calhoun.

Granger's autobiography Include Me Out -- named after one of Goldwyn's famous malapropisms -- was published by St. Martin's Press on 6 March 2007. In the book, Granger's acknowledges his sexuality, and reveals the names of some of his lovers, including Leonard Bernstein, Shelley Winters, Ava Gardner, screenwriter Arthur Laurents, Patricia Neal and producer/director Robert Calhoun.[1] He said about his sexuality, "I never hid it or felt guilt about being who I was, but I didn’t blare it either." [2]

Granger has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to television, at 1551 Vine Street.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Associated Press interview about relationships
  2. ^ Walter Scott's Personality Parade | PARADE Magazine

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Granger, Farley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Granger II, Farley Earle
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actor
DATE OF BIRTH 1925-7-1
PLACE OF BIRTH San Jose, California, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH