| Betsy Drake | |
|---|---|
from the film Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) |
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| Born | September 11, 1923 Paris, France |
| Other names | Betsy Drake Grant |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Actor, psychotherapist and writer |
| Years active | Since 1948 (retired from acting 1965) |
| Spouse | Cary Grant (1949–1962; divorced) |
Betsy Drake (born September 11, 1923) is an American actress, psychotherapist and writer. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant.
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Drake, the eldest child of two American expatriates, was born in Paris, France. Although her grandfather, Tracy Drake, had built the Drake Hotel in Chicago Illinois, the Drakes lost their money in the 1929 stock-market crash when Drake was five years old. As a result, she was forced to return to the U.S. on the ship the SS Île de France with her parents, brothers and a nanny. She grew up in Chicago; Westport, Connecticut; Washington, D.C.; Virginia, North Carolina; and New York City, New York.
She went to twelve different schools, both private and public, before concentrating on theatre and acting at a junior college in Rock Creek Park, Maryland, near Washington, D.C.
She began looking for work as an actress in New York City, supporting herself by working as a Conover model. She met the playwright Horton Foote, who offered her a job as an understudy in his play Only the Heart, which enabled her to join the Actors' Equity Association and thus become a professional actress.
After coming to the attention of the producer Hal Wallis, Drake was pressured by her agent to sign a Hollywood contract. She hated Hollywood and managed to get herself released from the contract by declaring herself insane. She returned to New York City and, in 1947, read for the director Elia Kazan for the lead role in the London company of the play Deep are the Roots.
Cary Grant first spotted her in 1947 while she was performing in London. The two, who happened to be returning to the U.S. on the ship the RMS Queen Mary, struck up an instant rapport. At the insistence of Grant, Drake was subsequently signed to a film contract by RKO Pictures and David Selznick, where she appeared, opposite Grant, in her first film, the romantic comedy Every Girl Should Be Married (1948).
On Christmas Day 1949 Drake and Grant married in a private ceremony organized by Grant's best man, Howard Hughes, and deliberately chose a low-key, introspective private life. The couple co-starred in the radio series Mr. and Mrs. Blanding (1951). They appeared together in the comedy-drama film Room for One More (1952), and Drake appeared in a number of leading roles in England and the U.S., and a supporting role in the satiric comedy film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957).
Drake subsequently gave up acting in order to focus on her other interests, such as writing. Using the name Betsy Drake Grant, her novel Children You Are Very Little (1971) was published by Atheneum Books.
She also worked as a practicing psychotherapist in various psychiatric hospitals in Los Angeles, California, and earned a Master of Education degree from Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Drake's most recent screen appearance was in the documentary film Cary Grant: A Class Apart (2005), in which she reflected on Grant and their time together.
In 1956, Drake survived the sinking of the Italian ocean liner the SS Andrea Doria. At the time, she was a first-class passenger on her way back from visiting Grant in Spain. Drake was rescued from the sinking ship, coincidentally, by the SS Île de France.
Grant and Drake separated in 1958, albeit remaining friends, and divorced in 1962. Their marriage constituted his longest union. Grant credited her with broadening his interests, beyond his career, and with introducing him to the then-legal LSD therapy, which he claimed helped him finally to achieve a degree of mental peace. Later, Drake took LSD as a way of recovering from the trauma of divorce.
Drake had no children with Grant but has two goddaughters: