America’s Own Princess

The bride tastes her wedding cake, the groom at her side, 1956.

(BETTMANN/CORBIS)

By 1956, Grace Kelly was calling it quits after a movie-acting career of only five years—but what a career it was. Her 11 films included the 1952 classic High Noon, the 1956 musical High Society, and the Alfred Hitchcock-directed masterpieces Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief. She had won an Oscar for her role in 1954’s The Country Girl—and all this before her twenty-seventh birthday. She was already Hollywood royalty, to be sure. But on April 19, 1956—50 years ago today—she became a true princess: Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco.

Grace Kelly came from a well-to-do Philadelphia family that had already seen its share of fame. Her father, Jack Kelly, had made his fortune in brick contracting after winning a gold medal in rowing at the 1920 Olympics; her brother, John “Kell” Kelly, would win a bronze medal for rowing at the 1956 games; and her uncle Walter Kelly was a famed vaudeville star who had appeared in films. Another uncle, George Kelly, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, nurtured the shy teenage Grace’s talent by sharing with his niece his passion for Shakespeare. His reputation in theater circles helped her gain admission to the esteemed American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Her dazzling beauty helped her get work as a fashion model and then acting roles on the New York stage and television, and before long she was starring in movies alongside Gary Cooper, James Stewart, and Cary Grant.

Grace Kelly’s legendary looks gained her a throng of suitors, including the actors Ray Milland, William Holden, and Bing Crosby. She had a serious relationship with the twice-married fashion designer Oleg Cassini; it ended at least partly because Grace’s parents disapproved. “Look here, Oleg,” Grace’s mother said to Cassini. “You’re a charming escort, but in my opinion you’re a very poor risk for marriage.” It was clear that Grace would have to aim very high indeed.

The world press pursued her love life eagerly, speculating endlessly on her marriage plans. Then in 1955 the French magazine Paris Match arranged a photo op in which she would meet the unmarried 31-year-old Prince Rainier III of Monaco—a small principality known mainly for its casinos. Rainier, like many men who met her in person, was intrigued.

He had recently ended an intense relationship with the French actress Gisèle Pascal, in part because it was feared that she would be unable to bear children, and he needed an heir. His kingdom, Monaco, existed as a sovereign nation only through a 1918 treaty with France, and a clause in that treaty stated that if the throne of Monaco ever fell vacant, Monaco would once again become property of the French government.

He corresponded with Kelly via telephone and letter over the next few months. On December 22, 1955, she finished shooting The Swan, a film in which, oddly enough, she played a princess who marries an older prince to help rescue a kingdom from disaster. She traveled to her family’s home in Philadelphia for their Christmas party; at the party was Rainier, who had been invited by family members without her knowledge. They quickly grew close after their months apart, and by New Year’s Eve they were engaged to be married.

When Rainier and Grace made their formal announcement, in January 1956, the media crush was immediate. Reporters jammed the Kellys’ living room during their very first press conference; some even stood on the Kellys’ piano. “They damn near broke the place down,” Grace’s brother, John, later said. Soon, wherever the couple went they were inundated with questions about their upcoming wedding and plans for a family. Most of the press, stateside and abroad, lauded the match as a Cinderella story come true, though the Chicago Tribune opined that Kelly was “too well bred a girl to marry the silent partner in a gambling casino.” Her past relationships, as well, were held up for public scrutiny in newspapers and magazines, and even minute details about the upcoming nuptials obsessed the press corps.

Grace filmed her last picture, High Society, amid the maelstrom, which only intensified as the wedding day approached. On April 4, the day she left for Europe on the ocean liner Constitution, she fielded questions from a throng of 250 reporters during a riotous press conference in the ship’s lounge. But her arrival in Monaco provided no respite. A crowd of 20,000, including hundreds of journalists, waited at the docks to greet her, and three miles of red carpet were laid through the streets of Monaco. The Philadelphia girl had entered a new world.

A civil ceremony was held on April 18, 1956. “Now I’m halfway married,” joked Grace. The big event, the religious wedding, unfolded the next day, when 600 guests—including the actors David Niven, Ava Gardner, and Gloria Swanson—jammed a cathedral overflowing with flowers. Thirty million more people, in nine countries, watched on television.

Grace left acting behind, turning her attention to her numerous royal duties, fundraising for charities, and her own growing family. Her first child, Caroline, was born in 1957, followed by a son, Albert, in 1958—assuaging Rainier’s urgent wish for a male heir—and Stephanie followed in 1965.

Grace Kelly’s marriage to Rainier would last 26 years, until September 13, 1982, when her remarkable life was cut short. While driving near the Royal Palace in Monaco with her 17-year-old daughter Stephanie, she apparently suffered a stroke and lost control of the car, which plunged off a 120-foot cliff. Stephanie survived, but Grace had severe head injuries that put her into a deep coma. By the following day her brain activity had ceased, and she was removed from life support.

The worldwide expression of grief was echoed in headlines worldwide. Twenty-three years later, when Rainier himself died after a lengthy illness, Monaco’s citizens grieved for the loss of their leader. But many Americans knew him only as the husband of Grace Kelly, who remains Hollywood royalty to this day.

—David Rapp has written for American Heritage and Out, and is a regular contributor to AmericanHeritage.com. He holds a degree in film from New York University.