Grace Kelly

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

She was born a commoner, became a Hollywood star and died a princess of iconic memory.

Thirty years after Grace Kelly’s untimely death, serene images of the Philadelphia-born Hollywood actress are glamorous and poignant.  Admirers remember her as embodiment of royalty, as a critically-acclaimed actress and elegant consort of Monaco ... a loyal friend, loving mother, and stunning style icon.

Hollywood royalty: Grace Kelly, pictured in a publicity still for the Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window, starred in only 14 movies over five years, but remains one of the icons of the silver screen

 

 Amazing grace: Grace's effortless elegance, as well as her talent and beauty, ensured that she skyrocked to Hollywood royalty, starring in three Hitchcock films before retiring to marry Prince Rainier III in 1956

 Too sexy? Grace Kelly, photographed a month before her wedding in 1956, thought the photograph of her, above, is 'too sexy,' according to Paramount photographer Bud Fraker; and, Ms Kelly as Frances Stevens in the motion picture To Catch a Thief

 Icon: Grace Kelly was known as much for her acting abilities as she was her breath-taking beauty
 

Grace Kelly was born to a wealthy  Philadelphia family in 1929, and quickly climbed the ranks of Hollywood, starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and High Society, a musical.

She won an Oscar for Best Actress in the 1954 film The Country Girl, beating fellow star Judy Garland; she was also nominated for her supporting role in 1953’s Mogambo. 
 
The model-turned-actress starred in 14 movies in five years. Then the life of the blonde with the shy smile took a dramatic turn. At the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, Ms. Kelly met Monaco’s Prince Ranier III. After exchanging letters in a hushed romance, he asked her to marry him days after Christmas that year. Their engagement was  announced to the press on January 5, 1956, because Ms .Kelly’s parents had to be firmly swayed to grant their permission.

Her father told the Prince of Monaco before giving his consent: ‘Royalty doesn’t mean anything to us. I hope you won’t run around the way some princes do, because if you do, you’ll lose a mighty fine girl.’

In her infancy: Grace Kelly, pictured in 1930, a year after she was born; she grew up in Philadelphia, the daughter of a wealthy family

Art imitating life: Kelly leans in to kiss James Stewart in a scene from the classic 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film, Rear Window, and  Kelly as a film-princess with a film-prince (Alec Guiness), in the film version of Ferenc Molnab's famous play, The Swan; she would be a real-life princess by the film's release

Walkabout: Kelly goes for a stroll with her Great Dane on the studio lot between shooting sessions in 1955

Kelly retired from acting at the tender age of 26, and began planning for the next stage of her fairy-tale life. Long before this generation’s royal wedding  of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and before that of William's parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, there was the spectacular event when American actress Grace Kelly became a real-life princess.

'People sometimes described her as cold and distant, but she was full of enthusiasm, and very curious about the life she was discovering.'

-Louissette Levy-Soussan Azzoaglio, secretary to Princess Grace
 

During 'the wedding of the century,’ then 26-year-old Grace Patricia Kelly became Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco in an intricate lace dress designed by MGM costume designer Helen Rose. It has been said that the Duchess of Cambridge's dress was influenced by Princess Grace's timeless gown.
After the pomp of the wedding, the new royal tried adjusting to her new life. The next few years were a struggle, being a princess was much different from being an actress.  She brought her spritely attitude toward antiquated palace customs, banning the law requiring women to call  on her wearing a hat, or that any representatives calling on the princess must be female.  She said it was difficult separating Grace Kelly the actress and Princess Grace, the wife of a head of state.

Throughout the challenges of her marriage, she was always enamored with her prince and once said of her husband: ‘He’s enormously sweet and kind…he wants a close and loving family, just as I do. He’s very bright, has a wonderful sense of humour, makes me giggle, and is very, very handsome…he’s a good person. And I love him.’

They had three children – Albert II, Stephanie, and Caroline.

 Hollywood to actual royalty: The animated face of Kelly radiates happiness on board the liner, Constitution, as she leaves from New York for Monaco to become the bride of Prince Rainier, above, and, after the wedding to the prince

Her Serene Highness: In what was called the wedding of the century, Prince Rainier III of Monaco married Grace Kelly in Monaco Cathedral in April 1956

Departing: Prince Rainier and Princess Grace leave the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, followed by the two page boys and four flower girls, for a sunny ride in an open Rolls Royce to the chapel of Monaco's patron saint, following their wedding

 

Married bliss: The newly married couple appeared on the balcony the day after the ceremony, as Monaco welcomed their new princess

 

Official duty: Prince Ranier and Princess Grace of Monaco leave the White House here October 11, 1956 following their 30-minute visit with President Eisenhower, and described their meeting with the President as 'purely social'

Family matters: Princess Grace Kelly shares a smile with her son Albert II in 1959

 New life: The royal couple posed on the steps of the palace with their children: Princess Stephanie , 14 months; Princess Caroline, 9; and Prince Albert, 8 on their 10th wedding anniversary, and, the Monaco Reigning Family, taken for the twentieth anniversary of the sovereigns' wedding in 1976
 

Foreign affairs: Princess Grace of Monaco donned an exotic-looking veil and sequins for a masked ball in Venice in 1967

 Jet set: Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco looking lovely in leopard with Prince Rainier at Gatwick Airport in 1959, above, and at Heathrow Airport in 1970

Having a ball: Princess Grace shares a laugh as she dances with French dancer and socialite Jacques Chazot in 1968

 

High flying adored: The princess is pictured in 1977 with Stanley Balfour-Lynn of American Medical International holding a bouquet of flowers

Lady in waiting: Princess Grace of Monaco pictured at home at her Palace in Monaco, in March 1971

Diplomatic duties: Princess Grace, joined by her son Prince Albert II, greet pilgrims during the pilgrimage in Lourdes in 1979

 

Princess Grace died on September 14, 1982 while driving along a hairpin bend above the Mediterranean principality with her daughter, Princess Stephanie, the circumstances of that day are clouded in speculation, even three decades after her death.

Initial reports said that she suffered a stroke, questions persist on how the Rover P6 she was driving plunged 45 feet down.

There are rumours that Princess Stephanie was quarrelling with her mother, and that she was even driving the car.

It was the same hairpin curve Kelly zoomed around in the 1955 film To Catch A Thief.  In the film, she gushed: ‘Have you ever seen any place in the world more wonderful?’ Guillaume Rose, Monaco’s head of tourism, told the AFP news agency that the classic movie is ‘the best advertisement we ever had.’

Laid to rest: Prince Rainier of Monaco and his children Princess Caroline and Prince Albert are pictured at Princess Grace's funeral in 1982

 

 Nation in shock: above, a mourner praying at cross at the site of the car crash that killed Princess Grace, and Prince Rainier of Monaco with his daughter Princess Caroline at the funeral

Aftermath: A rose was attached to a fence at the place where the Princess of Monaco was killed in an car accident in La Turbie, France, near Monaco, on on 14 September 1982

 

Same setting: Hitchcock's 1955 classic To Catch a Thief, which starred Cary Grant and Grace Kelly took place along the scenic roads above Monaco where the princess met her tragic end; Prince Albert will screen the movie tomorrow

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203606/Grace-Kelly-30-years-princess-death-actress-turned-royalty-remains-icon.html#ixzz26eEt3XTt