Farley Granger


Granger in 1951

Born: Farley Earle Granger Jr.; July 1, 1925; San Jose, California, U.S.
Died: March 27, 2011 (aged 85); New York City, U.S.
Occupations: Actor, singer, acting coach
Years active: 1943–2004
Partner: Robert Calhoun (1963–2008; Calhoun's death)

Farley Earle Granger Jr. (July 1, 1925 – March 27, 2011) was an American actor. His career started in the 1940s and spanned a total of seven decades. He was prominent during the "Golden age of Hollywood" cinema.

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Early career

The studio publicity department was concerned audiences would confuse Granger with British actor Stewart Granger, so they suggested he change his name and offered him a list from which to choose. "The names were all interchangeable, like Gordon Gregory and Gregory Gordon. I didn't want to change my name," Granger later recalled. "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." Eventually the studio issued a press release announcing Farley Granger, a senior at North Hollywood High School, had been cast in The North Star after he responded to an ad in the local paper. "I thought that was a really dumb story," said Granger. "The truth was much more interesting."

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Upon completion of The Purple Heart, Granger enlisted in the United States Navy. Following U.S. Navy Recruit Training in Farragut, Idaho, he sailed from Treasure Island in San Francisco to Honolulu. During the 17-day crossing, he suffered from chronic seasickness and lost 23 pounds, and upon arrival in Hawaii he was admitted to the hospital for several days of rehydration. As a result, the remainder of his military career was spent onshore, where he first was assigned to the cleanup crew at an enlisted men's club situated at the end of Waikiki Beach and then to a unit in Honolulu that worked with Army Special Services that was commanded by classical actor Maurice Evans, who put together and arranged entertainment for all the troops in the Pacific. It was here that he had the opportunity to meet and mingle with visiting entertainers such as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr, Gertrude Lawrence, and many others.

It was during his naval stint in Honolulu that Granger had his first sexual experiences, one with a hostess at a private club and the other with a Navy officer visiting the same venue, both on the same night. He was startled to discover he was attracted to both men and women equally, and in his memoir he observed,

I finally came to the conclusion that for me, everything I had done that night was as natural and as good as it felt ... I never have felt the need to belong to any exclusive, self-defining, or special group ... I was never ashamed, and I never felt the need to explain or apologize for my relationships to anyone .... I have loved men. I have loved women.

Granger returned to civilian life and was pleased to discover his parents had curbed their drinking and were treating each other more civilly. Goldwyn increased his weekly salary to $200 and presented him with a 1940 Ford Coupe. The actor was introduced to Saul Chaplin and his wife Ethel, who became his lifelong mentor, confidante and best friend. Through the couple, Granger met Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and Gene Kelly, who invited him to join his open house gatherings that included Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen and Stanley Donen. Most influential among his new acquaintances was director Nicholas Ray, who cast Granger in his film noir They Live by Night. The film was nearing completion in October 1947 when Howard Hughes acquired RKO Radio Pictures, and the new studio head shelved it for nearly a year before releasing it in 1948 under the title They Live by Night in a single theater in London. Enthusiastic reviews led RKO to finally release the film in the States in late 1949. During the two years it had remained in limbo, it had been screened numerous times in private screening rooms, and one of the people who saw it during this period was Alfred Hitchcock, who was preparing Rope.

Granger was in New York when he was summoned to return to Hollywood and discuss Rope with Hitchcock. The night before their initial meeting, Granger coincidentally met Arthur Laurents, who had written the film's screenplay, which was based on the 1929 play Rope's End by Patrick Hamilton, a fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb murder case of 1924. It was not until he began reading the script that he connected its author with the man he had met the previous night. Granger and Laurents met again, and Laurents invited the actor to spend the night. He declined, but when the offer was extended again several days later, he accepted. It proved to be the start of a romantic relationship that lasted about a year and a frequently tempestuous friendship that extended for decades beyond their breakup.[17]

In Rope, Granger and John Dall portrayed two intellectuals who commit a murder simply to prove they can get away with it. The two characters and their former professor, played by Jimmy Stewart, were supposed to be homosexual, and Granger and Dall discussed the subtext of their scenes. Because The Hays Office was keeping close tabs on the project, however, the final script was so discreet that Laurents remained uncertain of whether Stewart ever realized that his own character was homosexual.[18] Hitchcock shot the film in continuous, uninterrupted 10-minute takes, the amount of time a reel of Technicolor film lasted, and, as a result, technical problems frequently brought the action to a frustrating halt throughout the 21-day shoot. The film ultimately received mixed reviews in 1948, although most critics were impressed by Granger, who in later years said he was happy to be part of the experience, but wondered "what the film would have been like had [Hitchcock] shot it normally" and "had he not had to worry about censorship".[19]

Upon the completion of Rope, Goldwyn cast Granger, Teresa Wright, David Niven and Evelyn Keyes in Enchantment (1948), which was panned for a weak script and indifferent direction by Irving Reis. It failed at the box office, as did his next project, Roseanna McCoy (1949), during which he and Laurents parted ways.[20] While filming Side Street (1950) on location in Manhattan for Anthony Mann, Granger briefly became involved with Leonard Bernstein, who invited him to join him on his South American tour. By the time Granger completed the film, the composer/conductor had married Costa Rican pianist and actress Felicia Montealegre. The two men remained friends until Bernstein's death.[21]

Leading roles

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Once again placed on suspension, he departed for Europe, where he spent time in Italy, Austria and Germany with Laurents before being contacted about an upcoming film by Alfred Hitchcock.


In the trailer for Strangers on a Train, (1951)

The project was Strangers on a Train (1951), in which Granger was cast as tennis player and aspiring politician Guy Haines. He is introduced to psychopathic Bruno Anthony, portrayed by Robert Walker, who suggests they swap murders, with Bruno killing Guy's wife and Guy disposing of Bruno's father. As with Rope, there was a homosexual subtext to the two men's relationship, although it was toned down from Patricia Highsmith's 1950 original novel. Granger and Walker, whose wife Jennifer Jones had recently left him for David O. Selznick, became close friends and confidantes during filming, and Granger was devastated when Walker died from an accidental combination of alcohol and barbiturates prior to the film's release. It proved to be a box office hit, the first major success of Granger's career, and his "happiest filmmaking experience".

On December 31, 1950, Granger picked up close friend Shelley Winters to escort her to Sam Spiegel's traditional New Year's Eve gala. The actress kept him waiting for nearly two hours, and they argued while en route to the party. Once there, they went their separate ways, and Granger met Ava Gardner. The two left to hear Nat King Cole perform at a nearby nightclub and then went to Granger's home, where they began an intense affair that lasted until Gardner began filming Show Boat a month later.

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Later career

Despite his three unsuccessful Broadway experiences, Granger continued to focus on theater in the early 1960s. He accepted an invitation from Eva Le Gallienne to join her National Repertory Theatre. During their first season, while the company was in Philadelphia, John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The President had attended NRT's opening night and post-performance gala in the nation's capital, so the news hit everyone in the company especially hard. Granger had become a close friend of production supervisor Robert Calhoun, and although both had felt a mutual attraction, they never had discussed it. That night they became lovers.

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Later he appeared in several documentaries discussing Hollywood in general and Alfred Hitchcock in particular. In 1995, he was 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.

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