page_title: Grace Kelly
section_title: Acting career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
hierarchical_section_title: Grace Kelly / Career / Acting career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
caption_attribution_description: English: L. to R.&#160;: Donald Sinden, Grace Kelly, Clark Gable, Denis O'Dea, Ava Gardner &amp; Eric Pohlmann on the set of Mogambo (publicity still)
context_page_description: Grace Patricia Kelly, also known as Grace of Monaco, was an American film actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956.
  After embarking on an acting career in 1950 when she was 20, Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions and more than 40 episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. From 1952 to 1956 she starred in several critically and commercially successful films, usually opposite male romantic leads 25 to 30 years older than her. In October 1953, she gained stardom from her performance in director John Ford's African-filmed adventure-romance Mogambo, starring Clark Gable and Ava Gardner, which won her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1954 she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her deglamorized performance in the drama The Country Girl with Bing Crosby.
context_section_description: After filming High Noon, Kelly returned to New York City and took private acting lessons, keen to be taken seriously as an actress. She performed in a few dramas in the theater, and in TV serials. She appeared in several television plays, and screen-tested for the film Taxi in the spring of 1952. Director John Ford noticed Kelly in a 1950 screen test, and his studio flew her out to Los Angeles to audition in September 1952. Ford said that Kelly showed "breeding, quality, and class". She was given the role, along with a seven-year contract at the relatively low salary of $850 a week. Kelly signed the deal under two conditions: first, that one out of every two years, she had time off to work in the theatre; and second, that she be able to live in New York City at her residence in Manhattan House, at 200 E. 66th Street, now a landmark.
  Two months later, in November 1952, Kelly and the cast arrived in Nairobi to begin the production of the film Mogambo. Gene Tierney initially was cast in the role, but she had to drop out at the last minute due to personal issues. Kelly later told Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, "Mogambo had three things that interested me: John Ford, Clark Gable, and a trip to Africa, with expenses paid. If Mogambo had been made in Arizona, I wouldn't have done it." Kelly plays Linda Nordley, a contemplative English wife with a romantic interest in Clark Gable. The costumes, designed by Helen Rose, were "safari style". Over the three-month shoot, no feminine looking outfits were used. A break in the filming schedule afforded her and Mogambo co-star Ava Gardner a visit to Rome. The film was released in 1953, and had a successful run at the box office. Kelly was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, and received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
  After the success of Mogambo, Kelly starred in the TV play The Way of an Eagle with Jean-Pierre Aumont, before being cast in the film adaptation of Frederick Knott's Broadway hit Dial M for Murder, opposite Ray Milland and Robert Cummings. In this film, Kelly plays the role of the wealthy wife of a retired professional tennis player. Director Alfred Hitchcock, who had also seen the 1950 screen test, would become one of Kelly's last mentors. She was loaned by her studio MGM (with whom she had signed a seven-year contract in order to do Mogambo), to work on several Hitchcock films, later appearing in Rear Window and To Catch a Thief.
  Kelly began filming scenes for her next film, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, in early 1954, with William Holden, for Paramount Pictures. The story, based on the novel by James Michener, is about American Navy jet fighters stationed to fight in Asia. Kelly plays the role of Holden's wife. Her dress designer was Edith Head, with whom she had established a friendly relationship. The upper-class outfits received a mixed reception from critics; one critic said that "Kelly's flavoring was just plain vanilla".
  Kelly unhesitatingly turned down the opportunity to star alongside Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront (1954). Eva Marie Saint, who replaced her, won an Academy Award for that role. Instead, she committed to the role of Lisa Fremont in Rear Window. Said Kelly, "All through the making of Dial M for Murder, he (Hitchcock) sat and talked to me about Rear Window all the time, even before we had discussed my being in it."
  Kelly's new co-star, James Stewart, was highly enthusiastic about working with her. The role of Lisa Fremont, a wealthy Manhattan socialite and model – a fashion model who "never wore the same dress twice"  – was unlike any of the previous women she had played. For the first time, she was playing an independent career woman. Just as he had done earlier, Hitchcock provided the camera with a slow-sequenced silhouette of Kelly, along with a close-up of the two stars kissing, finally lingering closely on her profile. Hitchcock brought her elegance to the foreground by changing her dresses many times, including: "glamorous evening short dresses, a sheer negligee ove
caption: The cast of Mogambo (1953)
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