page_title: Grace Kelly
section_title: Background and early life
hierarchical_section_title: Grace Kelly / Background and early life
caption_attribution_description: English: The Kelly Family House in East Falls section of Philadelphia (3901 Henry Avenue) was built by John B. Kelly, Sr. in 1929. Grace Kelly, actress and Princess of Monaco grew up here. Here Prince Rainier III, Prince of Monaco proposed her in 1955 Christmas. Grace Kelly's mother, Margaret Kelly, sold the house in 1970. In 2016, Grace Kelly's childhood house was purchased by her son, Prince Albert of Monaco.
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: Grace Patricia Kelly was born on November 12, 1929, at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an affluent and influential family. Her father, Irish-American John B. Kelly Sr., had won three Olympic gold medals for sculling and owned a successful brickwork contracting company that was well known on the East Coast. As Democratic nominee in the 1935 election for Mayor of Philadelphia, he lost by the closest margin in the city's history. In later years he served on the Fairmount Park Commission and, during World War II, was appointed by President Roosevelt as National Director of Physical Fitness. His brother Walter C. Kelly was a vaudeville star, who also made films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures, and another named George was a Pulitzer Prize–winning dramatist, screenwriter, and director.
  Kelly's mother, Margaret Katherine Majer, had German parents. Margaret had taught physical education at the University of Pennsylvania and had been the first woman to coach women's athletics at Penn. She also modeled for a time in her youth. After marrying John B. Kelly in 1924, Margaret focused on being a housewife until all her children were of school age, following which she began actively participating in various civic organizations.
  Kelly had two older siblings, Margaret and John Jr., and a younger sister, Elizabeth. The children were raised in the Catholic faith.
  Kelly grew up in a small, close-knit Catholic community. Saint Bridget's was the East Falls parish where she was baptized and received her earliest education. Founded in 1853 by Saint John Neumann, the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia, Saint Bridget's was at that time a relatively young parish, where families were very close to one another. While attending Ravenhill Academy, a reputable Catholic girls' school, Kelly modeled fashions at local charity events with her mother and sisters. In 1942, at the age of 12, she played the lead in Don't Feed the Animals, a play produced by the East Falls Old Academy Players. Before graduating in May 1947 from Stevens School, a socially prominent private institution in nearby Chestnut Hill, she acted and danced. Her graduation yearbook listed her favorite actress as Ingrid Bergman and her favorite actor as Joseph Cotten. Written in the "Stevens' Prophecy" section was: "Miss Grace P. Kelly – a famous star of stage and screen". Owing to her low mathematics scores, Kelly was rejected by Bennington College in July 1947.
caption: The Kelly family home built by John B. Kelly in 1929, in the East Falls section of Philadelphia
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