Actor. Born Archibald Alexander Leach on January 18, 1904, in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, to Elias J. Leach, a clothes presser, and Elsie (née) Kingdom. Grant grew up in a lower middle-class environment under depressing circumstances. As the only surviving son of his parents, he was the focus of much criticism, and his mother continuously grieved for her firstborn son, who had died in 1899. His father was an alcoholic who had numerous affairs with other women; with Mabel Bass he had a son, Eric Leslie Leach. Grant was never told about the existence of his half brother, nor was he told the truth when (around 1914) his mother was committed to a mental health sanitarium (he did not see her again until his late 20s). Grant’s education included the Bishop Road boys’ school in Bristol, and he received a scholarship in 1915 to attend the Fairfield secondary school in Somerset. At the age of 14, Grant forged his father’s signature on a letter of permission to join a traveling acrobatic troupe, led by Bob Pender. In 1920, Grant traveled for the first time to the United States, performing Good Times at the Globe Theatre in New York City with a select group of boys from the Pender troupe. After a 456-performance run at the Globe, the group teamed up with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, touring for several months. When the troupe disbanded, Grant chose to stay in America, working variously as a stilt walker and a vaudeville performer throughout the U.S., and later in parts of Canada. He returned to England in 1925, touring and performing in a small regional repertory theatre. Grant moved to New York again in 1927, where he appeared on Broadway in numerous musicals and plays while trying to break into films. Paramount Studios finally gave him a chance, although his screen debut, Singapore Sue (1931), was uncredited. In 1932, newly christened by the studio as Cary Grant, he made his feature debut in This is the Night, followed by a string of mediocre films. He teamed up with Mae West, at her request, for the seductive comedy She Done Him Wrong (1933), which launched a prolific, if unremarkable, film career until 1937. At that time, his contract with the studio expired, and he was free to choose his own projects.