With his dashing good looks, a distinctively melodious way of speaking, and deadpan delivery, Grant’s specialty was the slapstick romantic comedy, although he succeeded just as well in other genres, including suspense and action-adventure, as well as straight romance. The Awful Truth (1937), with Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy, confirmed Grant’s command as a comical leading man. From that point on, he starred in a remarkable number of well-crafted films, featuring Hollywood’s most talented directors, actors and writers. In 1938, he costarred with Katharine Hepburn in two back-to-back romantic comedies, Bringing Up Baby, directed by Howard Hawks; and Holiday, directed by George Cukor. The next year he starred in Hawks’ romantic adventure, Only Angels Have Wings, featuring Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth. He worked with Hawks yet again on His Girl Friday (1940), a film in which Grant’s character must win back his estranged ex-wife, played by Rosalind Russell. In a similar role, Grant reteamed with Hepburn in 1940 for Cukor’s star-studded Oscar-winning comedy The Philadelphia Story. The film also featured James Stewart (who won a Best Actor Oscar) and Ruth Hussey (nominated as Best Supporting Actress). Hepburn picked up a Best Actress nomination for her role in the film that was originally a Broadway play; written especially for her by Donald Ogden Stewart, who also won an Oscar for his screenplay. Suspicion (1941), costarring Joan Fontaine, was the first of four films that Grant made with Alfred Hitchcock, a director whose mastery in creating uniquely suspenseful plots and witty dialogue was perfectly suited to Grant’s poised and intelligent demeanor. Over the next 18 years, the actor and director collaborated on Notorious (1946) with Ingrid Bergman, To Catch a Thief (1955) with Grace Kelly, and North by Northwest (1959). Costarring Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, and Martin Landau, North by Northwest featured some of the raciest dialogue of the era, with Grant uttering lines such as: “the moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.” It has become one of the most celebrated films in history, best known for two memorable sequences in which Grant’s character, Thornhill, is chased in broad daylight across an ominously deserted cornfield by a low-flying crop duster; and the film’s harrowing climax on Mount Rushmore. Grant’s other popular though lightweight films included Arsenic and Old Lace (1944); The Bishop’s Wife (1947); Hawk’s, I Was a Male Order Bride (1949)—in which Grant reinforces his slapstick routine as a French soldier in drag; and the tender hearted romance An Affair to Remember (1957), costarring Deborah Kerr.