Actress, princess of Monaco. Born November 12, 1929, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A Philadelphia debutante, Grace Kelly was the daughter of Jack Kelly, an Irish-American who made millions in the construction industry, and Margaret Kelly (nee Majer), a former athlete and photographer’s model. The third of four children, Grace was frail and introverted compared to her athletic and outgoing brothers and sisters. While studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York City, she began modeling and had an affair with her drama teacher, which her parents promptly forbade. In July 1949, Kelly made her professional acting debut at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where she appeared in a revival of her uncle George Kelly's comedy Torch Bearers. She appeared on Broadway in The Father and made several television programs before being summoned to Hollywood to make her film debut in Fourteen Hours (1951). Kelly’s lithe and elegant blond beauty made her an instant Hollywood sensation, and she soon landed a major role in High Noon (1952) with Gary Cooper. She then signed a contract with MGM to make John Ford’s Mugambo with Clark Gable, for which she garnered an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. She had a brief fling with Gable while filming in Africa, beginning a habit of getting romantically involved with her leading men. She also had a serious affair with Ray Milland while filming Dial M for Murder (1954), playing his doomed wife. She so impressed director Alfred Hitchcock in the role, that he immediately cast her as a bold and glamorous fashion editor in Rear Window (1954), opposite Jimmy Stewart, and as an independent American heiress in To Catch a Thief (1955) with Cary Grant. Grace’s acting career was short, prolific, and successful. She made five films in 1954, and won a Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Country Girl. In the tough and unglamorous role as the wife of a drunken former actor, played by Bing Crosby, Kelly donned dowdy clothes, dulled down her beauty, and proceeded to stun audiences with her striking and skilled performance. After appearing in the lusterless MGM production Green Fire with Stewart Granger, Kelly began to reject MGM scripts, resulting in her suspension from the studio. After hiring lawyers to settle the case, she returned to the studio in 1955 to make The Swan, the tale of a beautiful young woman who marries a crown prince.