Prince's death ends Rusty resentment

It is likely that younger folks are unaware of the dastardly deed he perpetrated against me and millions of other Americans. In April 1956, Prince Rainier married American actress Grace Kelly. From that day until she died in a 1982 car crash in Monaco, she was known around the world as Princess Grace.

I never forgave the prince for taking her away.

No, I wasn’t offended by the prince marrying Grace Kelly and taking her away from the movie screen forever because I had a youthful crush on her. At the time, I was madly in love with actress Janet Leigh.

Although Janet was married to actor Tony Curtis, I was quite willing to share her. Besides, Tony Curtis didn’t take her away, never to make another movie! You may remember the late Janet Leigh as the mother of actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

Grace Kelly was well-suited to be a princess. If ever there was an actress with a regal demeanor, it was she.

While pondering this column, I gave thought to how to best describe what it was about Grace Kelly that caused me to hold a grudge against the scoundrel who took her away.

It is tempting to say that I can’t define what is was that set her apart from other movie stars, but I know it when I see it. That would be a cop-out. I believe ‘’elegant” is the word.

When Grace Kelly stepped in front of a movie camera, she radiated elegance. Other actresses, including my secret love, Janet Leigh, were actually more beautiful, but none were as elegant. Kelly won the 1954 Best Actress Academy Award for her role opposite Bing Crosby in “Country Girl.” Her very first starring role was in “High Noon,” the 1952 film that became a classic.

My favorite Grace Kelly movie was the Hollywood version of the Broadway play “Dial M For Murder,” a 1954 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Years later, when I was dabbling in the theater, I directed that play for a community theater in Kansas. I had to fight hard to overcome the unreasonable expectation that the lead actress should play the role in the manner of Grace Kelly.

Among Kelly’s contemporaries, Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman and Sophia Loren may have possessed the elusive elements of refinement that I call elegance. No offense to today’s leading ladies, but I can think of none who show up on the elegance radar screen.

For 56 years, Prince Rainier ruled over Monaco, a country with a population of 32,000 people residing on 485 acres on the Mediterranean coast. In order to encourage tourism, Rainier wanted to focus world publicity on the nation, and he needed a wife to give him an heir to the throne. What better way to accomplish both than to marry a famous Hollywood movie star? Among the stars he pursued was Marilyn Monroe. Princess wasn’t a title that appealed to Marilyn. Grace Kelly said yes. The prince got a wife, big-time publicity for Monaco and, eventually, four children. The last movie she made was “High Society” with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. She walked away from it all at the height of her career. A fairy tale wedding followed.

Unlike the Cinderella fairy tale, the one starring Princess Grace didn’t have a happy ending. Her biographer, Robert Lacey, says that Rainier was not “equipped to be a sensitive and caring marriage partner.” The unhappy years of marriage ended with a tragic car wreck.

For these many years I have held a grudge against Prince Rainier for spiriting away an elegant princess of the silver screen, and then making her unhappy. Both are now dead, and their 47-year-old son, Prince Albert II, has succeeded his father to the throne. It is surely time for me to forgive and forget, albeit reluctantly.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.

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