Hailed as the "most glamorous woman of the 20th century," Grace Kelly was Cary Grant's favorite co-star, Edith Head's classiest clotheshorse and the icy blonde Alfred Hitchcock most enjoyed having melt in his thrillers. Born in Philadelphia to a wealthy industrialist and a former cover girl, Kelly (1929-1982) got her start as an actress in television after appearing briefly on Broadway. TCM celebrates what would have been Kelly's 80th birthday with her most significant screen roles.

She first attracted major attention in Hollywood in the classic Western High Noon (1952), playing the peace-loving Quaker bride of a beleaguered sheriff (Gary Cooper, in his Oscar®-winning role).

A glamorous new level of stardom came Kelly's way with Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), in which she plays James Stewart's nervy socialite girlfriend. Since Stewart is confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg, it is she who coolly braves the den of a wolf-like killer (Raymond Burr) to gather evidence. Her other memorable collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock include Dial M for Murder (1954) and To Catch a Thief (1955), opposite Cary Grant on the French Riviera.

Kelly's home studio, MGM, fully aware that she was about to marry a prince, chose as one of her final vehicles a film version of Ferenc Molnar's The Swan (1956). At her most elegant, she plays a princess who is asked to give up her true love in favor of an arranged marriage of state. Exquisitely photographed and surrounded by such capable players as Alec Guinness, Louis Jourdan and Agnes Moorehead, Kelly offers a delightful preview of her regal real-life role as Princess Grace of Monaco.

by Roger Fristoe