Grace of Monaco

Grace of Monaco was generally panned by reviewers, earning what Vanity Fair called “some famous boos” when it opened the 67th Cannes Film Festival in 2014. However, the film (with Nicole Kidman playing Grace Kelly) serves as a reminder of the qualities that made the actress-turned-royal (1929–1982) so fascinating to the public, both on-screen and off.

Kelly had a wealthy Philadelphia upbringing in an achievement- and culture-oriented Irish Catholic family—her father was an Olympic gold-medalist oarsman and businessman who came close to becoming mayor of Philadelphia in 1935, and she had uncles who were a playwright and vaudevillian, respectively.

Following two years of acting training in New York, Kelly made her Broadway debut when she was just 20 in August Strindberg’s wrenching psychological study, The Father. She achieved fame on the big screen a few short years later (in the famous Western, High Noon), and won an Oscar at age 24 for her role in The Country Girl. Two years later—with 11 movies under her belt, including three of the most celebrated films in Alfred Hitchcock’s canon—she left Hollywood to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

The adjectives often used to describe Kelly during her Monaco years—such as “stately,” “poised,” and “composed”—convey the discipline and integrity that make Grace of Monaco a quiet study in leadership. Before her untimely death at age 52, she calmly told reporters, “My life here has given me many satisfactions,” and on another occasion, she noted that she “would like to leave the memory of a human being with a correct attitude and who did her best to help others.”