Tracing Cary Grant’s early life in pictures

THESE pictures show the Bristol locations linked to Hollywood star Cary Grant. The actor was born Archibald Leach in Bristol in 1904, living in the city as a boy before becoming an Oscar winner.

An ITV series on Cary Grant has brought fresh attention to his life and his humble beginnings.

Photos show where he was born, grew up, and the mental hospital his mother was placed in by his father, falsely telling his son she had died.

The photos show the former Fairfield Grammar School he attended and from where the 14-year-old Grant was expelled. Several explanations were given including being discovered in the girls’ lavatory.

Images also show Glenside Hospital where when he was nine his alcoholic father placed his depressed mother.

North by Northwest star Grant did not learn his mother was still alive until he was 31, his father confessing shortly before his own death.

Grant’s dad worked as a tailor’s presser at a clothes factory, while his mother worked as a seamstress.

His older brother John William Elias Leach died of tuberculous meningitis a day before his first birthday.

Grant became attracted to the theatre at a young age when he visited the Bristol Hippodrome.

At 16, he went as a stage performer with the Pender Troupe for a tour of the US and later decided to stay there.

He then found fame and later made arrangements for his mother to leave the institution in June 1935 shortly after he learned of her whereabouts.

He visited her in October 1938 after filming was completed for

Grant died on November 29, 1986, aged 82.

ITV’s Archie is a series about his life starring Jason Isaacs in the lead role.

SWNS > Clockwise from above: Fairfield Grammar School; the former Glenside Hospital; the man himself; 15 Hughenden Road; and his statue in Millennium Square