Cary Grant and Randolph Scott marriages
(See previous post: “Randolph Scott and Cary Grant: Gay Lovers?“) The English-born Cary Grant was married five times: Charles Chaplin’s City Lights leading lady Virginia Cherrill (1934-1935), Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton (1942-1945), Grant’s Every Girl Should Be Married and Room for One More co-star Betsy Drake (1949-1962), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Heaven Can Wait Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Dyan Cannon (1965-1968), and Barbara Harris (1981-1986). Note: Cary Grant’s last wife was not the Barbara Harris of Nashville, Family Plot, and A Thousand Clowns fame.
Cary Grant died at age 82 after suffering a stroke on November 29, 1986, while preparing for a performance of his one-man show, A Conversation with Cary Grant, in Davenport, Iowa. (Image: Cary Grant and Randolph Scott ca. 1933.)
The Virginia-born Randolph Scott was married twice: wealthy socialite Mariana duPont Somerville (1936-1939) and Patricia Stillman, from 1943 to his death at age 89, from heart and lung ailments, on March 2, 1987, in Beverly Hills. According to online sources, Randolph Scott was buried in North Carolina. Stillman Scott died in 2004.
Ramon Novarro and The Rudolph Valentino Dildo
I’m fully aware that some have claimed they knew Randolph Scott and Cary Grant intimately, that “everybody” knew that Scott and Grant were in love, that Scott and Grant were seen holding hands at this or that restaurant and/or party, etc. Perhaps that’s all true, but … while doing research for my Ramon Novarro biography, I remember talking to several people who claimed to have known the 1925 Ben-Hur star intimately. Their stories, however, indicated otherwise.
I particularly remember talking to a journalist, who for years had a column in a Los Angeles-based publication and who was frequently interviewed on television to offer his reminiscences about Old Hollywood. This journalist told me that he had actually been introduced to the dildo that Rudolph Valentino had given Novarro – as a token of their great love or great sex or both – and, as described in Hollywood Babylon, that would later be used as the murder weapon that choked Novarro to death. According to him, Novarro kept the dildo in a shrine at his Laurel Canyon home. Minor detail: The Valentino Dildo, whose make-up and consistency have varied according to the source, never existed.
Cary Grant Quote: ‘Expect the biographical worst’
This is from Cary Grant himself, in a letter written to Nancy Sinatra and quoted in Nancy Nelson’s Evenings with Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words and by Those Who Knew Him Best and Graham McCann’s Cary Grant: A Life Apart:
The victimized dead cannot defend themselves. Though the fabrications are refuted by others close to them, the damage has been done. I’ve always conditioned my wife and daughter to expect the biographical worst.
[“Randolph Scott and Cary Grant Marriages” continues on the next page. See link below.]
10 comments
Well I’m 51 yrs old and I love watching old western cowboy movies and Randolph Scott whom I truly like to watch very good actor
Wheather they were gay or not they were in fact two of my favorite actors.
I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY TWO GUYS HAVE TO BE GAY BECAUSE THEY LIVE TOGETHER. IN THEIR EARLY RECORDING DAYS, JOHNNY CASH AND WAYLON JENNINGS SHARED AN APARTMENT IN NASHVILLE. THEY CERTAINLY WERE NOT GAY AND REMAINED FRIENDS RIGHT UP TO THEIR DEATHS. LOTS AND LOTS OF W8MEN HAVE SHARED A HOUSE OR APARTMENT AND NEVER GOT ACCUSED OF BEING LESBIANS.
IT’S EASY TO TALK ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT ALIVE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES,BUT I JUST DON’T BELI2VE THEY WERE GAY.
Whether they enjoyed each others companionship or they were gay, I really do not care, both were actors I liked, and Scott I still watch to this day, his westerns are ones I like greatly.
Today people care less about people lives whether they are gay or Lesbian or what ever, it’s whether they are great or good actors and these two were.
Do I think they were gay nope, if they were who the hell cares.
I wish there were more sites like this; I think you need to be at the top of most of the classic film stars pages, why people need to pretend some people are gay I never could understand its worse in the uk with newspapers like the daily mail (MAIL ON LINE) with its darwin porter; his extracts suggest everybody in old Hollywood was gay.
Could you do one on vivien leigh who was accused of being a bisexual; mental deranged woman by Darwin porter the mail on line has the article still up on yahoo and bing. Could you place your article under the mails you cant miss it if you check the yahoo or bing page. For facts see Hugo Vickers Ann Edwards biographies. Thank you
I can NEVER forget a. Story I heard. Well, Scott was gay at a time when it was fashionable for ” them ” to be called faggots.
Men were gathered in a bar…….Scott was seen approaching….one man says to another, ” Lookout boys, the SHERIFFS HERE!”
@August James I do not believe Cary Grant was a homosexual!! Isn’t it kind of queer that once a person is dead rumors fly? Since when is it gay to have a friend of the same sex? I feel that unless a person has concrete proof, a persons character should not be defamed!!!!!
I do not believe this story Randolph Scott and Cary Grant being gay. I have read and heard a lot of lies and insinuations about the subject.
On the other hand I also have read and heard testimonies of fellow actors, directors (eg Budd Boetticher), spouses and friends of both refute and claiming otherwise.
The book written by Randy Scott’s son Christopher Scott places the subject very clearly, As well as those written by the daughter and wife of Grant.
The lie have short legs.
With ref to August James comment, all i’ve read is rumour and inuendos about Scott and Grant. Has any of the ex-wives of these actors ever said anything that might confirm or deny the allagations of a “gay romance”.?
I do know that Randolph Scott was primarily gay. I knew his last boyfriend. It has been said that Cary featured cab drivers when he was in the city (Manhattan), but I believe that he was more bi-sexual than Randy. My source is reasonably reliable concerning anything gay in New York for the past 60 years. Some of the information I’ve gleaned from him is far more startling than these little historical tidbits.