Stewart Granger

Trivia of Stewart Granger (6 May 1913 – 16 August 1993)

*Stewart Granger's birth name was James Lablache Stewart. When he became an actor, he was advised to change his name in order to avoid being confused with the American actor James Stewart.Granger was his Scottish grandmother's maiden name. Offscreen friends and colleagues continued to call him Jimmy for the rest of his life, but to the general public he became Stewart Granger.

*He would rather have been a doctor, but his father was able to afford sending him to university to study to be a general practitioner.But he lacked the dedication (as he later admitted) to continue medical studies. A friend suggested that since he had a car and a good set of clothes he could find work as a film extra for a guinea a day.Since that day, he interested to acting.He quit his medical studies to study theatrical arts in London, and took his first steps in the theater in 1935.

*Took fencing very seriously for his dashing roles in The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) and Scaramouche (1952). He was so earnest in mastering the skill of fencing that he took lessons from a retired Olympic fencing champion. During his preparation for Scaramouche (1952), his fencing lessons and practice made him wear out a dozen or so pairs of fencing shoes. He adorned the cover of Life Magazine when the film was released and the title was "Stewart Granger: Swashbuckler". Perhaps the only actor superior to him in fencing at that time was Basil Rathbone.

*Both Eleanor Parker ("Scaramouche," 1952) and Grace Kelly ("Green fire," 1954) admitted that Granger's ego made working with him a less-than-pleasant experience. (Parker, in a radio interview in the 1990s; Kelly, at the time, to MGM publicist Rupert Allan.).

*Adam and Evelyne (1949) was movie that related with his love story and Jean Simmons.The story, about a much older man and a teenager whom he gradually realises is no longer a child but a young woman with mature emotions and sexuality, had obvious parallels to Granger's and Simmons' own lives.Granger had first met the young Jean Simmons when they both worked on Gabriel Pascal's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Three years later, Simmons had transformed from a promising newcomer into a star. They married the following year in a bizarre wedding ceremony organised by Howard Hughes: One of his private aircraft flew the couple to Tucson, Arizona, where they were married, mainly among strangers, with Michael Wilding as Granger's best man.

*Perfectionist Granger adoring Alan Ladd.He once said "Spencer Tracy was an actor's actor. Everybody thought he was great. Marlon Brando is an actor's actor -- or was. Richard Burton also. I don't try to be cruel, but Alan Ladd was not an actor's actor. But he was a very successful film star."

*Even though he was quoted as saying he didn't like any of his movies, he does say in his autobiography, "Sparks Fly Upwards", that Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948) was one of the movies he starred in that he did like.