The most influential actor in cinema history, according to Cary Grant: “He affected all of us”
Having spent four decades as one of ‘Golden Age’ Hollywood’s biggest stars, during which time he worked with an array of names who’d secure legendary status, Cary Grant was more qualified than most to pass judgment on which one of his fellow actors left behind the biggest legacy for those who followed.
When he first broke through in the 1930s, the likes of Errol Flynn, Paul Muni, and Greta Garbo were viewed as the best in the business. By the time Grant retired in the mid-1960s, that distinction belonged to stars like Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and Paul Newman.
Even in the final years of his life before his passing in 1986, the performers touted as the cream of the crop and the ones who sold the most tickets included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, and Harrison Ford, so it would be fair to say Grant lived through several periods of major evolution and upheaval within the industry, and he was knee-deep in most of them.
As an actor, he could pretty much do it all. Whether it was screwball comedies, star-crossed romances, riveting thrillers, or hard-hitting drama, Grant turned his hand to many different facets of his craft and mastered them all. He’s undoubtedly one of Hollywood’s most indelible figures, but it’s a stretch to call him among the most influential.
Whenever the conversation turns to trying to name one actor who left behind the biggest legacy that inspired the largest number of pretenders to the throne, it’s usually Brando who comes out on top. It’s not without merit either, with a clear distinction in screen acting before and after he transformed the art form with a groundbreaking approach everyone has wanted to emulate ever since.
However, although he was still working when A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront ushered in the Brando era, Grant didn’t think he was the most influential he’d ever seen. Instead, he was adamant that it belonged to one of his close friends, who may not immediately jump out as someone who single-handedly changed acting forever.
And yet, as far as Grant was concerned, James Stewart broke more new ground than Brando. “I think the reason Jimmy stood out from the other actors was that he had the ability to talk naturally,” he told Greg Joseph. “He knew that in conversation, people do often interrupt one another and that it’s not always so easy to get a thought out.”
It’s an interesting point and not an entirely invalid one. Stewart’s signature cadence and line delivery felt more authentic than his contemporaries because he intentionally tripped, stumbled, and overran his lines when, in a lot of cases, movies from the period were always more stagey and deliberate, constantly reminding the audience that they were watching people recite lines from a script.
“It took a little while for the sound men to get used to him, but he had an enormous impact,” Grant mischievously explained. “Some years later, Marlon Brando came out and did the same things all over again. But what people forget is that Jimmy did it first. And he affected all of us, really.”
Few people will have ever spoken the sentence, ‘Jimmy Stewart walked so that Marlon Brando could run’, but Grant did to a certain extent, and he was completely convinced that the latter wasn’t doing anything his old pal hadn’t already done before.
