Farley Granger
American actor
Died when: 85 years 269 days (1028 months)Star Sign: Cancer
Farley Earle Granger Jr. (July 1, 1925 – March 27, 2011) was an American actor, best known for his two collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock: Rope in 1948 and Strangers on a Train in 1951.
Granger was first noticed in a small stage production in Hollywood by a Goldwyn casting director, and given a significant role in The North Star (1943), a controversial film praising the Soviet Union at the height of World War II, but later condemned for its political bias.
Another war film, The Purple Heart (1944), followed, before Granger's naval service in Honolulu, in a unit that arranged troop entertainment in the Pacific.
Here he made useful contacts, including Bob Hope, Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth.It was also where he began exploring his bisexuality, which he said he never felt any need to conceal.
His role in Hitchcock's Rope, a fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb murder case of 1924, earned him much critical praise though the film got mixed reviews.
Hitchcock then cast him again in Strangers on a Train, as a tennis star drawn into a double murder plot by a wealthy psychopath, played by Robert Walker.
Granger would describe this as his happiest film-making experience, and was deeply saddened by Walker's death shortly after shooting.Granger continued to appear on stage, film and television well into his 70s.
His work ranged from classical drama on Broadway to several Italian-language films and major documentaries about Hollywood.He tended to find fault with his directors and scriptwriters, however, and his career remains defined by the two Hitchcock films.
