Grace Kelly, 40 years ago the death of an icon

On September 14, 1982, the star Grace Kelly passed away in the firmament of the cinema, the evocative name of her elegance of which she has been an icon for an entire generation. Her life was broken by a car accident at the age of 52, but capable of leaving an indelible mark in the history of cinema with cult films such as ‘Mezzogiorno di Fuoco’ and an Oscar for best actress in the film ‘The country girl’ by George Seaton, and in the history of the Principality of Monaco: from her wedding with Prince Rainier III, in fact, Carolina, Stephanie and Albert, current Prince of Monaco. She was born on November 12, 1929 in Philadelphia, her third of four children, after graduating from high school, she moved to New York to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Here she participated in several television and theater productions and, after a small part in the film ’14esima Ora’ (1951) by director Henry Hataway, here she is the protagonist of the legendary ‘High Noon’ together with Gary Cooper: he, sheriff of the town of Hadleyville , in the New Mexico Territory, grappling with dangerous outlaws; she, his young wife. But her most important contract came after her, with the production company MGM, for the film ‘Mogambo’ (1953) with Clark Gable. And it is at that point that Hitchcock noticed her, entrusting her with the role of the protagonist of her in ‘Crime Perfect’ which was then followed by ‘The window on the courtyard’ and ‘To Catch a Thief’. In that same period, the Oscar time as best actress for the interpretation of her in ‘La ragazza di Campagna’, anticipated in the introduction, has struck. But it is ‘To Catch a Thief’ that ignited the spark that changed her life. Set on the Côte d’Azur, the film was the occasion to meet her future husband, Prince Rainier of Monaco, and during that same period Grace Kelly shot her latest film, ‘High Society’ with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. and she married Prince Rainier, dedicating herself from that moment on only to the family, all the more so with the arrival of three children, almost one after the other. A story, that of Grace Kelly, which has fascinated the whole world and which ended with pain and deep sadness on September 14, 1982 after Grace’s car, with her daughter Stephanie on board – who managed to save herself – flew 40 meters on the road that connects Monaco to La Turbie, crashing into the parking lot of a villa.