Everyone knows Cary Grant as the coolest guy in old Hollywood. You think of him outrunning a crop-duster in ‘North by Northwest’ or trading jokes with Katharine Hepburn. He was pure suave. But back in 1954, one role scared him so much that he didn’t just decline; he ran.
The movie was ‘A Star Is Born‘, a musical drama with Judy Garland. The director, George Cukor, really wanted Grant for the lead. Cukor had worked with Grant three times before and thought he was perfect. He even read the whole script out loud to Grant, trying to convince him that playing Norman Maine, a movie star who drinks too much and falls apart while his wife becomes famous, would give him “a whole new dimension.”
Warner Bros. said yes to every money demand Grant made, but Grant asked for a few days to think it over and finally said no.
Cary Grant’s Fear of Judy Garland and Her Reputation
So why did the star of ‘Bringing Up Baby‘ back out? Part of it was his own fears. Even though he looked so confident, Grant always worried he wasn’t good enough. He had already turned down ‘Roman Holiday’ and ‘Sabrina‘ for the same reason. Later, he would say no to ‘My Fair Lady‘, insisting that Rex Harrison “deserved it more.“
Related: Why Cary Grant Refused to Work With Billy Wilder Despite Their Close Friendship
But Judy Garland was different. Cukor later said Grant was just scared of how talented Garland was. Everyone knew ‘A Star Is Born‘ was supposed to be her big comeback after four years away from movies. Grant worried the movie would not be balanced between them. One critic at the time put it bluntly: “This was Garland’s movie and he knew it.“
Cukor was disappointed. “He was too careful, too fearful to take a chance,” the director later said. Cukor thought Grant just did not have the nerve or the training to play such a raw, sad role. “Whatever it was, this robbed him of the position he really wanted,” Cukor added. He believed the part would have finally won Grant the competitive Oscar that always got away from him.
There was also a practical reason. In the early 1950s, Garland was a miracle waiting to happen, but she was also late all the time, nervous, and taking a lot of pills. Grant was very careful about his image. He did not want to deal with the chaos that followed Garland. And as it turned out, the making of the movie was famously difficult.
Cary Grant Never Won a Competitive Oscar and Always Regretted It
Once Grant said no, Cukor looked at Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra, but Jack Warner turned them down. The part went to James Mason, an actor Grant once called “too heavy.”
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That turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Mason. He played Norman Maine with a sad, thoughtful dignity and got the only Oscar nomination of his whole career. (He lost to Brando in On the Waterfront.)
As for Grant, he stayed a big box office star but never won a competitive Academy Award. They gave him an honorary one in 1970, but Cukor thought it was just a consolation prize. “Had he played in A Star Is Born, he would have had the Academy Award,” Cukor said. “Years later, they gave him an honorary one, but it wasn’t the same thing.”
It is one of Hollywood’s great ghost stories. The most handsome man in the world looked in the mirror, saw someone afraid of being outshone, and walked away from a masterpiece.
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