Hollywood princess Grace Kelly (1929-1982)

Grace Kelly gave up her promising acting career for the love of a prince. 

Grace Kelly's wedding with Rainier of Monaco became the wedding of the century, she was on the cover of gossip magazines around the world and gave a spectacular boost to the image and tourism, and therefore to the economy, of the small principality. But what started as a fairy tale ended in a tragedy that continues to raise controversy today. Grace Kelly died after suffering a car accident in which she was traveling with her young daughter Estefania. 

Speculation about who was driving the vehicle, Grace or her daughter, has not ceased since then. The only certainty is that Monaco lost her princess, just as Hollywood had lost her years before.

Grace Patricia Kelly was born on November 12, 1929, in Philadelphia, into a wealthy Catholic family of Irish origin. Her mother, of German origin, was called Margaret Katherine Majer. Her father, businessman John Brendan Kelly, was also a well-known athlete who won several Olympic medals in rowing.

From a very young age, Grace, the third of four siblings, felt an inclination for the world of acting, something that her parents did not approve of. Despite his opposition, Grace went to New York in search of her dream and, as a first step, managed to enter the American Academy of Dramatic Art in 1947. Her Broadway debut did not take long to wait, it was in 1949, with the play The Father. After her first theatrical appearances, Grace participated in some television spots but soon after she decided to travel further, to Los Angeles, to try her luck in the movies.

In 1951 Grace Kelly jumped to the big screen with Fourteen Hours, her first film, and just a year later she got her first leading role in the western Alone in Danger in which she shared a cast with Gary Cooper.

She had just begun a promising film career that she continued with the seductive Mogambo, shot in 1953 alongside Clark Gable and Ava Gardner and which earned her her first Oscar nomination as a supporting actress. Grace Kelly became one of the main muses of film director Alfred Hitchcock, starring in some of his classics.

In 1955, her short and splendid career, she won an Oscar for The Anguish of Living and was one of the most desired actresses in Hollywood, Grace Kelly's life would take a radical turn. At that time, the young actress had moved to Monaco to shoot with Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief. In the small principality, her prince fell in love with Grace. Raniero de Monaco began a discreet approach towards her young woman, whom he visited on several occasions, until he achieved her goal, to take her to the altar.

But life was not going to be that simple. Grace had a difficult decision to make. Her role as Princess of Monaco was not at all compatible with her artistic side. So, she gave it all up for a prince and a crown.

On April 16, 1956, Raniero and Grace were married in a civil ceremony in the Throne Room of the Palace of Monaco. Days later, on the 19th of that same month, they were married in a pompous religious ceremony in the Cathedral of the principality. What was long considered the wedding of the century turned actress Grace Kelly into the elegant Princess Grace of Monaco.

Gracia then began a different life, dedicated to official events and her family, which grew as the years went by. The couple had three children, Carolina, Alberto, and Estefanía.

Turned into the queen of glamor and elegance, Gracia made the small Monegasque principality fashionable. Everyone in European high society wanted to rub shoulders and imitate that American who had lived a fairy tale.

But that story would not have a happy ending. On September 13, 1982, Grace of Monaco suffered a fatal accident on a highway near Monaco. Cruelties of fate, that place had been the scene of her last film. The next day she passed away at just fifty-three years old, leaving her husband and her children plunged into a sadness that they could never overcome.

Along with her, Gracia was her youngest daughter, Princess Estefania, who was suspected for a long time of having been the real driver of the car in which she was traveling with her mother. A mystery that to this day has not yet been revealed.

The death of Grace of Monaco was a terrible misfortune that shocked the world. Her premature disappearance made her a myth and a symbol of elegance forever.