Cary Grant, haunted idol

Cary Grant, haunted idol is a biography of Cary Grant by Geoffrey Wansell, first published in 1983, according to its Open Library record. The catalog facts name Quill as the publisher. Open Library files the book under biography, actors, and motion picture actors and actresses, and under Grant’s own name with the dates 1904-1986.

Among the Grant biographies in the same catalog, only Lionel Godfrey’s Cary Grant (1981, Hale) carries an earlier date. Two others are dated 1983: Richard Schickel’s Cary Grant: a celebration (Pavilion in association with Michael Joseph) and William Currie McIntosh’s The private Cary Grant (Sidgwick and Jackson). The remaining eleven are later, ending with Scott Eyman’s Cary Grant (2020, Cengage Gale).

For fans

The edition record

Open Library describes a 1992 edition from Quill, William Morrow & Co, at 336 pages. The Google Books record gives the same year and page count, and it names William Morrow & Company as publisher. The two differ on the title: Google Books prints it as Haunted Idol: The Story of the Real Cary Grant.

Wansell’s other Grant titles

The catalog lists two more Grant books under Wansell’s name: Cary Grant (1984, Fontana) and Cary Grant, dark angel (1996, Arcade Pub.). The catalog does not say how these three titles relate to one another, and it lists all of them as biographies.

Wansell in Wikipedia

Wikipedia’s article on Cary Grant cites Wansell by name several times and calls him a biographer. It reports his account that Grant’s mother held herself responsible for the death of her son John and did not get over it. It gives his claim that Grant deliberately got himself expelled from school to pursue entertainment with the Pender troupe. It also quotes him on Grant’s ability to “question his own image” with a raised eyebrow or a slight smile, and reports his view that Grant worked hard to conceal a darker side of his private life.