Long before either man’s name was etched into Hollywood history, Orry‑Kelly—born Orry George Kelly in 1897—shared a Greenwich Village apartment in New York with Charles Phelps (Charlie Spangles) and a young Archie Leach, later known to the world as Cary Grant. In his memoirs Kelly plainly states that he and Grant had an on‑again, off‑again sexual relationship that endured into the 1930s. The revelation is more than gossip; it illuminates the twin pressures of desire and career in the studio era—two men who would become central figures in Hollywood keeping a private life that could have destroyed them professionally if exposed. The relationship was made public only decades later through Kelly’s recovered memoir Women I’ve Undressed (published 2015) and Gillian Armstrong’s documentary Women He’s Undressed (2015), forcing historians and fans to reassess how queer intimacies were managed, erased, or whispered about in Golden Age Tinseltown. The story underscores a broader pattern of secrecy and enforced privacy that shaped careers and personal lives across the industry.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1930s
A Hidden Romance in Greenwich Village: Orry‑Kelly’s On‑Again, Off‑Again Relationship with Cary Grant
Orry‑Kelly & Cary Grant / 1930s
Long before either man’s name was etched into Hollywood history, Orry‑Kelly—born Orry George Kelly in 1897—shared a Greenwich Village apartment in New York with Charles Phelps (Charlie Spangles) and a young Archie Leach, later known to the world as Cary Grant. In his memoirs Kelly plainly states that he and Grant had an on‑again, off‑again sexual relationship that endured into the 1930s. The revelation is more than gossip; it illuminates the twin pressures of desire and career in the studio era—two men who would become central figures in Hollywood keeping a private life that could have destroyed them professionally if exposed. The relationship was made public only decades later through Kelly’s recovered memoir Women I’ve Undressed (published 2015) and Gillian Armstrong’s documentary Women He’s Undressed (2015), forcing historians and fans to reassess how queer intimacies were managed, erased, or whispered about in Golden Age Tinseltown. The story underscores a broader pattern of secrecy and enforced privacy that shaped careers and personal lives across the industry.
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