Grace Kelly, princess of Monaco, would have been 80 today.

A more beautiful woman has hardly been her equal during this time.

No rags-to-riches poor little girl to princess story for her, her life is the stuff of fairytales.  Grace grew up on the Mainline of Philadelphia to affluent, glamorous and good-looking parents who moved in toney, socially-aspiring circles.  Her father Jack, a self-made millionaire, and her brother Kell were both medal winning athletes in the Olympics. Money, private school educations, rowing–well, it makes poor Betty Draper in ‘Mad Men‘ just a Grace-wannabe compared to Hollywood’s first and only real-life princess.

Grace’s beauty lead her initialling into modelling- the photographer’s lens casting her squarely in the director’s camera sights for Hollywood films and television roles, and she was acting by the time she was 18.  She also had an active theatre career.

Paired with nearly every handsome leading man of her day, Grace starred at times with Cary Grant, James Stewart and Clark Gable. Alfred Hitchcock, charmed by her on-screen blonde virginal looks, featured her in 3 of his now-classic films, ‘Rear Window’, ‘Dial M for Murder‘ and ‘To Catch a Thief’.  She later went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1954 for ‘The Country Girl’ paired with Bing Crosby as his long-suffering wife.

In 1956, at the height of her film popularity, aged 26, she ‘retired’ from the movie set and engaged and married a prince, Rainier, becoming Her Serene Highness of Monaco.  She produced 3 children, and from this point onwards, withdrew from the world of films and involved herself in philanthropic and cultural endeavors in Monaco, always retaining her US citizenship.

Dying suddenly of a stroke at age 53, Grace Kelly remained a beautiful woman, a style-setter and social trendsetter, wooed and mourned by her fans the world over.

For her peerless beauty on camera Grace Kelly will always be simply amazing.

.