Bristol remembers its Hollywood legend

It's an unwrap: actor's statue makes its debut

Hollywood legend Cary Grant takes up a long-standing engagement in his home city of Bristol on Friday - with the unveiling of a new statue.

His widow, Barbara Jaynes, has been invited to Bristol to perform the ceremony.

Children from Bishop Road Primary School, where the actor was a pupil, have also been given a starring role, singing Christmas carols.

The city is also celebrating its famous son with a weekend of movie nostalgia at the city's Imax cinema, in the @Bristol complex.

Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol

Scheduled screenings include his classic North by Northwest.

Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in the city's Horfield suburb, in 1904.

He first experienced the lure of the theatre while working backstage as a teenager at Bristol Hippodrome.

The statue has been placed close to the theatre, in Millennium Square.

The original plan was to position it outside @Bristol in September, but a water main was discovered under the chosen location.

Comic casting

Organisers of the statue tribute hope to be able to move it there in the future.

Supporters on both sides of the Atlantic raised £60,000 to commission the statue from Yorkshire sculptor Graham Ibbeson, from Barnsley.

He has previously sculpted comedian Eric Morecambe.

Fans raised £60,000 for the statue

The tribute was masterminded by David Long, who moved to Bristol and was amazed the city did little to commemorate the star of such classics as An Affair to Remember and To Catch a Thief.

Grant was recently voted the second greatest film actor of all time by the American Film Institute.

He arrived in Hollywood 70 years ago, after a run on Broadway in an English acrobatic troupe.

It was a time when young stars were being groomed by the large studios.

Sir John Mills, a contemporary of Grant, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Cary was absolutely right to go to Hollywood.

"At that time they were grooming actors like Cary for stardom and all the big studios had young actors like Cary on contracts.

"He was absolutely cut out for it. He was good-looking and was a very funny light comedian."

Grant became a regular visitor to Bristol after discovering that his mother was not dead, as he was told during childhood, but had been living in an institution.

He bought her a house in the suburb of Westbury-on-Trym.

He continued to visit the city until his death in 1986.