Farley Granger

Farley Granger

Farley Earle Granger Jr. (July 1, 1925 – March 27, 2011) was an American actor, best known for his two collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock: Rope in 1948 and Strangers on a Train in 1951. Granger was first noticed in a small stage production in Hollywood by a Goldwyn casting director, and given a significant role in The North Star, a controversial film praising the Soviet Union at the height of World War II, but later condemned for its political bias. Another war film, The Purple Heart, followed, before Granger's naval service in Honolulu, in a unit that arranged troop entertainment in the Pacific. Here he made useful contacts, including Bob Hope, Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth. It was also where he began exploring his bisexuality, which he said he never felt any need to conceal. In 1948, Hitchcock cast him in Rope, a fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb murder case, which earned mixed reviews, but much critical praise for Granger. Hitchcock then cast him again in Strangers on a Train, as a tennis star drawn into a double murder plot by a wealthy psychopath, played by Robert Walker. Granger would describe this as his happiest film-making experience, and was deeply saddened by Walker's death shortly after shooting.

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