Graham McCann, one of Cary Grant’s biographers, noted the irony of a man with a working-class background growing up to embody a certain type of privileged, debonair gentleman (per “Cary Grant: A Class Apart”). But success in Hollywood won Grant a fortune comparable to the roles he played. Another biographer, Gary Morecambe, called Grant “one of the shrewdest businessmen ever to operate in Hollywood” in his book “Cary Grant: In Name Only.” By 1946, he averaged $150,000 per picture, over $2.3 million in 2023 when adjusted for inflation.
Grant invested his money well during his heyday, and after retiring from acting, he kept an active hand in finance and business. In 1968, he took a seat on the board of Rayette-Fabergé and remained there for 18 years. Besides serving on the board, Grant acted as an informal ambassador for the firm. Per Geoffrey Wansell’s “Cary Grant: Dark Angel,” some of Grant’s friends got the impression that he considered these business affairs a worthier occupation than his acting career.
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Work and investments may have made Grant a pretty penny in his lifetime, but he wasn’t about to boast of his net worth posthumously. Per UPI, his will was deliberately cagey about the value of his estate. “Should my executors be required to make a statement as to the amount and character of my estate .. that said statement merely show my estate is in excess of $10,000,” he wrote. According to Morecambe, the actual value was about $60 million, around $166 million in 2023 when adjusted for inflation.
