Grace Kelly’s Incredible Life from Old Hollywood Star to Princess

Grace starred as Princess Alexandra in the 1956 romantic drama The Swan, playing a young royal whose family pressures her toward a suitable marriage. By the time audiences saw the movie, Grace herself was preparing to marry Prince Rainier and enter a real European royal family.

MGM took advantage of the extraordinary timing by releasing the film amid worldwide excitement over the approaching wedding. The overlap between Grace’s fictional and real lives made the movie especially fascinating to audiences. Yet one more major film still remained, and it would reunite her with a man who had once asked her to marry him.