Farley Granger, Screen Idol of the 1950s, Dies at 85

Source: New York Times

Farley Granger, who found quick stardom in films like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train” in the 1940s and ’50s but who then turned aside from Hollywood to pursue stage and television roles, died on Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 85.

A spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner’s office said he died of natural causes.

Mr. Granger’s youthful good looks gave him matinee-idol potential, and he was linked romantically to some of the biggest names of the day, of both sexes. But his passion for stage acting and his discontent with the studio system kept him from reaching the Hollywood superstardom of some of his contemporaries. Though he had scores of television and film credits and made a half-dozen Broadway appearances, his best-known performances were two of his earliest: as a preppie thrill-killer in Hitchcock’s “Rope” in 1948, and as a tennis player wrongly suspected of murder in “Strangers on a Train” in 1951.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/arts/actor-farley-granger-dies-at-85.html?_r=1&src=twrhp

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Granger was one of the few remaining Hitchcock leading men still around (though Bruce Dern from "Family Plot" does come to mind.

My what a life he led and such interesting people he knew.

You must, must MUST do so immediately -- my fave Hitchcock movie.

I never get tired of watching Strangers and Rope

and was friends with Farley Granger. They lost track after she moved back home. I really hate that I'm going to have to tell her about this.

with his hair slicked back,
'I'm a sucker for a fellow in a cowboy hat'..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuwNpB-lrKk