Grace Kelly’s eyes flash furiously towards her co-star. “I’ll never forgive you, for what you’ve said and done,” she says. “I’m not asking for forgiveness, I want information … what about Frank? What made him go to pieces?” asks Bernie, played by William Holden. The young actress crosses her arms over her plain, colourless dress. She talks about her husband’s frailty, how much she loved him and how he once was a wonderful, glowing man. “And then one day, he was walking with our son,” she says, “he let go of his hand, there was traffic, he looked the other way. The boy was killed.” With tears in her eyes, she talks about wanting to leave her husband as her co-star begs for her to stay with him. When the film is released, it is quickly hailed as “Grace Kelly’s greatest performance”.
“You’ve never seen anything like this” — William Holden
While promoting The Country Girl, William Holden said, “I know you read and heard about our picture and about the wonderful performances given by my co-stars, Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby. You’ve never seen either of them do anything like this before.”
One year later, the gorgeous, 25-year-old Grace Kelly was dressed in a satin gown and pearl-drop earrings as she walked the red carpet at the Academy Awards. Her appearance was worlds away from how she looked when she starred in The Country Girl.
Edith Head, who was in charge of Grace Kelly’s wardrobe, said at the time, “I had to take one of the most beautiful women in the world and make her look plain and drab.” She used brown wool clothes, cardigan sweaters, and low-heeled shoes to make the young actress appear dowdy. But her beauty still shone through.
Bing Crosby asks Grace Kelly to marry him
While filming, Bing Crosby started to fall in love with his co-star and proposed to her a short time after making the film. But Grace Kelly turned him down, preferring to remain friends. Although she enjoyed his company and liked him, she did not feel the same romantic feelings for him that he felt for her.
Winning against Judy Garland
On March 30, 1955, at the 27th Academy Awards, Grace Kelly’s hands were covered in elegant white gloves as she clutched the golden statue. Her acceptance speech was short and sweet. Her image was broadcast, in black and white, to 43 million viewers across the United States.
“The thrill of this moment keeps me from saying what I really feel. I can only say thank you with all my heart to all who made this possible for me,” she said before she walked offstage, to tremendous applause.
Grace Kelly won her first and only Oscar in what was the closest ‘Best Actress’ race in Academy history at the time. A reported 6 votes was all that separated Grace Kelly from winning against the incredible Judy Garland.
“The Year of Grace”
1954 will forever be known as the year of Grace. She had four top-budget films released that year and a fifth already begun. Her photo was on the cover of the April 1954 issue of Life Magazine with the caption ‘Hollywood’s Brightest and Busiest New Star.’
A review from Variety Magazine in 1954 wrote: “Grace Kelly is resolute to the hilt, conveying a certain feminine strength and courage that enable her to endure the hardships of being the boozer’s wife.”
A Broadway Success
Adapted from the 1950 Clifford Odets Broadway play of the same title, The Country Girl tells the tale of a director named Bernie (William Holden) who hires an alcoholic has-been named Frank (Bing Crosby). The director strikes up a stormy relationship with the actor’s wife, Georgie (Grace Kelly) whom he believes is the cause of Frank’s problems.
But in reality, Frank shuns even the smallest of responsibilities, leaving everything to his wife Georgie, who finds it harder and harder to cope with her husband’s lack of spirit. Bernie tries to help Frank regain his self-confidence, before learning that Georgie is not the cause of his insecurities.
“Although the heroic character is inevitably the wife, who fights for her weak and sodden husband with the last store of energy in her weary frame, it is he—the degraded husband—who is the focus of attention here… There is no doubt that Mr. Crosby deserves all the kudos he will get. So does the lovely Miss Kelly, who likewise will get her share of praise for the quality of strain and desperation she puts into the battered, patient wife,” wrote the New York Times in a review of the film, in 1954.
From winning an Oscar to meeting a Prince
The Country Girl didn’t just lead Grace Kelly to an Oscar, it also led her to a Prince. A few months after winning the Oscar, Grace Kelly was invited to the Cannes Film Festival. While travelling on a train through France on her way to Cannes, Grace Kelly was asked by Paris
Match journalist, Pierre Galante, if she would like a spontaneous meeting with the Prince of Monaco. Grace Kelly agreed and the journalist accompanied her to the palace on May 6, 1955.
When the pair met, their chemistry was undeniable and less than a year later, Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly were married during the “wedding of the century”.
Prince Albert II to honour Princess Grace in New York
This year, various cultural institutions and publications have marked the 70th anniversary of Grace Kelly’s Oscar win with retrospective articles and photo displays. But the biggest celebration of this anniversary will be the Princess Grace Awards Gala, which honours the legacy of Princess Grace by supporting emerging artists.
Prince Albert II was travelling to New York City on October 29, 2025, for the Princess Grace Foundation’s black-tie awards evening. The event celebrated the 70th anniversary of Princess Grace’s Oscar win and the Sovereign was presenting the prestigious Prince Rainier III Award to Jon M. Chu. The Prince Rainier III award comes with a grant of $25,000 to the philanthropic organization of the winner’s choice.
In 2001, the Princess Grace Foundation USA awarded a grant to Jon M. Chu, while he was still a student, to help finance his first short film. At 45, the Californian director of Crazy Rich Asians and Wicked is a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Last year, Michael Douglas was presented with the Prince Rainier III Award.
