By Stephanie Nolasco

Cary Grant found fame as one of Hollywood's most sought-after leading men, but behind closed doors, the dashing actor struggled with his shocking past.

When the late British actor, born Archibald Leach, was a young boy, his father Elias committed his mother Elsie to an asylum for depression - and let him believe she had died. Grant would not discover the truth until his 30s.

"Archie" ultimately ran away from home to escape his impoverished childhood and joined the Bob Pender troupe, a group of acrobats. With them he sang, juggled, danced and traveled to the United States in 1920.

Grant liked his time in America and supported himself with jobs, such as selling painted neckties and working in a vaudeville mind-reading act. The newspaper added he returned to Britain in 1923 and played several parts in musical comedies. His acting career would flourish from the stage to the big screen.

His fifth wife, Barbara Jaynes, recently told Closer Weekly in the magazine's latest issue that Grant wouldn't find true happiness after later on in life - and stardom had nothing to do with it.

"Most of the people who truly knew him commented on the fact that he was a much happier person in the later part of his life," said the 68-year-old. "Once he realized how much I loved him, I could not have ever wished for a more loving husband."

Grant himself once described the incident involving his beloved mother as "a void in my life, a sadness of spirit that affected each daily activity with which I occupied myself to overcome it."

At age 58, Grant revealed in Ladies Home Journal: "I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant; unsure of either, suspecting each. Only recently have I begun to unify them into one person: the man and boy in me, the mother and father… the hate and the love."

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