Carol Grace (September 11, 1924 – July 20, 2003) was an American actress and author. She is often referred to as Carol Marcus Saroyan or Carol Matthau.

Biography

Carol Grace was born in New York City's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

; her mother, who was sixteen when she gave birth, was a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York on August 20, 1913. Her parents arrived later. Grace never knew her biological father. Her mother, Rosheen "Ray" Marcus ( Brofman, formerly Shapiro), reportedly claimed it was actor

Leslie Howard Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director, producer and writer.Obituary, '' Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and '' Vanity Fair'' an ...

, who was killed during WWII. Young Carol was placed in foster care until the age of eight. In 1933, her mother married her second husband, Charles Marcus, who was some two decades Rosheen's senior. He was the wealthy co-founder of the

Bendix Corporation Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company founded in 1924 and subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse since 2002. During various times in its existence, Bendix made automotive brake shoes and systems, vacuum tubes, aircraft ...

. Grace took his last name as her own. They lived on Park Avenue in luxury, with servants. Two years after their wedding he learned that Rosheen was hiding the existence of another daughter, Elinor, who had been left in a foster home when they married.Obituary
guardian.co.uk, August 11, 2004; accessed August 17, 2015.
July 27, 2003; accessed June 8, 2017. Grace claimed to be the inspiration for the Holly Golightly character in

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...

's novella '' Breakfast at Tiffany's''. She had a wide social circle and was known for her wit and good company. Her Broadway credits include ''Once There Was a Russian'' (1961), ''The Cold Wind and the Warm'' (1958), ''The Square Root of Wonderful'' (1957), ''Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' (1955), ''The Time of Your Life'' (1955), and ''Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning and Talking to You'' (1942). She was twice married to

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

–winning writer

William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...

over an eight-year period.(1943–1949 and 1951–1952). She later stated that he was abusive. The couple had two children: Aram Saroyan, an internationally known writer, and actress

Lucy Saroyan Lucy Saroyan (January 17, 1946 – April 11, 2003) was an American actress and photographer. Life and career Saroyan was born in San Francisco, California, the daughter of the writer William Saroyan and the actress Carol Grace. Her brothe ...

(who died in 2003, pre-deceasing her mother by three months). She married recently-divorced actor

Walter Matthau Walter John Matthau ( Matthow; ; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, known for his "hangdog face" and for playing world-weary characters. He starred in 10 films alongside his real-life friend Jack Lemmon, including '' The Od ...

on August 21, 1959. The couple remained married until his death on July 1, 2000; they had one son,

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...

.Obituary
''The New York Times'', July 24, 2003; accessed August 17, 2015. In 1955,

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

published her novella based on her experiences as a foster child, ''The Secret in the Daisy''. In 1992, she published a memoir, ''Among the Porcupines''. Walter Matthau later said that he loved the book so much that he searched for the author and then married her.Gordon and Patricia Sabine, Books that Made a Difference (1983), p. 4-5

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grace, Carol 1924 births 2003 deaths Actresses from Manhattan Jewish American actresses American people of Russian-Jewish descent American film actresses 20th-century American novelists Deaths from intracranial aneurysm Writers from New York City Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery 20th-century American memoirists American women novelists American women memoirists 20th-century American women writers Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women