Betsy Drake – star of over a dozen films and third wife of screen icon Cary Grant – has passed away at the age of 92.
Reports indicate that Drake died at her home in London on October 27, but news of her passing just became public last night.
Though her acting career was short-lived, Drake’s life was the stuff of Hollywood lore, and her marriage to Grant (the longest of his five unions) made her a household name for fans of celebrity gossip in the 1950s.
Of course, Drake was far more than just a Hollywood housewife.
After quitting acting, Drake turned to writing, but the manuscript for her first novel was lost at sea (along with $ 200,000 worth of jewelry) when she survived the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria in 1956.
Drake went on to study at Harvard and the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute.
Along with Grant (with whom she remained close friends throughout her life), Drake was an early proponent of the psychological benefits of LSD.
At the time, the drug was still legal, and she and Grant introduced several friends to hallucinogens long before they became popular in the mid-60s.
Drake was ahead of her time in many other ways, as well.
Though she gave her up her career to dote on Grant, she later became something of proto-feminist, often commenting on modern marriage and the state of women in the film business in ways that shocked the old guard.
“The freedom to eat rare meat, drink red wine and not watch television made up for the agony of divorce,” she once remarked in an interview.
Drake never remarried, and friends say she spent her final years writing poetry, painting, and riding her beloved bicycle.
