Documentary: Orry-Kelly Dressed Tony Curtis And Was The Lover Of Cary Grant
Director Gillian Armstrong, whose own films have included a pair of my favorites — “My Brilliant Career,” “Little Women” — is planning a cinema documentary on the remarkable life of the Australia-born Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly. Armstrong and writer Katherine Thomson have discovered that Orry-Kelly wrote an unpublished memoir, wittily titled “Women I’ve Undressed,” during the last 10 years of his life. Armstrong says: “The big secret is that when Orry first got to New York and was trying to get his start, painting murals on walls and selling hand-painted ties, he ended up rooming with a young British actor called Archie Leach. They definitely became lovers and were living together for about five years.” After Orry-Kelly’s designing career took off, Leach became as famous in Hollywood as Cary Grant. Grant was one of the pallbearers at Orry-Kelly’s funeral, in 1964. So was Tony Curtis, who is pictured as O-K perfects the actor’s look in “Some Like It Hot.”
