Montgomery Clift on the set of Red River,' California, 1948. For more of our favorite LIFE Legends, check out: (📷 JR Eyerman/LIFE Pict. Coll.)
Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly waited backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre during the 28th Annual Academy Awards, 1956.Hollywood Spectacular: From LIFE’s Great Chronicler, Allan GrantAllan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/ShutterstockAs a boy, Allan Grant dreamed of becoming an aeronautical engineer. When his career path took a different route, the flying industry’s loss became the photography world’s and, specifically, LIFE magazine’s gain.
A LIFE staffer from 1947 until the late 1960s, Grant covered the entertainment world from the inside. His unique blend of cool appraisal and obvious affection for of his subjects went a long way toward making the stars seem just as quirky and approachable as the rest of us mortals. That he did. While particularly known for his winning portraits of showbiz royalty as the pictures in this gallery demonstrate when called upon Grant was a perfectly adept chronicler of harder news. His portraits of Marina Oswald made shortly after her husband shot President Kennedy, for example, captured a personal side of that epic, era-defining story that few other media outlets could touch.