Carol Grace

Carol Grace (September 11, 1924 – July 20, 2003) was an American actress and author born on the Lower East Side of New York City. Her mother, Rosheen, was a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York on August 20, 1913, and was sixteen years old when Grace was born. Grace never knew her biological father, though her mother reportedly claimed the father was actor Leslie Howard, who died during World War II. Grace spent her early years in foster care until the age of eight. In 1933, Rosheen married Charles Marcus, the wealthy co-founder of the Bendix Corporation and a man two decades her senior, after which the family relocated to Park Avenue and lived with servants. Grace took Marcus's surname as her own. Two years into the marriage, Charles Marcus discovered that Rosheen had concealed the existence of another daughter, Elinor, who had remained in foster care at the time of the wedding.

Grace built a Broadway career that spanned from 1942 to 1961. Her earliest credited stage work came in 1942 with Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning and Talking to You. She subsequently appeared in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Time of Your Life, both in 1955, followed by The Square Root of Wonderful in 1957 and The Cold Wind and the Warm in 1958. Her final Broadway credit was Once There Was a Russian in 1961. Grace also claimed to have been the inspiration for the Holly Golightly character in Truman Capote's novella Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Beyond the stage, Grace was a published author. In 1955, Random House released her novella The Secret in the Daisy, which drew on her experiences as a foster child. She followed that work with a memoir, Among the Porcupines, published in 1992.

Grace was twice married to Pulitzer Prize–winning writer William Saroyan, first from 1943 to 1949 and again from 1951 to 1952. She later stated that he was abusive. Together they had two children: Aram Saroyan, a writer with an international profile, and actress Lucy Saroyan, who died in 2003, three months before her mother. On August 21, 1959, Grace married actor Walter Matthau, who had recently divorced his previous wife. Matthau later said that his admiration for Among the Porcupines led him to seek out its author, whom he then married. The two remained together until Matthau's death on July 1, 2000, and had one son, Charles. Grace died on July 20, 2003.