Betsy Drake (born September 11, 1923) is an American actress and writer. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant.

Biography

In July 1956, Drake survived the sinking of the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria. At the time, she had been visiting Grant in Spain and was returning to the United States. She boarded the Doria, along with dozens of other wealthy travelers and tourists,at Gibraltar, which was one of many stops the ship made between her home port of Genoa and her final destination of New York. She sailed as a first-class passenger, occupying a single cabin on the ship's boat deck. When the Doria collided with the Stockholm, Drake waited with the other passengers for rescue, as the ship's severe list rendered half the Doria's lifeboats useless. She was among more than 700 people rescued from the Doria by the famed French passenger liner Ile de France.

Drake wrote the original script for the film Houseboat (1958), starring her husband Cary Grant, who originally intended that she would star with him. However, after Grant began an affair with Sophia Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion (1957), Grant arranged for Loren to take Drake's place in Houseboat, with a rewritten script for which Drake did not receive credit. The affair ended in bitterness before The Pride and the Passion‍ '​s filming ended, causing problems on the Houseboat set.

Grant and Drake separated in 1958, remaining friends, and divorced in 1962. Their marriage constituted his longest union. Grant credited her with broadening his interests beyond his career and with introducing him to the then-legal LSD therapy, which he claimed helped him finally to achieve a degree of mental peace. Later, Drake took LSD as a way of recovering from the trauma of divorce. Drake had no children with Grant.