Farley Granger, born in San Jose, California, as Farley Earle II, spent most of his early years onscreen playing darkly handsome but emotionally unstable young men, and while he enjoyed considerable success in those characterizations, his career declined rapidly once he'd reached his 30s.

Granger was barely out of high school-and acting in little theaters around Los Angeles when he was signed by Samuel Goldwyn.

After debuting on-screen as a Russian boy in The North Star (1943), he went on to appear in The Purple Heart (1944), They Live by Night (1947), Enchantment (1948), Side Street (1950), Our Very Own (1950), Behave Yourself! (1952), and other films in the early 1950s.

Alfred Hitchcock recognized Granger's potential, and gave him plum roles in Rope (1948) and Strangers on a Train (1951).

Granger's canny characterizations of personable youths with submerged neuroses made his early career an interesting one, but he eventually drifted out of mainstream Hollywood features into stage and TV work (including the soap operas "As The World Turns" and "One Life to Live") and foreign films.