Cary Grant Dropped Acid, In Controversial Therapy, To Deal With Personal Struggles

Cary Grant was coerced into dropping acid as part of a controversial therapy, to get over his issues with women: Actor dropped LSD 100 times because he struggled to 'connect' with females and had a fraught relationship with his mother According to a new Showtime documentary, the actor was distraught over his inability to form relationships with women as well as the distant relationship he had with his mother. In Becoming Cary Grant, filmmakers detail how the Hollywood star, who failed to achieve inner peace with hypnosis and yoga, claimed to find it with LSD. Actor Cary Grant was introduced to Dr. Mortimer Hartman by wife Betsy Drake Hartman was prescribing LSD, which his wife took 'to cure herself of alcoholism' Grant submitted to 100 LSD therapy sessions over the course of three years He praised the drug in numerous interviews, saying: 'At last I am close to happiness' The therapy sessions were to treat his 'lack of connection' with women and anxious relationship with his mother At age nine, Grant's mother disappeared; the actor learned 20 years later that his father had committed her to a psychiatric hospital Click "NEXT" to learn about the shambles of Cary Grant's life Grant's personal life was said to be in shambles. Two early marriages had ended in divorce and he allegedly frustrated by his inability to connect with women. That's when his third wife, Betsy Drake, introduced him to Dr. Mortimer Hartman, a physician in Beverly Hills, California, who was prescribing LSD. Drake 'took LSD to cure herself of alcoholism,' according to filmmaker Mark Kidel, and Hartman was able to obtain the tablets, still legal until 1966, directly from a Swiss pharmaceutical company. Grant referred to Dr. Hartman as 'my wise Mahatma' and didn't keep the LSD sessions a secret. He proclaimed their value to women's magazines, such as Good Housekeeping (Grant pictured left with Marilyn Monroe in 1952 on the set of Monkey Business, and right with wife Betsy Drake in unknown year) (Source: Daily Mail) The LSD therapy didn't completely cure him of his' lack of connection' with women - Grant married two more women after Drake (actress Dyan Cannon and PR agent Barbara Harris) but, when he died in 1986 after a massive stroke, he left $10,000 to Dr. Hartman in his will. Grant told Look magazine of LSD in 1959: 'I learned to accept the responsibility for my own actions and to blame myself and no one else for circumstances of my own creating. At last, I am close to happiness.' Read the Full Story on: How Cary Grant Dropped Acid 100 Times (SOURCE: DAILY MAIL UK) Movie director Mark Kidel told The Guardian: 'He claimed he was saved by LSD (Daily Mail) Click "NEXT" to see the trailer for 'Becoming Cary Grant' The premiere of 'Becoming Cary Grant' is on Friday, June 9th at 9 PM ET/PT on Showtime. Click "NEXT" to see more of Cary Grant's history Cary Grant: The Leading Man (The Hollywood Collection) Cary Grant was the very essence of a movie star – a man every woman loved and every man wanted to be. His deft comic style merged easily with his strength as a romantic leading man. The actor’s suave exterior, however, concealed a complex and often sensitive individual. Cary’s painful journey from his lonely working-class beginnings to the peak of Hollywood royalty is made vivid through family photos, archival footage, clips from many of his films — including his first, following his discovery by blonde bombshell Mae West, a starring role in She Done Him Wrong. Other movies include His Girl Friday, Notorious, An Affair To Remember, To Catch A Thief, North By Northwest, Charade, and more. Among friends and colleagues interviewed on-screen are Leslie Caron, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, Deborah Kerr, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Bellamy, Stanley Donen, Richard Brooks and Stanley Kramer. Narrated by Richard Kiley. READ FULL STORY: How Cary Grant took acid to get over his issues with women: Actor dropped LSD 100 times because he struggled to 'connect' with females and had a fraught relationship with his mother RELATED READS: How A Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood By Storm Old Hollywood’s Dirty Secrets Forgotten Hollywood Scandals The Hollywood Walk Of Fame The Secrets Behind The Life Of A Legendary Hotshot

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