BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONALITY OF A FAMOUS GEMINI: PRINCE RAINIER III

Prince of Monaco (1949–2005), born in Monaco, a descendant of the Genoese House of Grimaldi. He attended school in Britain and Switzerland, and later studied at the French University of Montpellier and the Institut d'études politiques de Paris. He served in the First French Army and received the Croix de Guerre (1945) and the Legion of Honour (1947). In 1956 he married US film actress Grace Kelly. They had two daughters, Princess Caroline Louise Marguerite (1957– ) and Princess Stephanie Marie Elisabeth (1965– ), and a son, Prince Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre (1958– ). Previous to 2002, the principality would have become part of France in the absence of a male heir but Rainier had the law changed so that, in the event of Albert remaining childless, Caroline and Stephanie and their children can succeed their brother, who acted as regent during his father's last days.