Some moments are beautiful because they are quiet, like the glimpses of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn before they went on stage together at the Oscars. Or the photo of Sammy Davis Jr. eating spaghetti and watching the news on television. Or burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee sitting at a typewriter while in costume before she performs one of her strip-teases.

Or consider the photo of the cast of The Honeymooners all sitting and waiting, Jackie Gleason with his ankle on ice. It’s funny to see the cast of this all-time great sitcom together without a smile on their faces, or any expression at all, really. Each of these photos their own way feels like a glimpse of reality.

Some photos offer curious juxtapositions, such as Johnny Cash, dressed in his trademark black, coming backstage at production of the musical Annie. Same with Frank Zappa and his family posing with the cast of Broadway show Cats. You can also find unexpected couplings, such as Lucille Ball visiting with Shirley Maclaine in her dressing room, or James Dean helping actress Geraldine Page with her hair.

Also intriguing are the images of stars just before they go onstage. This gallery includes shots of Alec Guinness and Albert Finney before they have leapt into character, and singer Paul Anka stretched out across two beds, They are about to cross the bridge from private person to public performer, and give their audiences the performances they came for.

Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre during the 28th Annual Academy Awards, 1956.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Award presenters Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly waiting backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre during the 28th Annual Academy Awards, 1956.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. ate spaghetti in his backstage dressing room while watching The Huntley-Brinkley Report news show in 1964. “My only contact with reality,” he told LIFE. “Whatever I’m doing, I stop to watch these guys.” Reflected in the mirror: LIFE photographer Leonard McCombe.

Leonard McCombe/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Paul Anka, backstage at the Copacabana, 1960.

Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Albert Finney backstage during a production of the play Luther, 1963.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elvis Presley tenderly kissing the cheek of a female admirer backstage before his concert, 1956.

Robert W. Kelley The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ray Charles backstage talking with Eric Burdon and the Animals, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Shirley MacLaine preparing to perform the TV show “Shower of Stars” in 1955.

Loomis Dean The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Shirley MacLaine and Lucille Ball backstage during a benefit show for victims of the devastating Isewan typhoon, 1959.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marcia Diamond (right) watched as her husband Neil clipped their son Jessie’s nails in a dressing room at the Winter Garden Theatre, 1972.

MICHAEL MAUNEY/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee writes in her dressing room in Memphis, Tenn., 1949.

George Skadding/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Bobby Darin in his dressing room, 1959.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman in his dressing room for the play (which he also directed), Jimmy Shine, New York City, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mae West backstage at the Hotel Sahara with one of the co-stars of her Las Vegas show, 1954.

Loomis Dean/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

James Dean with the great Geraldine Page in her dressing room, New York City, 1955.

Dennis Stock—Magnum

Betty Grable, in her dressing room at 20th Century-Fox studios, pulled on black mesh stockings for a scene that would feature her famous legs, 1943.

Walter Sanders The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Josephine Baker’s four-foot chignon is wound up into three tiers of buns in her dressing room, 1951.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Honeymooners cast—Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows and Joyce Andrews—in 1954.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Chorus girls watching the Ed Sullivan television show at the Roxy Movie Theater dressing room, 1958.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness put on theatrical makeup at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada, 1953.

Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy relaxing in dressing room, waiting for show to begin, 1942.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Movie director Vincent Sherman (right) with actor Paul Newman in dressing room reviewing lines for the legal drama The Young Philadelphians, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Johnny Cash, with stepson John (right), posed with Annie star Alison Smith and Sandy at a Broadway production of musical, 1981.

DMI/Shutterstock

(Center, left-to-right) Musician Frank Zappa and children Moon Unit and Dweezil visited backstage at the Broadway musical Cats in 1983; the cast included actress Betty Buckley (center, bottom).

David Mcgough/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Insider’s View: LIFE Goes Backstage with the Stars appeared first on LIFE.

Here, LIFE.com presents photos many of which never ran in LIFE magazine from the moment the couple announced their engagement in January 1956 until they were married three and a half months later in Monaco. In an issue published a few weeks after the wedding, LIFE framed the singular phenomenon for the magazine’s millions of readers:

Largely ignored throughout its long history, the pint-sized principality of Monaco last week enjoyed a beautiful modern recognition. Grace Kelly, daughter of a millionaire former hod carrier [in short, a construction laborer] from Philadelphia and the virtual princess of moviedom’s make-believe world, was getting married there. She was becoming a princess officially by her marriage to Monaco’s Prince Rainier, who holds 139 other titles and is absolute ruler of a 370-acre realm with 20,000 subjects.

Throughout the palpitant anxieties which are the lot of every bride, Miss Kelly was everything the enthusiastic Monegasques could have wished. She had to go through two weddings, separately required by the Napoleonic Code of Monaco and the laws of the Roman Catholic Church. . . . [After the first she assumed the title] Her Serene Highness, Princess Gracia Patricia of Monaco. [During the second] she became a wife indeed when she helped the nervous Prince Rainier settle the ring on her finger.

And so an old-style fairy tale came to its appropriately romantic conclusion, but only after a number of modern day variations and additions had come to pass.

The princess-to-be had barley set foot in Monaco when the principality and much of the rest of Europe were there bearing gifts. The wedding presents ranged from the fabulous to the foolish. Among the more practical was a Rolls-Royce, among the less useful a gold and bone hatchet.

All the loose wealth gathered there acted magnetically on Europe’s thieves. $50,000 worth of jewels swiped from the wife of a pal of Grace’s father . . . $8,000 in gems lifted from the hotel room of one of the bridesmaids.

After their wedding, Monaco’s newlyweds wasted no time starting a family: Nine months and four days later, Grace gave birth to Princess Caroline, their first of three children. The couple was married for 26 years, until the princess’ death in 1982 from injuries sustained in a car accident. The prince, who never remarried and who died in 2005, is buried beside his wife in the Grimaldi family vault, inside the Monaco cathedral where they wed.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier wed, St. Nicholas Cathedral, Monaco, April 19, 1956.

Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier show her engagement ring to her mother and father at the Kelly home in Philadelphia, 1956.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Monaco’s Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly at time of the announcement of their engagement, January 1956.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier arrive at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, the day after announcing their engagement, January 1956.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, the day after announcing their engagement, January 1956.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier dance not long after announcing their engagement, 1956.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Smiling in a brisk March wind and surrounded by photographers and fans, Grace Kelly poses just off of Fifth Avenue in New York, 1956.

Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly takes a momentary breather while packing her things before the wedding, 1956.

Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly inside a New York jewelry store, where she perused possible gifts for her groom.

Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly packing for her trip to Monaco, March 1956.

Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly, March 1956.

Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly and her poodle, Oliver, 1956.

Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly with her mother, Margaret Majer Kelly, before leaving New York for Monaco in March 1956.

Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly (left) and one of her two sisters (either Peggy or Lizanne), New York City, 1956.

Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Seamstresses work on Grace Kelly’s wedding dress and veil, conceived by MGM’s wardrobe designer, Helen Rose, Hollywood, Calif., 1956.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A woman puts the finishing touches on the pearl-studded prayer book for Grace Kelly’s wedding, Hollywood, Calif., 1956.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly leaves a Hollywood studio lot for last time before her marriage, 1956.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly, SS Constitution, 1956

Yale Joel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly, SS Constitution, 1956

Yale Joel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly in Monaco, April 1956.

Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly in Monaco before her wedding, April 1956.

Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier in Monaco, the day before their wedding, April 1956.

Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly ascend the steps of Monaco Palace. Kelly’s dress required 25 yards of silk taffeta, 100 yards of silk net, 125-year-old rose-point lace bought from a museum, and thousands of tiny pearls.

Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier kneel during Mass at their religious wedding, April 1956.

Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly prays before her wedding to Prince Rainier III, April 1956.

Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier join hands as the Bishop of Monaco, Mgr. Gilles Barthe, administers the nuptial benediction at Saint Nicholas Cathedral, April 1956.

Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Wedding ceremony of Prince Rainier III of Monaco to Grace Kelly, April 1956.

Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III, newlyweds, April 1956.

Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III, newlyweds, are whisked away in a Rolls Royce convertible, April 1956.

Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Prince Rainier III and Her Serene Highness, Princess Gracia Patricia of Monaco, April 19, 1956.

Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fireworks light up the sky above Monaco in celebration of the wedding of Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly, April 1956.

Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco, April 1956.

Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post LIFE With Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier: Photos From the ‘Wedding of the Century’ appeared first on LIFE.

But there was, it turns out, a quite deliberate method at the heart of Halsman’s portraiture: in short, shoot men and women differently. The outline of the idea is no doubt familiar to portraitists shooting today although it’s also a very good bet that no one shooting today would phrase his or her modus operandi quite so … plainly.

LIFE once quoted Halsman as saying that, when photographing a woman, “I try to photograph her beauty; with a man I try to show his character. Once I photographed a man with a big nose, and emphasized his nose, and he was very pleased with the picture. That could not happen with a woman. The most intelligent woman will reject a portrait if it doesn’t flatter her. Only once in my whole career did it happen that a blonde asked me, ‘Please make me look intelligent.’ Unfortunately it was impossible.”

Halsman (b. May 2, 1906; d. June 25, 1979) began his long, enormously productive relationship with LIFE in 1942, and eventually shot more than 50 covers for the magazine. Of all the projects, themes, creative ideas and wonderfully revealing pictures Halsman devised and created throughout his long career, he is perhaps best know today for his portraits of rich, famous and often very powerful people jumping. Literally, jumping. And in true, mischievous Halsman style, he managed to make these portraits both mesmerizing and, somehow, significant — pictures that are saved from mere silliness by the evident technical prowess at play in each one.

The exuberant November 9, 1959, cover of LIFE  that featured a laughing, barefoot Marilyn Monroe in midair came out at about the same time as a remarkable tome, Philippe Halsman’s Jump Book, which was filled with these singular, strange and, at times, downright thrilling portraits.

Other notables seen jumping in the book and in the issue of LIFE with Marilyn on the cover? Princess Grace of Monaco, Sophia Loren, Judge Learned Hand, Brigitte Bardot, Vice President Richard Nixon, the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theologian Paul Tillich and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, to name a few.

Why did they do it? Quite simply, because Halsman asked them to. (Only a very few subjects , including Herbert Hoover and the pianist Van Cliburn, ever refused.)

“In a burst of energy the subject overcomes gravity,” Halsman wryly noted of his jumping pictures. “He cannot also control all his muscles. The mask falls. The real self becomes visible, and one needs only to snap it with a camera. I call this jumpology. The time may someday come when psychiatrists will diagnose hidden characteristics not with the slow and painstaking Rorschach test but with the rapid and hurtling Halsman.”

The rapid and hurtling Halsman. A marvelous phrase that, as aptly as any other, captures the quicksilver imagination and the finely harnessed talent that still, all these years later, animate the work of one of the all-time greats.

LIFE Magazine, November 9, 1959. Marilyn Monroe, photographed by Philippe Halsman.

October 16, 1944 cover of LIFE magazine featuring Lauren Bacall.

Philippe Halsman Life Magazine

May 22, 1950, cover of Life magazine featuring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Philippe Halsman Life Magazine

August 13, 1951, cover of Life magazine featuring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

Philippe Halsman Life Magazine

September 3, 1951, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Gina Lollobrigida.

Philippe Halsman Life Magazine

December 17, 1951, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier.

Philippe Halsman Life Magazine

April 7, 1952, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Marilyn Monroe.

Philippe Halsman Life Magazine

November 2, 1953, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Winston Churchill.

Philippe Halsman Life Magazine

April 26, 1954, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Grace Kelly.

Philippe Halsman Life Magazine

The post Might as Well Jump: LIFE Cover Portraits by Philippe Halsman appeared first on LIFE.