I've just checked @ imdb: Cary Grant was 6'1½" and Kevin Kline is 6'2".

I understand that Cole was much shorter than the actors who protrayed
him in the Hollywood biopics.

Does anyone know?

Cole Porter was quite a bit shorter than Messrs. Grant and Kline.

In February 1931 'Vanity Fair' published 'A Close-Up of Cole Porter,'
which profiled him in these words:

"He is wholly unable to shave himself, which operation must be
performed at an average of twice a day. He never carries a walking
stick or gloves and wears a hat as little as possible. Most of his
suits are gray and he has a passion for soft shirts with collars
attached. He writes entirely with his left hand, at an angle almost
upside down. He loves a good dirty limerick... His dislikes are many
and varied, among the more pronounced being golf, steam-heated rooms,
pressed duck, English railway hotels, Belgium, and poetry. He
delights, however, in all kinds of scandal and crime news. He is five
feet, seven and a half inches tall and weighs a hundred and forty
pounds."

I found this passage by searching the book "Cole Porter," by William
McBrien, using Amazon's "Search Inside the Book" feature.

Amazon.com: Cole Porter (Page 141)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0679727922/ref=sib_vae_pg_141/104-8416173-3073508?%5Fencoding=UTF8&keywords=tall&p=S04E&twc=9&checkSum=UT%2FuLuw47%2BYQZBiN1FmkECsoTKOXnXKUJ7JEW93NIvE%3D#reader-page

Another reference to Porter's height (or lack of same):

"For the best part of his adulthood, Porter organized life so that his
effervescent music and his emollient lyrics preceded him into a room.
Manners defined the man and his songs, imposing on both a meticulous
and elegant symmetry. Slim and courtly, the five-foot-seven Porter had
black doe eyes and a burnished baby face, whose smoothness he enhanced
by shaving twice a day."

The New Yorker: A Critic at Large
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/?040712crat_atlarge 

So that's the short of it. Large gifts are sometimes wrapped in small
packages, says I, from my runty pinnacle of five feet, two and a half
inches.

Best,
Pink

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Request for Answer Clarification by probonopublico-ga on 20 Mar 2005 21:32 PST

Pink

I was wondering ...

When Hollywood gets round to doing a biopic of your life ...

Do you suppose I could get to play you?

Hopeful of Hove

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Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 20 Mar 2005 21:40 PST

>> When Hollywood gets round to doing a biopic of your life ...
>> Do you suppose I could get to play you?

That would be a stretch. I am trying to imagine a tall Englishman
portraying a stumpy Okie gal. Naw, it just doesn't work, Bryan.

However, Daisy might do a rather good job. :-D

~Pink

Brilliant, Miss Pink

You always make it seem so easy!

And I've got that little unexpected extra .... your height, too.

Me? I'm in the same range as Grant & Kline so when (note 'when') we
meet we shall both have to shout.

D'ye hear?

Give the cats a treat from me.

All the Best

Bryan

Bryan,

Many thanks for the five stars and the ten-dollar bonus!

This was an entertaining question. I'm always glad to find a celebrity
with whom I can identify, and I see that I have much in common with
Cole Porter. Both of us like soft shirts, dirty limericks, crime
stories, and men. I, however, do not shave twice a day, except on
exceptionally hairy occasions.

~Pink