MONACO, April 6: Monaco’s Prince Rainier, whose marriage to US actress Grace Kelly brought Hollywood glamour to his tiny Mediterranean state, died on Wednesday aged 81.

Europe’s longest-reigning monarch died after a month in hospital battling lung, heart and kidney problems.

The funeral would take place on April 15

Some Monaco residents fought back tears as they heard the news, and tributes poured in from foreign leaders for the man who turned the world’s smallest state after the Vatican from a faded gambling centre into a haven for billionaires.

Prince Rainier put Monaco on the international stage with his romance of and marriage to Kelly in 1956.

Princess Grace died in a car crash in 1982 and Rainier, heartbroken, never remarried. He is expected to be buried beside his wife close to the palace.

Rainier will be succeeded by 47-year-old Prince Albert, who took over his father’s royal duties last week as hopes faded that Rainier would recover.

A shy man, Albert has lived in the shadow of his more glamorous parents and sisters Stephanie and Caroline while being groomed for power as Rainier’s only son. He has been linked to a succession of models and actresses but has never settled down.

SOMBRE MOOD: Flags were already at half-mast in Monaco in honour of Pope John Paul. The mood in the principality was sombre.

“Everyone here feels orphaned,” Patrick Leclercq, Monaco’s minister of state, said in a statement to French television.

The principality’s soccer club postponed Sunday’s scheduled match against Lille in France’s top league as a mark of respect.

Rainier officially became monarch on April 11, 1950, but had already ruled Monaco for almost a year following the death of his grandfather, Prince Louis II.

When Rainier succeeded his grandfather Monaco was best known for the casino on which its prosperity was founded in the 19th century. As Europe’s last constitutional autocrat, he led Monaco into an age of skyscrapers, international banking and business.—Reuters