the bishop's wife is a 1947 american romantic comedy movie directed by henry koster and was based on the 1928 novella of the same name by robert nathan. it stars cary grant, loretta young, david niven, monty woolley, elsa lanchester, gladys cooper, sara haden, karolyn grimes, james gleason, florence auer and was distributed by rko radio pictures. it won an academy award in 1948 and was 4 others and was remade as "the preacher's wife" in 1996.