Katharine Hepburn

Mrs.Hepburn died on June 29, 2003

She was born Katharine Houghton Hepburn on a day that many thought it would never be ascertained. There are at least three dates of birth, crediting her with four or five different months (from 1906 to 1909). I've always thought the right one was November 1907, but we know there's often an earlier, unacknowledged date in the movie stars' lives.

She was a tomboy. Maybe the very first girl considered masculine in the early Hollywood landscape. She contracted a strange marriage early in her twenties. Ludlow Smith was an ordinary insurer that couldn't resist successfully over six years of life with the promising starlet, whose debut film in 1932 - A Bill of Divorcement - seemed to happen at the right moment. The 'enfant terrible' had a rampant growth of reputation since her meeting with George Cukor in the filmmaking of 'Little Women' (1933), which marked the highest point in the ascent of the Selznick production pioneering the best entertainment. Immediately after inaugurating the sound era in the US comedy, Katharine Hepburn established herself as the most spirited, single-minded actress of her generation especially in memorable Americana of the middle-class. Often disguised as a boy, she knew how to attract middle-aged men who partnered with her, both acquiring a good experience in the art of keeping the romance alive on the screen. Masterpieces such as The Philadelphia Story and Woman of the Year showed an unequaled capacity to build up screenplays giving the best direction to the actors. David Selznick was the kind of old-fashioned Hollywood producer that could pave the way for the best developments in sophisticated comedies, but only Cukor gave these actors the right treatment that we would see in Adam's Rib, one of the best episodes in the Hepburn-Tracy cycle. To explain how the two actors found chemistry from the beginning is very difficult. They seemed to have a spiritual affinity more than a professional one. Tracy's infatuation with Katharine, however, was something too decent to yield a profit in terms of marriage life. Rumor had it that they would never contract a true marriage in life because of his scruples in keeping his first marriage regardless of his feelings toward the beloved partner. Another one stated he focused all his attention on his deaf-mute son, who wasn't the best counterpart of a new family. So they loved each other with discretion in a twenty-year relationship that became proverbial in Hollywood showbiz. I loved their game. In a world that did nothing to restrain the absolute freedom in everyone's customs, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were two heroes of the century. Maybe uncredited, in their silent romance, but quite authentic and reliable in the way they accepted to live that all.

When I was a child, the sixty-year-old actress had a very strong reputation and her towering figure scared us. She seemed a rock. I remember seeing her in Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, when she tried hard to accept the colored fiancé Poitier to her real-life niece Katharine Houghton in a way that we wouldn't forget. Her solicited comment on his arrival with the famous words "Doctor... Doctor Prentice", made history. The couple gave a terrific performance, not easy to distinguish from their real life. The cast reported about Tracy's efforts in keeping up his spirit, although the death was impending. It certainly remained a movie to remember, despite its conventional plot. It was Tracy's last performance, and both the actors received an Academy Award for their memorable appearance. That movie gave me the impression she wouldn't be equaled in the genre. Seeing her work as a vivid star even in her seventies (watch again On Golden Pond with Fonda) gave a new impression of renovated surety. We felt the veteran actress of the movie entertainment would never betray her talent.

As a matter of fact, we never stopped seeing her alone. Physically distant, maybe unique of her kind, she knew how to stand apart with aloof dignity. Her life comforted us greatly. We miss her.

This page was published on June 29, 2004