One of The Gal Herself's Favorite People Ever …
KATHARINE HEPBURN
I just adore her. She’s been gone for more than four years now, but her work remains as vibrant and timeless as ever. So today I celebrate her life, spirit and career with 13 thoughts about The Great Kate.
1. She has more Best Actress Oscar nominations (12) than anyone else. (Meryl Streep has 14 overall nominations, but three of hers were for Best Supporting Actress.)
2. She also holds the record for most Best Actress Oscars with 4. (If you haven’t seen Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond, get thee to Netflix right now.) In a way, she received a 5th Oscar, because Cate Blanchette won an Academy Award for portraying Hepburn in The Aviator.
3. Despite all her acclaim, she was fired once – from Travels with My Aunt in 1972. Legend has it she demanded too many script changes. I have fired people and trust me, they don’t take it well. I cannot imagine the guts it would take to face The Great Kate and tell her she was being replaced by Maggie Smith. I’d probably have chickened out and done it over the phone. From an undisclosed remote location.
4. Her career spanned more than 50 years, so naturally she made some flops. So many that, in the late 1930s, an influential theater owners group named her “Box Office Poison.” With characteristic determination, she set out to rebuild her career, heading to Broadway to star in The Philadelphia Story.
5. Among those flops are two of my all-time favorite Hepburn movies, Holiday and Bringing Up Baby.
6. She lived by her own code of personal conduct – which demanded dignity and integrity but did not preclude passionate love affairs with fascinating men. Howard Hughes and Leland Hayward both gave her expensive jewelry. She didn’t wear it often in public, but she did keep it. After her death, her diamond, emerald and ruby pieces were among the personal effects auctioned by Sotheby’s.
7. Her great love was Spencer Tracy. Their romance lasted more than 25 years, and their professional partnership included 9 films. She was with him when she died, but didn’t attend his funeral. He never divorced his wife, Louise, and Hepburn respected that Louise was his widow.
8. A good tennis player and golfer, she was proud to do her own sports in the Tracy-Hepburn classic, Pat and Mike.
9. She based her wonderful performance as Rose Sawyer in The African Queen on Eleanor Roosevelt.
10. Her Bryn Mawr accent and cadence so impressed young Anthony Hopkins (he played her son in The Lion in Winter back in 1968) that it was his inspiration for Hannibal Lector’s speech pattern in Silence of the Lambs.
11. I’m in heaven when I watch the early version of Little Women. It’s my favorite actress portraying Jo March, one of my all-time favorite heroines.
12. She never shied away from controversial material. Though it seems dated and corny today, the subject of interracial marriage addressed in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? raised eyebrows in the 1960s. Suddenly, Last Summer, with its heady mix of homosexuality, insanity, incest and cannibalism, was downright shocking in the 1950s. Without the prestige Hepburn brought to that project, the film may not have been made.
13. In closing, here she is, in her own words:
“Life is supposed to be hard. After all, it kills you.”
“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.”
“To keep your character, do not stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.”
“I don’t care what’s said about me so long as it isn’t true.”
And my favorite …
“Love has nothing to do with what you expect to get – only what you expect to give – which is everything.”
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1.Works for Mom shares 13 comical quotes (I'm stealing #9 for myself)
2. Chelle Y. lists 13 unforgettable children's songs
3. Country Dawn warns us AGAINST visiting a Haunted House
4. Sandee takes a closer look at Murphy's Lesser Known Laws
5. Ellen b. uncovers 13 very funny town names
6. Malcolm gives us some deliciously quotable "Grease" trivia
7. Nicholas has another one of his inimitable book lists.
8. Susan Helene Gottfried has a TT "ripped from today's headlines"
9. Irene's imaginative TT combines the green with the Greek
10. Jenn has 13 FAMILY-FRIENDLY Halloween jokes
11. Janet gives funny and ever-so useful Halloween wisdom
12. Wylie has a great list of rewatchable movies
13. Yen takes on a subject she's an expert on
14. Buck Naked Politics fantasizes about the best publicly funded shopping spree of all time!
15. Lori offers up unbeatable ways to beat stress
16. Greatfullivin takes us traveling
17. Jenny McB takes us through her busy day (wear your track shoes if you want to keep up)
18. Yellow Rose has a movie TT, and you know how this Gal loves those!
19. Joyismygoal takes us for a hike
20. Bermudabluez makes some vacation recommendations
21. Carrie Lofty's TT is a tribute to special 5-year-old on her birthday
22. I'm in heaven! Patti gives us another movie TT to check out!
23. Maribeth gives us the derivation of some enduring superstitions
24. Ann Anguirre has a thought provoking TT
25. Xakara shares insights about a topic she's an expert on
26. Adelle has a very porcine TT
27. Claudia posted some funny, some truly NOT funny photos of unwise plastic surgery
28. Harlekwin (who created my fabulous banner) gives us 13 ways to tell if it will be a good day
29. JLynne answers any questions you may have about Halloween superstitions
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