Katherine Hepburn

[andyfox]

In the obits I've read, many Hollywood celebrities and would-be celebrities talk in glowing terms about her love affair with Spencer Tracy. Elizabeth Taylor, not exactly an Einstein I know, said that she'll at last be reunited with her beloved Spencer, how great that would be.

Wasn't Tracy married? Apparently he wouldn't divorce his wife because of religious scruples. Strange kind of scruples that allows a flaunted adulterous relationship but not divorce. And Hepburn was apparently good to Spencer when he went off on his apparently not infrequent benders. How admirable.

Hey, I liked Tracy as an actor and although I think Hepburn was overrated, I liked her too. I'm far from a prude, but what am I missing here?

[Boris]

the hepburn tracy fling is none of my business. I don't usually follow these sorts of things but I will remember Katherine Hepburn much longer than many movie stars because she was in the African Queen. The African Queen was one of my grandmother's favorite movies and we watched it together several times before her passing. She didn't have it on video but it just seemed to be showing on the old movie channel whenever I went to visit. It became kind of a joke for us. It's not a bad flick.

[TJSWAN]

Did you see the Headliners & Legends aired Sunday? She had quite the set of parents from what I gathered. Dad was a pioneer in venereal disease treatment and Mom was pro-women everything. I think that's where she got some of her ideas on self independance.
If I remember right she even turned down a marriage proposal from Howard Hughes. I don't think you're 'missing' anything. She was just not going to ever let anyone tell her what to do. I believe she never even bothered to pick up her Oscars.

As for her movies, African Queen is very good. I also really enjoyed Lion in Winter with Peter O Toole & Hepburn going at it.

[Cyrus]

You didn't like Hepburn?? Great actress, with a wide range in her craft. In comedy, I think screwball, I think Hepburn (she was great with Cary Grant!)

Actually, "African Queen" I found to be boring but it's all a matter of taste. I much prefer "Philadelphia Story", "Bringing Up Baby" (just great!), even "Little Women".

As to Spencer Tracy, I understand he had a Catholic marriage, so no divorce possible. He was for all practical purposes divorced and living with Hepburn as a married couple. What's the big deal? Great couple, and great actors both.

[John Cole]

If you haven't read it already, then I can't recommend highly enough Stanley Cavell's Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage, which features chapters on both The Philadelphia Story and Bringing Up Baby (my favorite).