Katharine Hepburn is dead

One of my favourite actresses of all time. I just read about it here. Young KH and the manic energy of "Bringing up Baby"...middle-aged KH and her splendid turn as Eleanor of Aquitaine which will forever form my idea of this woman in "The Lion in Winter"...

It's a cliché, but like all clichés with a true core: we will not see her like again.

More about Katharine Hepburn

In a life full of great movies, this one will always be my favourite. Go and have a look at the website devoted to "The Lion in Winter", a film about that fascinating couple, Henry II (Peter O'Toole) and Eleanor of Aquitaine (K.H.), and their extremely dysfunctional and extremely interesting family. (Making their big screen debut: Anthony Hopkins as Richard the Lionheart and Timothy Dalton as Philipp II of France.) This was the movie which made me interested in Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right (which at the time meant she owned the best part of France), first married to Louis VII of France (he was devout, timid and nice; she was none of the three), then, after she got the marriage annuled, to the future Henry II of England (this was a gamble on her part, btw, as far as the power aspect was concerend; at the time it was by no means certain Henry would make it to the throne, then occupied by Cousin Stephen - who had stolen it from Henry's mother - and who had a living, briefing son). Henry and Eleanor build an empire together and tore each other apart, but despite 15 years in genteel imprisonment after her revolt against him failed, she outlived him, and at age 70 was travelling across Europe on political journeys, as sharp and alive as ever. She'll always be Katherine Hepburn to me.

Incidentally, there will be a remake with Patrick Stewart as Henry and Glenn Close as Eleanor. Which I'm looking forward to, but these two gifted actors really took a big challenge to compete with.


Here we have another obituary, the most extensive one; two shorter ones are here and here.

Katharine Hepburn's relationship to Spencer Tracy - that rare thing, a love affair between two Hollywood stars which never got any voyeuristic media attention while it lasted - is analysed in this article.