Katharine Hepburn Centenary: The First Lady of Cinema

May marks the centenary of the birth of three of cinema’s biggest stars – Katharine Hepburn (May 12), Laurence Olivier (May 22), and John Wayne (May 26). Over the course of the month I’ll be revisiting some of my favourite films featuring these iconic stars.

First up is Katharine Hepburn, an actress who could turn her hand to high drama or screwball comedy with equal dexterity. Hepburn wasn’t your typical Hollywood star, something that she made clear from the start by demanding $1500 a week to appear in films (she wasn’t even making $100 for her stage appearances at the time). It set the tone for one of the most successful careers the movie capital has ever known.

With just three films under her belt, she won her first Oscar for Morning Glory in 1933 and the same year stared in the smash hit Little Women, widely regarded as the best version of the oft-filmed Louisa May Alcott novel. It wasn’t all wine and roses though; after early hits she suffered a string of flops and in 1938 was one of the stars voted “box office poison” in a poll taken by motion picture exhibitors (she was in good company though – Fred Astaire also made the list).

A return to the stage would lead to her next cinematic smash. The reviews for her stage performance in The Philadelphia Story were excellent and a hugely successful film version followed. It is a measure of the influence she wielded that she had director and co-star approval in her contract.

It’s often the case that two stars will be indelibly linked in the public's mind, both on and off screen; Burton and Taylor, Bogart and Bacall, Newman and Woodward. Possibly the greatest of these pairings was Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. All in all they made nine films together between 1942 and 1967, including such classics as Woman of the Year, Adam’s Rib, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, which earned Hepburn another best actress Oscar. While the pair were romantically involved off screen, they never married, and in typically un-Hollywood Hepburn fashion tried to keep their relationship as much out of the limelight as possible.

Article Author: Ian Woolstencroft

Ian Woolstencroft was brought up on a diet of John Wayne movies and Marvel Comics and still has a passion for both. Now as a blogcritic he finally understands what Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben meant when he said ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ …

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