Alicia Garcia de Francisco |
Madrid (EFE) But it’s not just because of her awards, but because of her unusual talent and elegance.
You just have to see jewels like “Philadelphia Stories” (1941), “The Woman of the Year” (1943) “The African Queen” (1952), “The Lion in Winter” (1969) “In the Golden Pond” ” (1982), all available on Filmin, to realize the variety of registers of an actress that made everything seem easy.
Strong personality
Although in his private life it was not so easy. She had a strong personality and was branded arrogant and haughty, something she didn’t care about because if anything characterized the “goddess”, a name often used to refer to her, it was her fierce independence.
She was also quick in her responses and overwhelmingly modern. Outside of her characters, she never wore a skirt – the journalist Barbara Walters once asked her if she did not have any of hers, to which the actress replied: “I have a Mrs. Walters. I will take her at her funeral ”-.
A simple and forceful example of the irreverent personality of an actress who never conformed to what was expected of a movie star and who did not even seem affected by the scandal caused by her relationship with Spencer Tracy, a married Catholic man who never separated from his wife.
A beauty that did not conform to the canons of the time
She was intelligent, physically dazzling precisely because her beauty did not conform to the standards of the time, and a staunch defender of freedom and women, not in vain her mother, Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn, was a leader of the suffrage movement in the United States Joined.
Raised in a wealthy family in Hartford (Connecticut), Katharine Houghton Hepburn (1907-2003) had a happy childhood broken by the suicide of her brother Tom when she was 14 years old, a fact that marked her deeply, increasing her already enormous shyness but also it strengthened her and made her take refuge in irony and sarcasm that would become two of the main traits of her personality.
When she had not yet begun her acting career and was only 21 years old, in 1928, she married a businessman, Ludlow Ogden Smith, whom she made change her last name to Ogden, because she found it too boring to be called Katharine Smith. A marriage that lasted very little although they would not divorce until 1934.
Then came the billionaire, producer, director and pilot Howard Hugues, with whom he had a passionate relationship that was reflected in the film “The Aviator” (2004).
Spencer Tracy, the man who marked her life
In a biography written by Charlotte Chandler, the actress claimed that Hugues had been her best lover. But the man who truly marked her life was Tracy, a macho man who had little to do with Hepburn’s mentality.
But they spent 25 years together, until the actor’s death in 1967. “Tracy never told me she loved me. If she did say it, I don’t remember, although I was always reluctant to believe it. We live in a very open way, it never bothered me to have a relationship with a married man and both his wife and I live ignoring each other, ”said the actress in the interview with Barbara Walters.
Seven years after Tracy’s death, Hepburn’s only appearance occurred in 1974 at an Oscar ceremony, to present the Thalberg Memorial Award to producer Lawrence Weingarten.
“I am living proof that a person can wait 40 years to be generous,” said the actress before an audience standing up, referring to the first of her four Oscars, for “One Day’s Glory,” achieved in 1934 and not picked up.
Neither that nor the following three, in 1968 for “Guess Who’s Coming Tonight”, in 1969 for “The Lion in Winter” and in 1982 for “In the Golden Pond”.
She alone has four Hollywood Academy Awards, to three for Ingrid Bergman, Meryl Streep, Daniel Day-Lewis, Frances McDormand, Jack Nicholson and Walter Brennan.
A brilliant career and a very intense life before which he always put a smile on his face. As she said in an interview with Barbara Lovenheim: “Life can be wildly tragic at times and I’ve had my share. But no matter what happens with you, you have to keep a bit of a comedic attitude. In the end, you don’t have to forget to laugh.”