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Passing of an icon: Pioneer
New Delhi, July 02: Those were the decades, spanning the better part of the 20th century from the 1930s, when stars had light in their eyes and Hollywood was where dreams were trapped into celluloid.
New Delhi, July 02: Those were the decades, spanning the better part of the 20th century from the 1930s, when stars had light in their eyes and Hollywood was where dreams were trapped into celluloid.
Those were the decades when a procession of striking women-Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, Vivian Leigh, Jennifer Jones, Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, and, of course, Katharine Hepburn who passed on the other day-sparkled across the silver screen, raising a million pulse rates. It was difficult to stand out in such a group where each one left her own signature on the movies she acted in, along with men who strode tall and larger than life-Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Stewart Granger, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and Paul Newman. Yet Katharine Hepburn did precisely that, winning 12 Oscar nominations and four best actress awards-three of them when she was over 60!-in a career spanning six decades! Her best actress Oscars were for her performances in Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). Her acting skills were rare. She was equally at home in hilarious comedies like Bringing Up Baby and Adam's Rib and in complex, intense roles as in Summertime (1955). She had little sex appeal in the conventional sense; indeed, a wag had once said that the number 18 stood for her standing close and opposite to the generously endowed Marilyn Monroe. Her sex appeal was of a subtle kind-the attraction of the cold and distant, of a blend of sophistication and intensity, of a personal culture that defined a personal space around her. Her sophistication also illuminated her acting, and gave it a sensitivity and depth that few had. Also, she brought to her roles a deep professional commitment and a sharp intelligence which enabled her to understand what the characters she portrayed stood for, and what their depiction required.
It was also perhaps her intelligence which enabled Katharine Hepburn to continue growing with age and play roles of elderly women with conviction. It certainly seemed to lie at the root of her robust feeling of independence and an unwillingness to suffer fools. To a great extent, both her intelligence and her spirit of independence came from her background. Her mother was a crusading suffragette, her father a leading surgeon. And she went to Bryn Mawhr, the prestigious girls' college. Whatever it was, and whether in respect of her long romance with Spencer Tracy or in the matter of her career, she lived life on her own terms and became a legend in her lifetime, a Hollywood icon whom actresses like Elizabeth Taylor considered to be their role model. With her passing and that of Gregory Peck earlier in June, Hollywood, which is no longer the same, has lost two of its most distinguished links with its golden era.
Those were the decades when a procession of striking women-Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, Vivian Leigh, Jennifer Jones, Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, and, of course, Katharine Hepburn who passed on the other day-sparkled across the silver screen, raising a million pulse rates. It was difficult to stand out in such a group where each one left her own signature on the movies she acted in, along with men who strode tall and larger than life-Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Stewart Granger, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and Paul Newman. Yet Katharine Hepburn did precisely that, winning 12 Oscar nominations and four best actress awards-three of them when she was over 60!-in a career spanning six decades! Her best actress Oscars were for her performances in Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). Her acting skills were rare. She was equally at home in hilarious comedies like Bringing Up Baby and Adam's Rib and in complex, intense roles as in Summertime (1955). She had little sex appeal in the conventional sense; indeed, a wag had once said that the number 18 stood for her standing close and opposite to the generously endowed Marilyn Monroe. Her sex appeal was of a subtle kind-the attraction of the cold and distant, of a blend of sophistication and intensity, of a personal culture that defined a personal space around her. Her sophistication also illuminated her acting, and gave it a sensitivity and depth that few had. Also, she brought to her roles a deep professional commitment and a sharp intelligence which enabled her to understand what the characters she portrayed stood for, and what their depiction required.
It was also perhaps her intelligence which enabled Katharine Hepburn to continue growing with age and play roles of elderly women with conviction. It certainly seemed to lie at the root of her robust feeling of independence and an unwillingness to suffer fools. To a great extent, both her intelligence and her spirit of independence came from her background. Her mother was a crusading suffragette, her father a leading surgeon. And she went to Bryn Mawhr, the prestigious girls' college. Whatever it was, and whether in respect of her long romance with Spencer Tracy or in the matter of her career, she lived life on her own terms and became a legend in her lifetime, a Hollywood icon whom actresses like Elizabeth Taylor considered to be their role model. With her passing and that of Gregory Peck earlier in June, Hollywood, which is no longer the same, has lost two of its most distinguished links with its golden era.