The Hindu : Katharine Hepburn dead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

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Katharine Hepburn dead

OLD SAYBROOK (CONNECTICUT), JUNE 30. Her backyard acting blossomed into a career for the ages: Four Academy Awards, 12 nominations, 60 years of stage and screen brilliance, a lifetime of feisty independence.

But Katharine Hepburn always thought she could do more. ``I could have accomplished three times what I've accomplished,'' she once said. ``I haven't realised my full potential. It's disgusting.''

That perfectionism was balanced by grace and sheer joy in being alive.

``Life's what's important,'' she once said. ``Walking, houses, family. Birth and pain and joy — and then death. Acting's just waiting for the custard pie. That's all.''

The lights on Broadway will dim at 8 p.m. (0000 GMT) on Tuesday in honour of Ms. Hepburn, who died surrounded by friends and family on Sunday at her childhood waterfront home in Old Saybrook. She was 96.

Ms. Hepburn, who had been in declining health in recent years, died of old age, said Cynthia McFadden, a close friend and executor of her estate.

``Through her films, generations to come will discover her humour, her grace, her keen intelligence,'' Ms. McFadden said in a statement from the family at a news conference near Ms. Hepburn's home. ``She was and always will be an American original.''

Her mark of 12 Academy Award nominations stood as a record in the acting categories until Meryl Streep surpassed that total in 2003. Her Oscars were for ``Morning Glory,'' 1933; ``Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,'' 1967; ``The Lion in Winter,'' 1968; and ``On Golden Pond,'' 1981.

An icon of feminist strength and spirit, Ms. Hepburn brought a chiselled beauty and patrician bearing to such films as ``The Philadelphia Story'' and ``The African Queen.''

``I think every actress in the world looked up to her with a kind of reverence and a sense of `oh boy, if only I could be like her,''' said the actress, Elizabeth Taylor, in a statement.

Ms. Hepburn, the product of a wealthy, freethinking New England family, was forthright in her opinions and unconventional in her conduct. She dressed for comfort, usually in slacks and sweater, with her red hair caught up in a topknot.

She married only once, briefly, and her name was linked to Howard Hughes and other famous men, but the great love of her life was Spencer Tracy. They made nine films together and remained close companions until Tracy's death in 1967.She was born in Hartford on May 12, 1907, one of six children of Dr. Thomas N. Hepburn, a noted urologist and pioneer in social hygiene, and Katharine Houghton Hepburn, who worked for birth control and getting the vote for women.

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