# Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227 "2003-06-29T22:27:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/21 "2003-06-29T23:35:18Z")
This is sad news indeed if the greatest of screen actresses has passed. She can sit in the afterlife with Falconetti and laugh at what passes for female acting talent these days. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/22 "2003-06-29T23:52:35Z")
I was very sad to hear this, even though I know she’s been quite ill. I can thank Katharine Hepburn for being the actress that introduced me to the world of classic b&w movies. (“The Philadelphia Story” was the film that started it all.) ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/23 "2003-06-29T23:57:33Z")
It’s also SOP in newspaper obituaries to include a cause of death. Most likely for someone of that advanced age, it’s hard to determine. My grandmother lived to be 96 and she just sort of faded away. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/24 "2003-06-30T00:03:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by merrily \* > \*\*Then **The Lion in Winter** , where she more than held her own against Richard Harris, is probably second. Again, she could get everything out of a line! \*\* I believe you mean “Peter O’Toole”. 😃 I know she was old, but it’s still a shock. Well, not a SHOCK!!!, but, well, you know what I mean. ---
**Author:** ![Lupin\_the\_3rd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lupin\_the\_3rd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lupin_the_3rd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/25 "2003-06-30T00:14:15Z")
I’m heartbroken. Katharine Hepburn was truly a master of the stage and screen. “The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day and now I place them here in memory of something that has died.” ~ KH in “Stage Door” 1937 ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/26 "2003-06-30T00:15:55Z")
Oh my. I always saw Ms Hepburn as indestructible. Sort of a stainless steel person from another era. Reading her bio in the Yahoo news story, linked in the OP, confirms this. Her own view about her upcoming demise _" I think they’re beginning to think I’m not going to be around much longer. And what do you know — they’ll miss me, like an old monument. Like the Flatiron Building."_ and _“I’m what is known as gradually disintegrating. I don’t fear the next world, or anything. I don’t fear hell, and I don’t look forward to heaven.”_ shows a sardonic sense of humor which fits very well with the jokes in this thread. A titan in the entertainment industry is gone. I wish her a good journey, and I do hope she’s riding a vintage Harley for the crossing over. It would fit her. Bon Voyage, Kate. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/27 "2003-06-30T00:19:08Z")
Did you know the “calla lilies” line was from _The Lake_, a 1934 B’way play Hepburn flopped in? That’s the one where Dorothy Parker said that “she ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.” Oh, you’re right, I forgot _African Queen_, she was wonderful in that . . . Also _On Golden Pond_. She should have retired after that; all her subsequent projects were crap. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/28 "2003-06-30T00:22:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > \*\*Does she have survivors? No children, I’m guessing, but nieces and nephews and such? \*\* Schuyler Grant, who played Diana Barry in the mid-80s Anne of Green Gables movies, was her grand-neice. And Bringing up Baby is still one of my favorite movies ever. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/29 "2003-06-30T00:22:41Z")
Eve, there is a thread in the pit for your attention. I’m just letting you know is all, in case you weren’t aware. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/30 "2003-06-30T00:28:08Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s the one where Dorothy Parker said that “she ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.” Good heavens… she must have been one of the last surviving people to be reviewed by Mrs. Parker. That’s pretty epochal. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/31 "2003-06-30T00:31:05Z")
One more encomium to the great Catherine Hepburn. She was the genuine article (including her name). I can’t agree with **Eve** about wanting to slap her for performances like _Stage Door_\*. The attitude she displayed in that movie was in the script. Her “calla lillies” scene, to me at least, was real and heartfelt, and softened the brashness of her earlier scenes–just as the author intended. I can’t comment on the others **Eve** mentioned because I saw them so long ago they aren’t fresh in my mind. It’s been years since I saw _Stage Door_, too, but her performance in that film tended to stay with me. She was skinny and not particularly sexy, but she was astonishingly beautiful, and, as Spencer Tracy described her, “cherse.” I saw _The Philadelphua Story_ again fairly recently, and was struck all over again by her luminous presence. We may not see her like again. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/32 "2003-06-30T00:36:05Z")
THE PREVIEW BUTTON IS YOUR FRIEND. Damn coding. I thought I was getting pretty good at it. Sorry for all the Italics. Oh, and after all the praise…I heard the cause of death was falling off Spencer Tracy’s crypt! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/33 "2003-06-30T00:48:29Z")
I normally don’t get phased by celebrity deaths, but this one leaves me feeling sad and surprised. I was always very impressed with Ms. Hepburn – people often say that the real skill of an actor is to completely become the character she’s playing, and I don’t think Hepburn did that. Instead, she had such charisma and such a strong personality that she brought her characters to life without being abosrbed by them. It’s as if her spirit was too strong to be completely contained by an imaginary character. It says a lot that I’ve known that she was in declining health for years, but it was still a surprise to hear that she’d died. And **samarm** , **Blonde** et al – I don’t claim to speak for **Eve** and the others at all, but I can only tell you this. I didn’t read those comments as a lack of disrespect or making fun of her declining health; in fact, just the opposite. She projected an image of herself as being a strong, tough woman who always did what she pleased and damn anyone who had a problem with it. That image suggests she’d not want to be pitied and mourned for suffering from Parkinson’s, but respected as someone who could be in her 90’s and still out kicking ass and getting everything she could out of life. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/34 "2003-06-30T00:58:56Z")
Really? I’d love to join you there, darling, but ah jest washed mah hair. [Yes, I know that’s Bette Davis and not Katharine Hepburn] See, **DesertGeezer** , that’s the great thing about movies: we can argue endlessly about performances! I don’t particularly care for Kate in some of her more popular roles, but if others do, it’s nothing short of dandy. Wouldn’t it be ghastly if everyone agreed about everything? I’m sure they’ll be having Kate-fests all over the place; be sure to catch\* A Bill of Divorcement, Christopher Strong\* and _Sylvia Scarlett_. Not her best performances by far, but such entertaining and bizarre films! ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/35 "2003-06-30T01:21:38Z")
She was a sort of neighbor of mine. I live two short blocks from the NYC townhouse where she spent most of her life. (Her next-door neighbor BTW was Stephen Sondheim, with whom she got well, I’m told.) I saw her once or twice in the 80’s and 90’s when she still got out and about. But my (alcoholic) ex-roommate had the best tale. He was in the local liquor store buying his hooch when he gets behind Kate the Great at the checkout line. When they rang up her total he interjected that she had given him so much pleasure over the years he would be honored to pay for her bottle of wine (or whatever) as a token of gratitude. She thanked him and called him a “darling boy,” IIRC, but declined his offer. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/36 "2003-06-30T01:23:18Z")
OOOPS! That should be: "…with whom she got **along** well, I’m told…) ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/37 "2003-06-30T01:24:22Z")
She and Sondheim got well together? What were they both sick with? I thought she lived in Connecticut most of her life. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/38 "2003-06-30T01:45:42Z")
Eve nonwithstanding, 🙂 Hepburn and Cary Grant together in Bringing Up Baby is one of the highlights of the screwball comedy era. I just thought I mention that, as most of the obits are sure to emphasise the Great Acrtress, and not the talented comedienne. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/39 "2003-06-30T01:46:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Wouldn’t it be ghastly if everyone agreed about everything? > \*\* It would, indeed. You wouldn’t be wrong if you thought _all_ Hepburn’s performances were unsatisfactory. You’d just be different from me. If we all thought alike these boards would be incredibly boring. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227/40 "2003-06-30T01:53:14Z")
Fiver, I think she did have a summer place in CT, but see this from Reuters: * * * Hartford, Connecticut, native Hepburn in late 1996 gave up the townhouse on New York’s East 49th Street that she had kept since the 1930s. She retreated fulltime to the family mansion in Fenwick, an upper-class borough in Old Saybrook on Long Island Sound. “Giving up the townhouse was a difficult decision for her; it was very wrenching emotionally,” said Andersen, author of the 1997 book “An Affair to Remember: The Remarkable Love Story of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.” \ ## Hepburn was an amateur painter of some skill and her work decorated walls at the New York townhouse that she shared with Tracy and where she lived for over 60 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katharine-hepburn-1907-2003/185227.md?page=3)