US: The death on Sunday of Katharine Hepburn, the first lady of American cinema who won a record four Oscars for best actress, drew eulogies yesterday to the auburn-haired beauty known for her fiercely independent spirit.
Hepburn, who starred in classics such as The African Queen and who played opposite a galaxy of leading men including Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart, died at her home in Connecticut aged 96.
President Bush led tributes to the actress. "Katharine Hepburn delighted audiences with her unique talent for more than six decades. She was known for her intelligence and wit and will be remembered as one of the nation's artistic treasures," a statement from the President said.
Hepburn, whose health had been in decline for some time and who had not spoken for several days, passed away peacefully, said her brother-in-law, Mr Ellsworth Grant.
"She's the greatest actress of her age and with her passing that whole galaxy of great movie stars has ended," he said, adding that the cause of death was "simply complications from old age".
Hepburn won best actress Oscar four times - in 1933 for Morning Glory, 1967 for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 1968 for The Lion in Winter and in 1981 for On Golden Pond. Irreverent and feisty, she was voted America's most admired woman in a 1985 Ladies' Home Journal survey. Her trademarks: high cheekbones, her hair and a voice redolent of her upper-class New England origins.
Monday's Washington Post spoke of her "breathtaking talent and unsurpassed durability".
"She is the person who put women in pants, literally and figuratively," her biographer, Christopher Andersen, said. "She is the greatest star, the greatest actress, that Hollywood has ever produced."
Hepburn did not escape criticism. Her performances were sometimes called cold. Dorothy Parker famously said of her that she displayed "the gamut of emotions from A to B". Other Hepburn classics included Little Women, The Philadelphia Story, A Bill of Divorcement, Adam's Rib, State of the Union and Long Day's Journey Into Night. She acted with James Stewart, John Wayne and Henry Fonda.
But it is with Tracy that her name will be forever linked.
Hepburn made nine films with Tracy, and for 27 years was the "other woman" in his life. Tracy, a Roman Catholic, would not divorce his wife. Hepburn once said she loved him but did not remember if he had ever told her he loved her.
She had a 1930s affair with billionaire Howard Hughes, but recounted in her 1991 biography, Me, that she never loved him. In 1996, the Hartford, Connecticut native gave up her New York townhouse that she had kept since the 1930s.
She retreated to a family mansion in Fenwick, a smart borough in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, on Long Island Sound. There she lived a reclusive life and was rarely seen in public. Friends said she suffered from short-term memory loss, but it was unclear if she had Alzheimer's. - (Reuters)