Katharine the Great

Katharine Hepburn long ago transcended run-of-the-mill "Star" status. She is no longer even a mere Legend, but rather is firmly entrenched in the public psyche as a venerable and very much loved Institution.
Who can begin to compare? Never mind the record 4 Academy Awards for Best Actress --she never took the Oscars seriously anyway. Never mind her sheer longevity as a star--she has made films for *seven decades*. Ignore the incredible range of her performances, and her ability to move easily from stage to screen and back again. What do you have aside from all of that? Sheer, unadulterated STAR POWER, charisma, hard-nosed Yankee pragmatism, and indomitable independence. Not to mention those cheekbones! Someone once referred to them as "The greatest calcium deposits since the White Cliffs of Dover."
Hepburn has represented for decades an ideal of independent womanhood that millions have admired and aspired to, but no one could ever duplicate. She was strong and self-sufficent years before modern feminism was even conceived. And yet, that strength has never made her less than a woman, never overridden her basic appeal as both an actress and a human being.

A portrait from The Philadelphia Story, 1940.
Kate and Cary spot a leopard! Bringing Up Baby, 1938.
As the starry-eyed Terry Randall in Stage Door, 1937.
Practicing a stunt with Cary Grant for Holiday, 1938.
As "Swingin' Door Susie" in Bringing Up Baby, 1938.
With Cary Grant in Holiday, 1938.
On the cover of Silver Screen, December 1933.

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