MacFormat España 17/MacFormat 17 (Spain)/MacFormat 17.bin/DATABASE/SHARED.DIR/01518_82.cap.txt

Text File | 1996-03-14 | 4.1 KB | 259 lines

@
Hepburn came
from a wealthy
New England
background. Her
father was a
surgeon and her
mother was an
early campaigner
for women's
rights, inspiring a
spirit of indep-
endence and
strength of
character in her
daughter that
was reflected in
the powerful
female roles
she excelled
in playing
#
After her debut
on Broadway,
Hollywood
success followed
with A Bill of
Divorcement
(1932). In 1933
she played Jo in
Little Women,
and garnered her
first best actress
Oscar for
Morning Glory.
Her own account
of her start in the
business shows
that she was a
very shrewd
player even then
#
Hepburn's gift for
comedy emerged
in  films with
Cary Grant,
particularly
Holiday and
Bringing up
Baby. During
rehearsals for
The Philadelphia
Story, Grant
staged a mock
protest against
Hepburn's
trousers by
wearing a skirt
#
Hepburn's
relationship with
Spencer Tracy
was one of the
great screen
partnerships,
starting with
Woman of the
Year (1942).
They were
partners off
screen too,
though they
never married
#
Hepburn has
always had her
own idiosyncratic
style. She liked to
keep fit, bicycled
everywhere and,
off screen,
insisted on
wearing trousers
and flat shoes, in
stark contrast to
the glamour
image of other
Hollywood
leading ladies
#
Hepburn had made nearly 30 films by 1951 when she starred in John
Huston's The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart. The role
earned her a fourth Academy Award nomination for best actress
#
The relationship
between Hepburn
and Tracy
endured, and
Hepburn nursed
him for the last
five years before
he died in 1967.
They remained
discreet to the
end; asked once
by a reporter if
she loved Tracy,
Hepburn replied,
"Everyone loves
Mr Tracy."
@
Hepburn always
had unshakeable
belief in her
talents and was
renowned among
studio bosses for
her refusal to
compromise as
well as her tough
negotiating
tactics. Off-
screen, her dis-
like of publicity
meant she rarely
gave interviews
#
In 1980 On Golden Pond won Hepburn another Oscar for Best
Actress. The film portrayed an elderly couple coming to terms with
Henry Fonda's imminent death, drawing a poignant parallel with her
25-year affair with Spencer Tracy
#
The strong female
characters that
Hepburn played
in her films were
often an extension
of her own persona.
She was hailed
as technically
perhaps the
greatest screen
actress of all,
but was equally
important for
breaking the
conventional
Hollywood mould
for actresses
@
The Beatles split
was blamed by
many on Yoko
Ono. John doted
on her, and Paul
was deeply
distrustful of her,
But the two
songwriters'
paths had already
diverged, and the
worst that can be
said of Yoko is
that she hastened
the group's
demise
#
The once happy
and fruitful
Beatles
partnership slid
after the break-
up into personal
sniping and legal
bickering. Lennon
released a very
poor song, How
Do You Sleep,
which was a
bitter and vicious
attack on Paul
#
After the Beatles
fell apart the
members moved
on to other
projects. Lennon
moved to New
York, Ringo Starr
got interested in
film, Harrison
made some
respectable
albums in Britain
, and McCartney,
after a period of
peace and quiet,
re-emerged with
what he called a
working skiffle
band - Wings
#
John Lennon was
killed outside his
home in New
York. He had
done little in the
previous five
years, but had
just re-emerged
with a new
album. His death
put paid to the
perennial
rumours that the
Beatles were
about to get back
together
#
If prophetic
photographs are
anything to go by,
it seems Lennon
knew he would
be the first Beatle
to die. Sales in
Beatles records
naturally
rocketed after his
death, and with
his corpus of
work now
complete, the
appraisal of his
legacy, with the
Beatles and
without them,
could begin
#
Paul McCartney's
solo output has
remained
impressive, but
as with Lennon,
the quality
varied. Though
both men strived
to create a
separate musical
identity for
themselves after
the Beatles,
neither could
quite ever escape
the shadow of
their youthful
moptopped selves