Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, need I say anymore? For those of you who are not fans (and shame on you if you are not) – Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn were Hollywood classics who felt an instant attraction for each other and despite her reputation as the outspoken, trailblazer that she was – what Tracy wanted to do, where he wanted to live, even what films he wanted to make – that was what Hepburn wanted to do too.
Friends & Lovers
Despite her outspoken nature, Hepburn was an intensely private woman and her infamous relationships with Hugh Hefner and others made her very alluring in an era of sexpots and demure goddesses – she was unlike any other woman in Hollywood and she intended to stay that way. Though she and the very married Spencer Tracy cared for each other desperately, they never lived together and were rarely seen out and about together.
It’s important to understand the significance of Katherine Hepburn, her relationship with Spencer Tracy was legendary, but it never carried an aura of adultery – she was not the Angelina Jolie to his Brad Pitt. There was remarkably little scandal about them because the public and even their peers perceived them very much the way they did their characters.
“Perhaps men and women should live next door and just visit now and then.”
– Katherine Hepburn
Hepburn was confident, forceful, independent and very much capable of holding her own. She wore pants suits during a time when it was expected that women would wear dresses and skirts. She was very much in charge of her own career and she didn’t let the studios own her. She bought herself out of contract in order to avoid being cast in films she didn’t like and didn’t want to perform in.
According to one story, the studios actually took away all her pants in order to force her to wear a skirt for a role. In absolute defiance, she walked around the studio lot in her underwear until her pants were returned to her. She had the power to make her own choices and one of those choices was Spencer Tracy.
Hepburn had always admired Tracy’s acting style and when she had the opportunity (as she did in 1942) she requested that Spencer Tracy star opposite her in the film Woman of the Year. From the moment they met, the chemistry between them was powerful and moviegoers responded to it. That first meeting led to 9 more films and a love affair that lasted 27 years. Though their relationship was powerful and their passion for each other direct and obvious, they married.
There was a rumor for years that this was because Tracy couldn’t divorce because he was Catholic, but the simple truth is – Hepburn and Tracy preferred their relationship the way it was. Hepburn once said, “Perhaps men and women should live next door and just visit now and then.”
Spencer Tracy had always been a binge drinker and after years of it, he began to grow ill. Hepburn left the acting business to care for him at the estate of a good friend. They made one last film together, probably one of their most famous for this generation: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Tracy died not long after the film was completed and Hepburn won an Oscar.
Hepburn made many spectacular films throughout her career and she lived for nearly 3 decades after Tracy died and she remained an active and vigorous woman well into her 90s. She died in June of 2003 and shortly thereafter an biography was released that she consented to be interviewed for, but only on the condition that it not see the light of day until she was dead. Even in the pages of that memoir, do you see the deep and abiding love and respect she carried for Spencer Tracy long after he died.
Though their relationship defied the conventions of their time, their romance is one of the most romantic to be produced by Hollywood – on or off the screen. So my hat is off to Tracy and Hepburn – you have only to check out one of their fantastic films to see the chemistry that existed between them.
Love Letters are a part of our 14 Days of Romance here in the Marriage Blog, we hope you enjoy them!
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