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Katharine Hepburn's image would evolve again in the 1950s and 1960s, when the now-middle-aged Kate focused on diversifying her acting. She starred with the leading actors of the day, including Humphrey Bogart, Montgomery Clift, and Elizabeth Taylor, and appeared in roles that stretched from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams. Her last film with Spencer Tracy, the Oscar-winning Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), brought closure to that phase of her career.

From 1968 on, Kate embarked on a professional tour-de-force, teaming with John Wayne (in Rooster Cogburn in 1975) and winning her third and unprecedented fourth Best Actress Oscars for The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). She also starred in her first and only Broadway musical, Coco (1969), and did such made-for-television plays as Love Among the Ruins (1975), with Sir Laurence Olivier.

In her long and legendary life, Katharine Hepburn was a role model who resonated beyond the screen and across generations—feisty, fearless, and unapologetically self-centered. As she exclaimed to Dick Cavett in a 1973 interview: “I am absolutely fascinating!” And she was right.

 
   
         
 
     
Photograph of Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn in "The Lion in Winter"   Photograph of Katharine Hepburn and Sir Laurence Olivier in "Love Among the Ruins," ABC
Click to enlarge image Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn in "The Lion in Winter," Avco Embassy, 1968
Unidentified artist, 1968
Photo reproduction
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Core Production Stills Collection, Beverly Hills, California
  Click to enlarge image Katharine Hepburn and Sir Laurence Olivier in "Love Among the Ruins," ABC
Unidentified artist, 1975
Photo reproduction
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Performing Arts Non-Film Collection, Beverly Hills, California
 
         
 
     
Photograph of Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne in "Rooster Cogburn," Universal, 1975   Painting of Katharine Hepburn
Click to enlarge image Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne in "Rooster Cogburn," Universal, 1975
Unidentified artist, 1975
Photo reproduction
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Special Collections Color Stills, Beverly Hills, California
  Click to enlarge image Katharine Hepburn
Everett Raymond Kinstler (born 1926), 1982
Oil on canvas
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Everett Raymond Kinstler
© 1982 Everett Raymond Kinstler
 
         
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