‘He was remarkable’ Katherine Hepburn pays tribute to ‘brilliant’ co-star Spencer Tracy
KATHERINE HEPBURN never publicly spoke about her romance with the married Hollywood actor that lasted over two decades until he passed away in 1967.
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Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy appeared in nine different movies together throughout their careers. However, their relationship offscreen remained publicly unacknowledged until he died of a heart attack. In an episode of BBC Two’s Talking Pictures, the actress paid tribute to her former love and colleague.
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The couple first met when they were shooting the romantic comedy-drama film Woman of The Year in 1942.
Despite their chemistry both on and off-screen, Spencer was a devout Catholic which meant divorcing his wife Louise Tracy wasn’t an option.
It wasn’t until both Tracey and his wife passed away that Katherine publicly spoke about their partnership which she touched on in her 1991 interview with Barbara Walters.
Barbara asked the actress if she believed that she brought out certain qualities in her co-star on-screen that he hadn’t used before.
Katherine replied: “I have no idea and Spencer isn’t here so we can’t ask him.
“He was a brilliant actor, Spencer Tracy, I think, but he had pure concentration.
“His concentration was far superior to mine. In fact, remarkable.”
Barbara questioned if the couple ever discussed acting when working together throughout their careers.
The Hollywood actress revealed that she and Spencer never discussed work and called it “amazing” that they didn’t.
In the late '60s, he had become ill which resulted in Katherine putting her career on hold in order to look after him.
The last film they worked on together was Look who’s coming to dinner in 1967 which resulted in Katherine winning an Oscar for her performance.
Sadly, he never watched the film as 17 days after the shoot was done, he died from a heart attack.
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Katherine also never watched the film as she said it would have been far too painful to see.
Speaking about his final years of life, she said: “I didn’t act so much because he was not feeling too well, he wasn’t feeling very confident and I was in a position to alleviate that situation for him.
“He was my good good friend, that seemed wonderful to me, to be that useful.”
She also revealed that during that time period, she was at an age where a woman’s career “nosedives” so she believed she was being spared while looking after Tracy.
The interviewer touched on her book Me: Stories of My Life where Katherine mentions that she should have married Spencer.
Katherine replied: “Well, who will ever know? I mean, I never would have had an opportunity to because he was not in a position to offer that and it just worked very nicely for us as it was.
“When I met Spencer I discovered myself. Do you know what I mean? That apparently meant a great deal to me, I think it must have.
“But he had me, I didn’t have him necessarily! Do you know what I mean? Cause one person has to make that relationship work. I think I know how, and I think I did make it work.”
Talking Pictures is available on BBC iPlayer.
