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76 | GRAVITAS MAGAZINE GravitasMag.com GREATEST LOVE STORY Hepburn's personal life was as vivid as her onscreen roles. She had relationships with several notable Holly wood insiders, including Howard Hughes. When she returned to MGM and starred alongside Spencer Tracy, the couple developed an on-screen partnership that spanned 25 years and produced nine movies. e famously volatile Tracy-Hepburn off-screen relationship brought a level of chemistr y to their films, believed by many to be the most convincing in movie histor y. She was quoted saying , "I found him irresistible - I would have done any thing for him, but I was perfectly independent, never had any intention of geing married. I wanted to paddle my own canoe. e on- screen relationship also worked wonders in a catapulting Hepburn to super Holly wood stardom, oen stealing the spotlight from other famous leading men. Hepburn found a niche playing middle-aged spinsters, such as in e Aican Queen in 1951, alongside Holly wood legend Humphrey Bogart. She received an Oscar for her work in 1967's Guess W ho's Coming to Dinner, which was also Tracy's last film. Hepburn's devotion to her leading man lasted 27 years, despite the fact that Tracy refused to divorce his wife, Louise, and struggled with alcoholism and guilt over his son's deafness. She nursed Tracy through his final months that had taken their toll aer years of drink ing , smok ing , tak ing pills and being over weight. A er Tracy's death, Hepburn starred in select films, earning Oscars for e Lion in the Winter in 1968 and On Golden Pond in 1981. She remained active into her old age, and made her final screen appearance in 1994 at the age of 87. Showing signs of dementia in 2003, she was diagnosed in 2003 with an aggressive tumor in her neck. She died at the age of 96 on June 29, 2003 at the Hepburn family home in Fenwick, Connecticut. In accordance with her wishes, her belongings were put up for auction with Sotheby's in New York. e event garnered $5.8 million, which Hepburn willed to her family. ENDURING LEGACY Hepburn's Holly wood legacy continues to live today. She is named on Encyclopædia Britannica's list of 300 Women Who Changed the World, Ladies Home Journal 's book, 100 Most Important Women of the 20th century, and Variety magazine's 100 Icons of the Centur y. In 1999, the A merican Film Institute named Hepburn as the "greatest A merican female screen legend." Perhaps her iconic role in life was the most symbolic when she refused to conform to society's expectations of women. Hepburn was outspoken, assertive, athletic, and wore trousers before it was fashionable for women to do so. She made no apologies for her unconventional lifestyle and demanded to portray the independent characters she brought to life on the stage and screen. Film historian Jeanine Basinger said it best: "What she brought us was a new k ind of heroine - modern and independent. She was beautiful, but she did not rely on that." D If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased. " "

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