Kate's Dead

[Carolyn]

My all-time favorite movie actress and just plain woman, Katharine Hepburn died today, 96 years young. Not classically beautiful, but god, those cheekbones and that voice. Even though she was past the height of her early fame when I was young, I adored her. Watched all of her movies on TV, rented old ones.

Then winning Oscars again in her older years. Lion in Winter, what a Eleanor of Aquitaine! What a woman!

[Debbie]

I just read that on CNN and was sad.
I would never miss a movie if she was in it. I spent many Saturday aftrnoons watching another repeat of a Kate movie.
Another shining light in Hollywood has gone out. It is sad there is no one now to "fill the spot."

[Carolyn]

It is sad there is no one now to "fill the spot."

Isn't it funny that nowadays, even though we speak about stars, and I'm sure that there are some people that can act better than some of the stars of the 30s and 40s, nobody is really a star on the grand scale anymore? Despite the celebrity of some people, no one that I can think of really has the glamour that used to exist on and off the big screen.

You can imagine, no matter what, most of those stars would never set foot outside their houses without looking like a star. You wouldn't catch Joan Crawford standing in a line at a Walgreen's or Clark Gable popping into a Burger King. But now that I say that, actually, I KNOW that Kate did stuff like that and she wasn't concerned bout appearances and such, but somehow, she was still larger than life.

So this month alone, we've lost Gregory Peck and Katharine Hepburn. I'm trying to think, are there any more megastars left or was Kate the last? (I don't count Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis in that category).

[Debbie]

How about Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Angela Lansbury, Shirley Temple, Sophia Loren, Bea Arthur for some actresses, and Ernest Borgnine, Richard Widmark, and Micky Rooney for some actors?

I will confess I did check a website for the actors.

But....Kate was the best.

[Carolyn]

Good choices, BUT (and here's some nitpicking), Liz, Shirley Temple and Sophia haven't been acting in the last few decades that I've ever heard of (not that Liz or Sophia ever really acted a whole lot, but - and Shirley hit the skids with puberty). Bea Arthur was never a huge movie star, but did extremely well on TV and I really like her. Angela Lansbury was only a B movie actress, a few supporting roles in the A's, but reached her real celebrity on TV, and NEVER had the sheen of a true movie queen. But they are still alive.

Again, Ernest Borgnine was never a STAR, although he did great movies, Richard Widmark was always the heavy, Mickey Rooney reached his peak in the Andy Hardy and other films with Judy in the 40s, but I doubt you could call him an idol either, except maybe to some teenie boppers. And isn't Borgnine dead as well?

I adored Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, major hots for Cary Grant and Gene Kelly. Admired also, besides Kate, Rosalind Russell and Ava Gardner.

[Natooke]

I really loved & admired her work ... On Golden Pond is one of my all time fav. movies.