Hepburn and Tracy: An Iconoclastic Love Story
By her own admission, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy did not make particularly positive impressions on each other at their first meetings.
Hepburn remembers: "I had always thought Spencer Tracy a wonderful actor, but when Garson said 'wouldn't Spencer Tracy be great as a the man?' Garson said I answered 'Oh--I don't know. I wonder whether we would be good together. We're so different.' Garson also said that when he suggested to Spencer Tracy that he had a script which would be wonderful for Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Spencer had said 'Oh, really--do you think that we would be good together? We're so sort of different.' I, of course, don't remember this at all. I remember only how perfect I thought Spence would be...I am so blinded by years of whatever you call it--that my memory is not trustworthy. Another report about S.T.: 'How can I do a picture with a woman who has dirt under her fingernails and who of ambiguous sexuality and always wears pants?' After this he saw The Philadelphia Story and changed his mind. True or false--who knows?"
Nevertheless, Hepburn chose Tracy to play the hard-scrabble sports reporter to her erudite political affairs columnist in Woman of the Year. The onstage and off-stage chemistry between the pair was palpable and they began a romantic and professional partnership that would last until his death. According to Hepburn, "We started our first picture together and I knew right away that I found him irresistible. Just exactly that, irresistible." A devout Catholic, Tracy never divorced his wife, which suited Hepburn fine because she resolved after her first marriage to remain unmarried. As Hepburn put it, "Even when I was living with Spencer Tracy and he and I were together for twenty seven years, we never really thought about or discussed marriage. He was married and I wasn't interested." During their decades-long love affair, the couple kept separate houses and were careful not to be photographed together socially in public. Nevertheless, their devotion to each other was steadfast, if a bit complicated. There is evidence to suggest that Tracy was not monogamous toward his wife or Hepburn, and Hepburn was known to track him down and take care of him during his alcoholic benders. As Tracy’s health declined, Hepburn spent more and more of her time staying in the cabin he rented on George Cukor’s property and looking after him. It was Hepburn who found him dead from a heart attack in the early hours of the morning and made the necessary calls, but newspaper obituaries would report that it was his housekeeper who found him to maintain the public image of his marriage. Hepburn was not invited to Tracy’s funeral, but said her own goodbye, loading his casket into the hearse and following the car until they came in view of the church were the ceremony was to take place. It was only after Louise’s death in 1983 that Hepburn publicly acknowledged her relationship with Tracy.
Hepburn remembers: "I had always thought Spencer Tracy a wonderful actor, but when Garson said 'wouldn't Spencer Tracy be great as a the man?' Garson said I answered 'Oh--I don't know. I wonder whether we would be good together. We're so different.' Garson also said that when he suggested to Spencer Tracy that he had a script which would be wonderful for Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Spencer had said 'Oh, really--do you think that we would be good together? We're so sort of different.' I, of course, don't remember this at all. I remember only how perfect I thought Spence would be...I am so blinded by years of whatever you call it--that my memory is not trustworthy. Another report about S.T.: 'How can I do a picture with a woman who has dirt under her fingernails and who of ambiguous sexuality and always wears pants?' After this he saw The Philadelphia Story and changed his mind. True or false--who knows?"
Nevertheless, Hepburn chose Tracy to play the hard-scrabble sports reporter to her erudite political affairs columnist in Woman of the Year. The onstage and off-stage chemistry between the pair was palpable and they began a romantic and professional partnership that would last until his death. According to Hepburn, "We started our first picture together and I knew right away that I found him irresistible. Just exactly that, irresistible." A devout Catholic, Tracy never divorced his wife, which suited Hepburn fine because she resolved after her first marriage to remain unmarried. As Hepburn put it, "Even when I was living with Spencer Tracy and he and I were together for twenty seven years, we never really thought about or discussed marriage. He was married and I wasn't interested." During their decades-long love affair, the couple kept separate houses and were careful not to be photographed together socially in public. Nevertheless, their devotion to each other was steadfast, if a bit complicated. There is evidence to suggest that Tracy was not monogamous toward his wife or Hepburn, and Hepburn was known to track him down and take care of him during his alcoholic benders. As Tracy’s health declined, Hepburn spent more and more of her time staying in the cabin he rented on George Cukor’s property and looking after him. It was Hepburn who found him dead from a heart attack in the early hours of the morning and made the necessary calls, but newspaper obituaries would report that it was his housekeeper who found him to maintain the public image of his marriage. Hepburn was not invited to Tracy’s funeral, but said her own goodbye, loading his casket into the hearse and following the car until they came in view of the church were the ceremony was to take place. It was only after Louise’s death in 1983 that Hepburn publicly acknowledged her relationship with Tracy.