They met on the set of The Woman of the Year and fell in love immediately. He never left his wife and together they never showed up at social gatherings. However, for almost thirty years, they formed an indestructible couple, as well in life as in the cinema.
They wrote neither the first nor the last love story in Hollywood, but they marked an era by giving life to an idyll of almost three decades and the leading role in nine unforgettable films. Perhaps Tess and Sam, their characters in the movie Woman of the Year, have engulfed them in such a way as to turn fictional into the best real-life script.
1941. Katharine Houghton Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were established stars of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios but had yet to work together. What's more, they had never crossed paths in that tangle of sets that made up the great universe of the Hollywood emporium. It was the producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz who decided, with a view to the imminent filming of Woman of the Year, to unite them to lead the cast of that production that would become one of the highest-grossing in the history of the seventh art. Mankiewicz's nose was unquestionable.
The director George Stevens also agreed with the duo both for their artistic qualities and for what they could generate around the call and the fertile box office that production of these characteristics needed. So with those responsible for MGM agreeing on everything, the next step was to convince the possible protagonists of the story. It didn't cost too much. Although, in between, in the first meeting, there were some reservations on both sides. Force measurement. "Mr. Tracy, you are not as tall as I expected," she snapped as soon as she saw him. The producer had to come to the actor's rescue and silenced her with a “Don't worry, Kate. He, with his talent, will reduce you to his size. Touch. The award-winning gallant was not far behind. "You have very dirty nails," he told her without a filter. Thus began an intense, passionate, and chemical bond. A relationship that was born on the set and quickly transcended the personal sphere to become one of the most intense, and forbidden, loves that the entertainment industry has brought to life.
Hepburn was never an easy woman. She always told herself that she was one of the actresses with the greatest personality in the medium, without qualms about saying what she thought and fighting with whom she had to fight. She was not one of those divas who, to ascend in her stellarity, approached the hottest sun. On the contrary. However, that frankness allowed her to rise to the top and be valued for her sincerity. No half measures. Authentic, but unmanageable.
“The arrogant one”, the nickname she had been given in the middle of her had reached her ears. But she was immutable. "That's how I am," she refuted. And that is why she was left alone, with very few friends, when she died on June 29, 2003, at the age of 96.
That same conceit is what scared Tracy away as soon as she met her. He was used to dealing with more docile women, actresses who revered him, and the good manners of his wife Louise, to whom he had been married since 1923.
In the middle of the 20th century, Kate carried herself as an advanced woman, with transgressions and liberties that the female gender would conquer much later. That may be why Tess Harding's characterization of her was so accurate. "The Woman of the Year" was a character tailored to her. Unpunished. It is said that fits of rage were common when she did not agree with any marking. Among the legends of groups, a strong discussion with Joseph Mankiewicz emerged, whom she ended up spitting on. When it was her turn to shoot Mary Stuart (Kate was a great interpreter of classics, as well as light and blockbuster characters), John Ford no longer tolerated her and ran off the set forcing her to continue directing her, which, of course, did not happen. Such was her temperament that, already in old age, she was encouraged to swim in the waters of Long Island in the middle of winter or drink whiskey and soda, her favorite infusion.
These rebellions of character were fostered from her earliest childhood by her urologist father and her suffragist mother. However, despite her intolerance, Kate had her feet on the ground and she confessed, more than once, that she was not going to have children because she would be "unbearable as a mother."
Spencer Tracy never separated from his legal wife. Curiously, the rebellious Kate accepted this irregular situation. Which speaks of the enormous love she felt for him. She, who did and undid her way, could not impose her conditions. That was the way it was and she Kate didn't want to lose him. She accepted the rules of the game as they were given. It wasn't easy leading a married life when he had formal commitments. She suffered from these circumstances with a lot of pain and dedication. He never had a double message and put the cards on the table from day one.
Her life was not easy. The actor suffered from a strong addiction to alcohol. It is said that his son's hearing disability was a pain that he could never overcome and led him to sporadic forgetfulness that he only gives the drink. One problem to "overcome" another.
For her wife, her relationship was not easy either, she had to accept her husband's romances with girls who wanted to move up. And, above all, the formalized relationship, in the shadows, with a consecrated and intelligent Kate. But she accepted them so as not to lose him or to not cause greater pain to the two children of the marriage.
Two women and one man. Two relationships with their own codes. No interference with each other. Each one found a way to carry on with her life and lose as little as possible.
Katharine and Louise never crossed paths. Each one knew what her space was. And, even though Spencer never divorced his legal wife, the one who held him back on a day-to-day basis was the actress, his partner in film adventures, who managed to turn his body on like no one had ever done before. other. The same one with whom he exchanged harsh epithets as soon as he met her and, nevertheless, formed an absolutely carnal and spiritual couple.
Kate was the one who helped him with his alcohol addiction. It is even said that she had to endure acts of violence when he, totally overwhelmed by drink, raised his hand to her and then asked her for forgiveness. It was also she who advised him on his career when the coveted roles did not come his way. Spencer suffered if, professionally, she was more than him.
They never lived together. This was one of the clauses of this dysfunctional love. "If he had left him, we would both have been miserable," she once said. That is love. With its own rules for each couple. "There are no formulas to love, my dear," he said in her ear to comfort her in the face of those raptures in which the diva sought to formalize a more natural bond.
Such was the discretion that they sought to maintain that they did not attend social gatherings or premieres together. But Kate celebrated when a new project appeared to develop together. It was the way to be closer than usual. To sit on her feet in the dressing room and talk. His intelligence fascinated her. And her decisive temper captivated him, accustomed to more docile women. A tasty cocktail crossed by the chemistry of a skin that contained them.
