It was Dorothy Parker who, referring to one of Katharine Hepburn's stage performances, made the notorious witticism about her running "the gamut of emotions from A to B".

**** ****

Katharine Hepburn was one of the glories of the American cinema. Even if, in her final performances, her taut skin and famously high cheekbones had started to lend her facial features the appearance of a death's-head (she would have made a wonderfully convincing Karen Blixen), and the Parkinson's-like tremors with which she was afflicted had become increasingly visible, there remained about her presence what one can only describe as a "sheen". No one who saw her in her heyday will ever forget that potent fusion of droll, spoilt-child petulance with incomparably glamorous pose and self-assurance.

Gilbert Adair Independent UK 01 July 2003