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Today is Katharine Hepburn 's 119th birthday. From her motion picture debut in A Bill of Divorcement (1932) to iconic performances in such films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), The African Queen (1951), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and On Golden Pond (1981), she had a career like no other. She won four Academy Awards, the most out of any other performer, and got nominated for eight more. She was intelligent, headstrong, independent and outspoken, at a time when women were generally regarded as being the opposite. She was always unapologetically herself; there were no airs about her, no pretense, no façade. She was always just Kate. This is her life in photos. At the age of four, in 1911.   With fellow Bryn Mawr students Margaret Barker (left) and Elizabeth Stewart (middle) in a production of A. A. Milne's The Truth About Blayds , in April 1927.    In costume for the Broadway play The Lake , in November 1934.    With Ginge...

Today is Cary Grant's 122nd birthday. Known for his distinctive mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanour, light-hearted approach to acting, and impeccable comic timing, he was one of the most iconic leading men of Hollywood's Golden Age. Renowned for his performances in romantic screwball comedies such as The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940) and The Philadelphia (1940), he also received acclaim for serious roles in films like Penny Serenade (1941) and None But the Lonely Heart (1944), and his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, which included Suspicious (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959). He was nominated for two Academy Awards, five Golden Globes and a BAFTA, received a Star on the Walk of Fame in 1960, and remained a top box-office attraction for almost 30 years. To celebrate the man, the myth, the legend, this is his life in pictures.

I started this blog six years ago as a way to share my passion for classic films and the Old Hollywood era. I used to watch dozens of classic films every month, and every time I discovered a new star I liked I would go and watch their entire filmography. But somewhere along the way, that passion dimmed down. For instance, I watched 73 classic films in 2016, and only 10 in 2020. The other day, I found this film with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. that I had never heard of, and for some reason it made me really excited about Old Hollywood again. It made me really miss the magic of that era and all the wonderful actors and actresses that graced the silver screen. And it also made me think of all the reasons why I fell in love with classic films in the first place. I came up with 80 reasons, which I thought would be fun to share with you. Most of them are just random little scenes or quirky little quotes, but put them together and they spell Old Hollywood to me. Yesterday I posted part one ; here i...