On Golden Pond (1981) gave Katharine Hepburn her fourth Academy Award for Best Actress, as Ethel Thayer, the warm and witty wife of Norman Thayer, played by Henry Fonda.
The film follows an elderly couple at their lakeside home in Maine, as they face ageing, family tensions and the arrival of a young visitor. Hepburn played Ethel with a gentle humour that balanced Fonda’s gruff Norman, and their scenes together became the film’s emotional heart.
It was a fitting late triumph. Ethel is not a grand or showy role, but Hepburn made her feel completely real, and the Academy Award recognised a lifetime of work as much as this one performance.
Image: Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katharine_hepburn_woman_of_the_year_cropped.jpg