Katharine Hepburn 1933, 1967, 1968, 1981

Katharine Hepburn was not one of Hollywood's more lovable stars, nor did she ever aim to be. She once observed of the young Maggie Smith: "She has the real star thing, the quality to irritate," and that same quality was very important throughout Hepburn's six decades of screen stardom. There were always those filmgoers who could not stand her at any price, to such an extent that when, in 1938, a leading distributor labelled about a dozen top box office stars "box office poison", Hepburn was the only one on the list that anyone afterwards remembered. By the end of her career she had won a record four Oscars for best leading actress -the first for Morning Glory and the last for On Golden Pond, almost 50 years later. In between she forged a famous alliance with Spencer Tracy, and their partnership in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? led her to an Oscar in 1968.

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Bette Davis 1935, 1938

Bette Davis, who died in a Paris hospital on October 6, at the age of 81, was one of the most durable of all Hollywood film stars, and what does not necessarily follow one of those most unmistakably gifted with an acting talent. She was an actress of striking presence, rather than conventional beauty, whose main physical asset was her large eyes. She first made her reputation as the suffering heroine of melodrama, in a genre popularly known as the ``woman's picture''. Later, as she matured towards middle age, she played a gallery of steely, wilful and scheming women, who knew exactly what they wanted and were usually able to get it. In a third, though less distinguished phase of her career, she became a mistress of the grotesque in a series of horror films. Davis won her Oscars for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938).

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Vivien Leigh 1939, 1951

At the age of 21 Vivien Leigh became an overnight success. She died in mid-career, at the age of 53, about to star in a West End play. As a beginner she won success in London as a girl with nothing to commend her but beauty and as a young woman she became an international star with her film portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara. She continued to shine playing Blanche Du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire. She proved herself one of the actresses who , always themselves, are always different, always learning, always turning their looks and personality to new, scrupulously prepared dramatic account. Leigh won Best Actress in a Leading Role as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.

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Ingrid Bergman 1944, 1956

Ingrid Bergman was a screen personality who managed remarkably to bridge the gap between film star and actress: though as a classic Hollywood star her face and personality were her principle fortune, she demonstrated at difficult stages in her career considerable gifts as an actress which carried her though one major reversal in her career and brought her back with her standing enhanced, if anything by the setback. Her most famous role was alongside Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942). She won her Oscar for Anastasia.

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