My Relative,Friend and Idol - Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn (1907-2005) was my favorite actress from age 3. She grew up in Hartford,CT. My Grandmother knew her father, who was a neighbor and physician and surgeon, as did my aunt shirley. By pure coincidence I would write to Kate at the age of 17 and become a lifetime friend,correspondent and the last person she ever worked for. Kate acted longer, won more awards (incl. 4 academy awards), than anyone in history. She changed the world's perception of what a women was, how they felt,how they dressed, and how they lived. Kate's mother was a leading suffragette. Kate acted on film from 1933 (with John Barrymore), to 1993 (with Warren Beatty),exactly 60 years. This year I found out the most astonishing thing! Katharine Hepburn and I are related by blood. We are both descendant's of Robert The Bruce, the 1st King of Scotland! This was a fascinating truth for me. This relation began on my paternal side and through many inter - marriages and the uprooting of my female ancestor's (as the female royal always went to her arranged husband's country). The line passed unbroken, weaving it's way to my maternal side, my Grandparents (who were distant cousins). Those Grandparents were named Hirschhaut (Pater) and Hirschaut (Mater). In the end, I am related to my greatest friend of over 20 years,and love (though separated by exactly 60 years in age). Another actor, Lord John Standing, of the 2nd oldest royal family in England, worked on the very same project for me as Kate did. Kate was the Godmother of John's daughter and related to him. So now, as odd as it seems to me, I am related to Lord John Standing, the sweetest gent, and closest friend to my idol Peter O'Toole (Who acted w/ Hepburn in "The lion in Winter", and remained a friend for life). What a small world, and how little we truly know. I am also related to Nanette Newman, the Mother of John Standings's 2nd wife. As a note, John Standing's Grandfather ( Lord Guy Standing ), acted with John Barrymore in a "Bulldog Drummond" film. Guy Standing died while filming by rattlesnake bite in Los Angeles. John Barrymore (aka The Great Profile), frequented the famous Connecticut home of William Gillette (Gillette Castle). Both played Sherlock Holmes, My Grandfather's favorite Book. My grandfather and grandmother lived in a house my aunt (their daughter) purchased for them in Old Saybrook/Fenwick Point (where Katharine Hepburn lived, and minutes from Gillette Castle). My favorite place on earth since childhood has been Gillette Castle and I never tire of taking it's amazing tour, complete with an exact duplicate room of Sherlock Holmes' flat inside. (Jeremy Brett, the finest actor to portray Sherlock Holmes, is also a distant relative of mine).My point, we are all connected, so be kind to all, you may very well be related! No religion, no color. Fondest to all, Craig (a Scottish name meaning "Crag in a mountain",picked by my mother "randomly" to fit with my sister's name Claudia (meaning "lame one" in Latin, see Claudius: Roman Emperor).