Kate and Larry turn 100

This month marks the birth centenary of two of the most iconic actors of the last century. Sir Laurence Olivier is widely considered the greatest classical performer of his time, a man who, in his capacity as actor and director, took English theatre to new heights and revolutionised the treatment of Shakespeare on celluloid. Katharine Hepburn, a four-time Oscar winner, was among the world's most respected film actresses for decades. They were born within days of each other on separate continents in May 1907, their long acting careers ran parallel (especially after Olivier overcame his initial disdain for cinema) and they were long-time friends (Hepburn was the impromptu maid-of-honour at the hush-hush late-night wedding ceremony of Olivier and Vivien Leigh in 1940). However, they acted together only once, in a lightweight made-for TV movie titled Love Among the Ruins, very late in their careers. It's probably just as well; too much star power can cause film stock to ignite.

The 100-year celebrations are underway with the release of special DVD box sets and screenings around the world "" as well as reprints of books about Hepburn and Olivier. Here are two personal favourites:

Tracy and Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir
by Garson Kanin (first published by Viking in 1971) "We do not remember chronologically but in disordered flashes," writes playwright/screenwriter Garson Kanin in the Preface to this tender, wonderfully personal account of his long friendship with Hepburn and her favourite leading man Spencer Tracy. What he achieves in this book is remarkable, especially because this is not a structured story of two lives. Instead, Kanin hands the stage "" or the page "" over to his free-flowing memories of Hepburn and Tracy. This results in a collection of anecdotes that seemingly follow no pattern but which add up to much more than the sum of its part. Hepburn and Tracy come alive here in a manner that most standard biographies could never achieve.

As a friend and confidante, Kanin was uniquely placed to comment on the quirkier aspects of Hepburn's personality that made her an oddity among the media-savvy, camera-friendly movie stars of her time. His vantage point also allowed him to relate delightful little stories such as the one where she raises her hand dramatically and swears on her mother's life while telling a blatant lie, and later tells Kanin offhandedly: "It's an arrangement I have with my mother. She swears on my life too. All the time."

What emerges is a picture of an intensely private person living in the public gaze, a maverick in the truest, most un-put on sense of the word "" this was a woman who wore trousers on Hollywood sets, unheard of for an actress in the 1930s, not to make a statement but simply because she wanted to "" and, of course, an outstanding actress.

Laurence Olivier: A Biography
by Donald Spoto (first published by HarperCollins in 1991) But if it's the conventional biography you're seeking, you can't do much better than Spoto's comprehensive, well-researched but also very compact account of Olivier's life and career. This book is in equal parts a life history and a psychological profile of a very complex man who was always trying to raise the bar for himself and his peers. Almost by default, it's also an illuminating portrait of the English theatre (and, to an extent, Hollywood) in the 20th century, especially between the 1920s and the 1960s.

Spoto is particularly good at contrasting "Larry" with "Lord Olivier" "" that is, setting the humbleness of Olivier's origins against his eventual status as a revered public figure and a knight of the British Empire. In making this contrast, he captures the man's deep-rooted insecurities, his overwhelming need to be the very best in his profession and his often churlish attitude towards his great rival John Gielgud, who was of more genteel stock. In fact, Olivier's deliberately unconventional approach "" spitting out Shakespeare's words, for instance, instead of reciting them mellifluously; interpreting Iago as a homosexual driven by his feelings for Othello "" probably came from the need to defy the classical tradition that Gielgud was a flagbearer for.

Rereading these books, I realised that what Hepburn and Olivier had in common apart from the levels of excellence they achieved was they were both mavericks, way ahead of their time. It's hard to believe they would have turned hundred this month, so fresh are their legacies and personal styles.