Rebuttal to Beaton

Cecil Beaton was no friend of Katharine Hepburn’s, nor was he an authority (“What He Really Thought,” by Peter Whittle, Oct. 30). I am, having produced her last three films and the very last scene she ever performed in front of a motion picture camera (at a glowing 87 years old) in Truman Capote’s “One Christmas.”

For the last 15 years I’ve had the profound pleasure of sharing my life and work with this magnificent creature, whose graciousness, kindness, generosity and boundless love of life buoyed my spirits in the bleakest of times.

Alas, Mr. Beaton, you never knew Katharine Hepburn, nor, obviously, will you ever. Your remarks from the grave remain, as Mr. Dickens would say, “Dead as a doornail.”

John Philip Dayton

Shadow Hills