Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. She worked in a varied range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer.
Katharine Hepburn
June 29, 2003 (aged 96)
Actress
1928–1995
Spencer Tracy (1941–1967; his death)
- Katharine M. Hepburn (mother)
Katharine Houghton (niece)
Schuyler Grant (grandniece)
See Houghton family
Raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn began to act while at Bryn Mawr College. Favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Her early years in film brought her international fame, including an Academy Award for Best Actress for her third film, Morning Glory (1933), but this was followed by a series of commercial failures culminating in the critically lauded box office failure Bringing Up Baby (1938). Hepburn masterminded her comeback, buying out her contract with RKO Radio Pictures and acquiring the film rights to The Philadelphia Story, which she sold on the condition that she be the star. That comedy film was a box office success and landed her a third Academy Award nomination. In the 1940s, she was contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where her career focused on an alliance with Spencer Tracy. The screen partnership spanned 26 years and produced nine films.
Hepburn challenged herself in the latter half of her life as she tackled Shakespearean stage productions and a range of literary roles. She found a niche playing mature, independent, and sometimes unmarried women such as in The African Queen (1951), a persona the public embraced. Hepburn received three more Academy Awards for her performances in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981). In the 1970s, she began appearing in television films, which later became her focus. She made her final screen appearance at the age of 87. After a period of inactivity and ill health, Hepburn died in 2003 at the age of 96.
Hepburn famously shunned the Hollywood publicity machine, and refused to conform to societal expectations of women. She was outspoken, assertive, athletic, and wore pants before it was fashionable. She married once, as a young woman, but thereafter lived independently. A 26-year affair with her co-star Spencer Tracy was hidden from the public. With her unconventional lifestyle and the independent characters she brought to the screen, Hepburn came to epitomize the "modern woman" in 20th-century America and influenced changing popular perceptions of women. In 1999, she was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute.
Career[edit]
Breaking into theatre (1928–1932)[edit]
Hepburn left university determined to become an actress.[27] The day after graduating, she traveled to Baltimore to meet Edwin H. Knopf, who ran a successful stock theatre company.[28] Impressed by her eagerness, Knopf cast Hepburn in his current production, The Czarina.[29] She received good reviews for her small role, and the Printed Word described her performance as "arresting".[30] She was given a part in the following week's show, but her second performance was less well received. She was criticized for her shrill voice, and so left Baltimore to study with a voice tutor in New York City.[31]
Personal life[edit]
Public image and character[edit]
Hepburn was known for being fiercely private,[219] and would not give interviews or talk to fans for much of her career.[84] She distanced herself from the celebrity life and was not interested in a social scene she saw as tedious and superficial. [232] She wore casual clothes that went strongly against convention in an era of glamour.[233] She rarely appeared in public, avoided restaurants and once wrestled a camera out of a photographer's hand when he took a picture without asking.[234][235] Despite her zeal for privacy, she enjoyed her fame and later confessed that she would not have liked the press to ignore her.[236] The protective attitude toward her private life thawed as she aged; beginning with a two-hour-long interview on The Dick Cavett Show in 1973, Hepburn became more open with the public.[237]