Katharine Hepburn

Lore & Background

Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the second of six children. Her father was a urologist and her mother a feminist campaigner who headed the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association. As a child, Hepburn joined her mother on 'Votes For Women' demonstrations. She was a tomboy who called herself Jimmy, cut her hair short, and became adept at golf, reaching the semi-final of the Connecticut Young Women's Golf Championship. In March 1921, at age 13, she discovered the body of her older brother Tom, who had died from an apparent suicide; the family denied it was suicide. The incident made her nervous and moody, and she was tutored privately for years. She later used her brother's birthday as her own until her 1991 autobiography revealed her true birth date.

Hepburn attended Bryn Mawr College, where she began acting in college plays. After graduating in 1928, she pursued a theatrical career. Her early Broadway work included a role in These Days, which closed after eight nights, and she was fired from several productions. In 1932, favorable reviews of her Broadway work brought her to Hollywood. Her third film, Morning Glory (1933), won her an Academy Award for Best Actress, but a series of commercial failures followed, culminating in the critically lauded box office failure Bringing Up Baby (1938). She made a comeback by buying out her contract with RKO and acquiring the film rights to The Philadelphia Story, which she sold on condition that she star. That film was a box office success and earned her a third Academy Award nomination.

In the 1940s, Hepburn 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. Later in life, she acted in Shakespearean stage productions and literary roles, finding a niche playing mature, independent women such as in The African Queen (1951). She received three more Academy Awards for 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 age 87 and died in 2003 at age 96.

Reader's Guide

Katharine Hepburn is significant for her record four Academy Awards for Best Actress, a feat unmatched in acting categories. She cultivated a screen persona of headstrong independence and regularly played strong-willed, sophisticated women, which matched her public image. Hepburn shunned the Hollywood publicity machine and refused to conform to societal expectations of women; she wore pants before it was fashionable, was outspoken and athletic, and lived independently after a brief early marriage. With her unconventional lifestyle and the independent characters she brought to the screen, she came to epitomize the 'modern woman' in 20th-century America and influenced changing popular perceptions of women. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema. Her career spanned six decades and a varied range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and her partnership with Spencer Tracy produced nine films over 26 years.

Did You Know?

• Hepburn discovered the body of her older brother Tom in March 1921; the family denied it was suicide and maintained it was an experiment that went wrong.
• She used her brother Tom's birthday (November 8) as her own for many years, only revealing her true birth date in her 1991 autobiography.
• Hepburn made her comeback by buying out her contract with RKO Radio Pictures and acquiring the film rights to The Philadelphia Story, which she sold on condition that she star.
• She was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute in 1999.