Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Connecticut, and went on to become a leading actress on stage and screen for over sixty years. She was famous for being fiercely independent, outspoken, and spirited, and she brought that same energy to the roles she played, often portraying strong-willed, sophisticated women. Her work ranged from screwball comedies to literary dramas. She holds the record for the most Academy Awards for Best Actress, with four wins, and also earned two BAFTAs, a Primetime Emmy, and nominations for two Tonys, two Grammys, and eight Golden Globes. The American Film Institute named her the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema in 1999.

Hepburn grew up in Connecticut with progressive parents. Her father was a urologist, and her mother was a feminist campaigner who fought for women’s suffrage and birth control. Both parents pushed for social change, and Hepburn joined her mother at “Votes For Women” demonstrations as a child. The family encouraged open debate and freedom of speech, and Hepburn later credited her upbringing for her success. She was a tomboy who called herself Jimmy, cut her hair short, and was taught by her father to swim, run, dive, ride, wrestle, and play golf and tennis. Golf became a passion, and she reached the semifinals of the Connecticut Young Women’s Golf Championship. She also loved swimming in Long Island Sound and took ice-cold baths daily. From a young age, she was a film fan and would put on plays for neighbors, charging 50 cents a ticket to raise money for the Navajo.

When Hepburn was 13, her older brother Tom died by suicide, which she discovered. The family denied it was suicide, but the event made her nervous, moody, and withdrawn. She left school and was tutored privately. For years, she used her brother’s birthday as her own, only revealing her true birth date in her 1991 autobiography. She began acting at Bryn Mawr College, which she entered in 1924.

Positive reviews for her Broadway work brought her to Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her third film, *Morning Glory* (1933), but then had a string of commercial failures, including the critically praised but box office flop *Bringing Up Baby* (1938). She turned things around by buying out her RKO contract and acquiring the film rights to *The Philadelphia Story*, selling them on the condition that she star in it. That film was a hit and earned her a third Oscar nomination. In the 1940s, she signed with MGM, where she began a 26-year screen partnership with Spencer Tracy, making nine films together.

Later in her career, Hepburn took on Shakespearean stage roles and literary parts. She found success playing mature, independent women, often unmarried or widowed, as in *The African Queen* (1951). She won three more Oscars for *Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner* (1967), *The Lion in Winter* (1968), and *On Golden Pond* (1981). In the 1970s, she moved into television films, which became her main focus. She made her final screen appearance at age 87 and died in 2003 at 96 after a period of ill health.

Hepburn famously avoided Hollywood publicity and refused to follow societal expectations for women. She was outspoken, assertive, and athletic, and wore pants long before it was common. She married once, as a young woman, but lived independently afterward. Through her unconventional life and the independent characters she played, she came to represent the “modern woman” in 20th-century America and helped change how women were perceived.