from Abdiel

Katharine Houghton Hepburn is one the most well acclaimed screen personalities of our times. Her career which lasted for seven decades covered the gamut from romance to drama to comedy. She possessed unique talent and her stardom endured through generations. Though she experienced the ups and downs of a long career she was able to weather the bad times and Hollywood never gave up on her. She still holds the record for the most Oscars won for Best Actress. She won four of them out of twelve nominations, quite an accomplishment.

Hepburn was born May 12, 1907 in Hartford Connecticut. In 1928 she graduated from Bryn Mawr with a degree in history and philosophy. Her debut on Broadway with a bit part in Night Hostess, came that same year. The daughter of a strong willed lady suffragist Katharine Martha Houghton, cofounder of Planned Parenthood, Katherine was raised to speak her mind and be determined. She took control of her career early on and managed to continue working within the framework of the established studios. Her striking beauty was backed by her enormous talent and her strong personality. She filmed over fifty films and partnered with famous leading men, such as Cary Grant and her personal partner Spencer Tracy.

It was during her training at Bryn Mawr, that Hepburn met a producer with a stock company in Maryland, his name was Eddie Knopf. He casted her in the production of The Czarina and The Cradle Snatchers where she performed small roles. Her first leading role on a stage in Great Neck, New York came her way when a producer fired the leading lady of The Big Pond and had Hepburn assume the role. She was totally thrown off balance and was not able to handle the unexpected turn of events, fumbling her lines and speaking so rapidly she was not understood and was fired. Yet, she easily found employment in those early years, and drew attention with her performances, especially for her role in Art and Mrs. Bottle in 1931.

Her upbringing involved rigorous sports activity helped her performances. According to Larry Swindell of the Star Telegram, in her first Broadway lead in the Warrior’s Husband her entrance was a 15 foot leap which she masterfully executed. Katharine Hepburn stage career also included her performance of Shakespearean heroines, such as Viola in Twelfth Night, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, and a spectacular Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, all performed at the American Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut. She was nominated for two Tony Awards: as Best Actress in a Musical in the 1970 production of Coco for the lead role character, and as Best Actress in a Play in 1982 for the leading role of the production The West Side Waltz. After RKO studios finally convince the 22 year old actress to leave the stage, she performed her own pratfalls in films like Bringing Up Baby (1938), a great example of screwball comedy. As a child she won awards for figure skating and developed a love for swimming, even in extremely brisk water, an activity that she practiced into her eighties. Not all was joy in her growing years, at age fourteen she found her brother Tom hanging for a rope tied to the attic’s rafters and fell into depression. Though her family did not talk about it her maternal grandfather and her father's brother, Charlie; also committed suicide. After, her brother Tom’s suicide she avoided crowds and was homeschooled. For years to come she would cite his birthday as her own.




After her first screen performance in 1932 in George Cukor’s A Bill of Divorcement, she became well regarded and commanded good pay for her performance. In 1932, her performance in Morning Glory won her the first Oscar for Best Actress in the role Eva Lovelace opposite Douglas Fairbanks. Her performance in Little Women in the same year is thought to have been the reason for the film to have been the most successful of the year. She soon became one of RKO studios best well known names; her thirst for challenges was endless. After proving herself in melodramas she embarked on a journey in which she proved her comedic strain. It would take her three decades to conquer her second Oscar as Best Actress in the 1967 film Guess Who is Coming to Dinner next to Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier. The following year her outstanding performance in The Lion in the Winter bestowed upon her the recognition of a third Oscar statuette. Her twelve Oscar nominations include roles in notable films, such as Summertime (1955), The Rainmaker (1956), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and Long Day’s Journey into Night (1962). From the start of her career her star shown brighter, even with stiff competition such as Greta Garbo and Bette Davis, she was in a category all her own. However, Hepburn was not as popular in her personal life as she was a talented actor. She could be standoffish denying requests to sign autographs. She showed a different treatment to her co-workers always friendly with crews and stage hands and staff. Yet, her distance earned her the nickname of Katharine of Arrogance and kept fans away from her films.

Probably the most remarkable event of her personal life came when she met Spencer Tracy, in the 1942 production of Woman of the Year directed by George Stevens where she commanded a hefty salary of $ 250,000.00. The pair fell in love, even though Tracy was already married. Their love affair lasted for many decades, spanning from 1943 until Tracy’s death in 1967. They soon became one of the most well known duos on and off screen. Though their liaison was most discreet, it became a legend. They appeared together in nine movies together, including Keeper of the Flame (1942), Adam’s Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), Desk Set (1957), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967). Hepburn and Tracy were very careful to keep their relationship from the public eye, keeping separate households and being extremely cagy not to be spotted out in the town together. According to author William J. Mann “The brilliance and singular devotion she gave to the creation and maintenance of her public image should inspire awe-especially when one sees all that went on behind it”.

Her outspoken style won her as many admirers as detractors but it failed to change her. Sometimes it ran her into problems. In 1972 she was fired by the producer of Travels with my Aunt for demanding too many changes to the script. In 1976 before the start of the shooting of the film The Blue Bird (1976) she dropped out. Her behavior off screen which many determined to be elitist and her remarkable refusal to become tangled in Hollywood’s games, the fact that she never wore make up, always wore slacks and did not attempt to mask her disdain for many of her contemporaries made her unwelcomed, not exactly what the studios expected from their top rated stars. Author of Kate Remembered, A. Scott Berg cites a passage of their first conversation which describes her uncanny honesty "Look, I only invited you for drinks tonight because I ¬wasn't sure how ¬we'd get on, but ¬you're more than welcome to stay for dinner; there's plenty of food. But I can tell by the way ¬you're dressed, and I must say I like that tie, ¬you've got another date. It's probably better if you go anyway because ¬we're starting to talk too much already, and then we ¬won't be fresh for the performance tomorrow. Shall we say eleven?"
She ventured into made-for- TV during the 1970’s with productions such as The Glass Menagerie (1973), Love Among the Ruins (1975) and The Corn is Green (1979). It seemed every endeavor she set to accomplish she could muster with ease. Yet, her career also included such as flops included Break of Hearts (1935), Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Mary of Scotland (1936) and Quality Streets (1937). Her trademark was to play strong willed women with sharp tongues and a mind of their own. She received her share of recognition for her lifelong dedication to acting. She was ranked the number 1 woman in the AFI’s list of “50 Greatest Movie Legends” published in June of 1999. On the American Film Institute's list of "Top 100 U.S. Love Stories," compiled in June 2002, Hepburn led all actresses with six of her films on the list. She won her last Oscar for Best Actress opposite Henry Fonda in the production of A Golden Pond in 1981 at the age of 74.

Katharine Hepburn resided in Manhattan's Turtle Bay Gardens the better part of her life. She lived in a typical four story brownstone located at 244 East 49th Street, between 2nd & 3rd Avenue. She died on June 29, 2003 in Connecticut of natural causes at the age of 96. She will always be remembered as a remarkably talented actor who defended her independence, spoke her mind and defended her ground.