The beautiful Katharine Hepburn.
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12th, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut to Katharine Martha Houghton, a suffragette, and Thomas Norval Hepburn, a urologist. She was the second of six children. Katharine's progressive parents encouraged their children to cultivate their intellectual sides; Katharine later joined her mother during demonstrations concerning voting rights for women. She also considered herself a tomboy and loved playing a wide range of sports, including tennis and golf. Her idyllic childhood hit a tragic note when at the age of 14 Katharine found her brother Tom dead from an apparent suicide, though the family maintained that the death was accidental, and Tom that died while trying to perform a stunt trick their father had taught him. The tragedy made Katharine very withdrawn and suspicious of people, and for a long time she used Tom's birthday as her birthday. Though it was years before Katharine was the same again, she attended Bryn Mawr College and won the female lead in the theater production of The Woman in the Moon her senior year, the experience solidifying Katharine's love of acting. She graduated from Bryn Mawr with a degree in philosophy in June of 1928.
Katharine and Spencer Tracy.
After graduation Katharine began trying to make a name for herself as an actress, and won small parts in several theatrical productions, including a few on Broadway. She garnered interest from RKO after her performance in 1932's A Warrior's Husband, and the production company cast her in A Bill of Divorcement in 1932 opposite John Barrymore. The film was an instant hit, and Katharine was signed by RKO. She acted in five films between 1932 and 1934, including 1933's Morning Glory, for which she earned her first Academy Award, and 1933's Little Women, which became a huge smash.
Despite this early success Kate was criticized for her unwillingness to play the Hollywood "game;" she refused to wear makeup or give interviews and frequently wore slacks instead of skirts. From 1935 to 1938 she didn't make many hit films, though one of them was the classic Bringing Up Baby with Cary Grant. Labeled "box office poison," she returned to Broadway to star in The Philadelphia Story in 1938. The play was a huge hit, and Kate bought the film rights to the show. The subsequent film of the same name came out in 1940 and starred Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart alongside Katharine. She received her fourth Oscar nomination for the film. Once again a bankable actress, she began her most successful film period. In 1942 she made Woman of the Year with Spencer Tracy, which began one of the most storied romances in Hollywood history. The pair made eight more films over the course of their 25-year love affair, though Tracy, a practicing Catholic, never divorced his estranged wife, despite that they lived separately. Hepburn and Tracy's romance, however, was no secret to Hollywood insiders, nor was their fierce love for one another. Other notable Hepburn-Tracy films included Adam's Rib in 1949 and Pat and Mike in 1952. Kate and her onscreen/offscreen love frequently received critical praise for their amazing chemistry.
'The African Queen' with Humphrey Bogart.
By the early 1950s Hepburn was not working as much due to her relationship with Tracy, who had problems with alcohol and insomnia. Despite working less she made some of her most beloved films throughout the '50s an into the 1960s, including 1952's The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart, Summertime in 1955, Suddenly, Last Summer in 1959, Long Day's Journey Into Night in 1962, for which she received her ninth Academy Award nomination, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967. The latter film was her last film with Tracy and also the last film the ailing Tracy ever made. The actor died in the weeks after he finished the film from complications due to heart disease. Out of respect for the family, Kate did not attend the funeral, and only spoke about her relationship with Tracy after his wife's death in 1983. Hepburn received her 10th Oscar nod for the picture and won, though she maintained her win was more a tribute to Tracy. The following year she made The Lion in Winter with Peter O'Toole, for which she garnered her 11th Oscar nomination and third win. She had decided to throw herself into her work following Tracy's death as a way of dealing with her grief.
With Peter O'Toole in "The Lion in Winter."
In the 1970s Katharine mainly stuck to television work, including Tennessee Williams'The Glass Menagerie in 1973, though she still made feature films, including Rooster Cogburn in 1975 with John Wayne and 1981's On Golden Pond with Henry Fonda, for which she won her fourth Oscar. The film was one of the biggest box office successes of the year and was directed by Fonda's daughter, Jane. Hepburn's record 12 Oscar nominations was only recently broken by Meryl Streep.
With Cary Grant in "The Philadelphia Story."
Katharine penned her autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, which was released in 1991 and remained on best seller lists for over a year. Her last film was Love Affair in 1994, where she had a supporting role alongside Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. Other than a cameo appearance in the 1943 film Stage Door Canteen, Love Affair was the only movie Katharine ever made where she did not have a leading role. Famed film critic Roger Ebert noted that while the 86-year-old Hepburn looked frail, her "magnificent spirit" was still intact and that she stole every scene she was in.
Katharine models her famous slacks.
Despite being known as an intensely private person who strongly disliked interviews, Kate gave more interviews as she got older, including a two-hour interview in 1973 on The Dick Cavett Show. She was only married once, to Philadelphia businessman Ludlow Ogden Smith in 1928, though the marriage only lasted until 1932 and the couple was divorced by 1934. They remained friends until Smith's death in 1979. Katharine never had children, as she believed motherhood was a full-time job that she didn't want. "I would have been a terrible mother," she once remarked.
The cover of her autobiography.
Hepburn's health began to deteriorate in 1994, and an aggressive tumor was found on her neck in May of 2003. As her health was already failing, the tumor was not removed, and Katharine died about a month later at the age of 96. She requested no memorial service, though numerous television stations, newspapers, and magazines ran specials and dedications to the late actress. As per her wishes her belongings were sold at Sotheby's auction in New York in 2004 for $5.8 million, which Kate instructed would go to her family.
An artist's rendition of the famous face.
Katharine Hepburn remains the icon of irrepressible, independent, intelligent, spirited, beautiful women. She will be forever treasured for the unconventional way she chose to live her life as well as for her striking presence onscreen.
The iconic pair.
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