Katharine Hepburn (1907 - 2003) was an American actress whose career on screen and stage spanned more than sixty years. [1] Known for her independent manner, New England accent and refusal to conform to studio expectations of a female star, she played strong-willed, intelligent women in comedies and dramas from the 1930s onward. She won four Academy Awards for Best Actress, more than any other performer, for Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond. [2]
Early life and education
Hepburn was born on 12 May 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of a urologist who campaigned publicly against venereal disease and a suffragist and birth control advocate. [1] The household encouraged argument, athletics and independence, and the death of her elder brother when she was a teenager marked her deeply.
She attended the Kingswood-Oxford School and then Bryn Mawr College, graduating in 1928 with a degree in history and philosophy, and began working in stock theatre companies almost immediately afterwards. [3] Her Broadway breakthrough came in The Warrior's Husband in 1932.
Hollywood and the box-office slump
RKO signed her that year, and her third film, Morning Glory (1933), brought her the first of her Academy Awards. Little Women followed in the same period, and Alice Adams (1935) earned a further nomination. [1]
A run of unsuccessful pictures then damaged her standing, and in 1938 she was among the stars labelled box-office poison by an exhibitors' association. [2] She bought out her studio contract, returned to the stage in Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story, and secured the film rights, selling them to MGM on condition that she star. The 1940 film was a major success and restored her career.
Tracy, maturity and later roles
In 1942 she made Woman of the Year with Spencer Tracy, the first of nine films together over twenty-five years, including Adam's Rib, Pat and Mike and Desk Set. [3] The two also formed a long personal relationship, which continued until Tracy's death in 1967 and was never publicly discussed by Hepburn during his lifetime.
She continued to take demanding parts into middle age: The African Queen opposite Humphrey Bogart, Summertime, Suddenly, Last Summer, and Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, for which she won the acting prize at Cannes. [4] Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Tracy's last film, and The Lion in Winter (1968), in which she played Eleanor of Aquitaine, brought consecutive Academy Awards. A fourth followed for On Golden Pond (1981) opposite Henry Fonda.
Later years and legacy
Hepburn worked in television from the 1970s, winning an Emmy Award, and made her last screen appearance in 1994. [1] She lived privately, largely in Connecticut and New York, and published a memoir, Me: Stories of My Life, in 1991. She never attended the Academy Awards ceremony to collect a competitive prize.
She died on 29 June 2003 at her home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, at the age of ninety-six. [2] The American Film Institute later named her the greatest female screen legend of classic Hollywood cinema, and her insistence on trousers, plain speech and professional autonomy influenced how leading women were portrayed on film. [4]
