Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003) was a notable American film actress who was born in Hartford, Connecticut. The most decorated of American actresses, Hepburn won four Academy Awards and eight additional nominations over the course of her career. Her first Academy Award was in 1933 for her leading role in Morning Glory.
Educated at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, Hepburn received her degree in 1928 and debuted on Broadway that same year in Night Hostess. In 1932 her screen-test for RKO gained her a role in the George Cukor film A Bill of Divorcement (1932), playing opposite John Barrymore.
In Woman of the Year (1942), she made her first of nine appearances opposite Spencer Tracy, launching one of Hollywood's most famous romances, which chemistry continued on-screen as well through Adam's Rib and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Though they were together until Tracy's death in 1967, the couple never married - reportedly because Tracy, a devout Catholic, would not divorce his wife. Hepburn had previously married and divorced Ludlow Ogden Smith (who changed his name to Ogden Ludlow, so that his bride would not have to be known as Kate Smith) and had long-term relationships with Leland Hayward and Howard Hughes.
Her autobiography, 1991.
She died on June 29, 2003 at 2:50 p.m., at Fenwick, the Hepburn family home, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. She was 96.
Stage Work
Filmography
Further reading
- Me, Stories of My Life, Katharine Hepburn, Knopf, 1991
- The Making of the African Queen Katharine Hepburn, Knopf, 1987
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