Katharine Hepburn

She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women.

Hepburn masterminded her comeback, buying out her contract with RKO Radio Pictures and acquiring the film rights to The Philadelphia Story, which she sold on the condition that she be the star.

With her unconventional lifestyle and the independent characters she brought to the screen, Hepburn came to epitomize the "modern woman" in 20th-century America and influenced changing popular perceptions of women.

[11] Thomas Hepburn was eager for his children to use their minds and bodies to the limit and taught them to swim, run, dive, ride, wrestle, and play golf and tennis.

[25] She performed the lead role in a production of The Woman in the Moon in her senior year, and the positive response it received cemented Hepburn's plans to pursue a theatrical career.

"[43] A scout for the Hollywood agent Leland Hayward spotted Hepburn's appearance in The Warrior's Husband, and asked her to test for the part of Sydney Fairfield in the upcoming RKO film A Bill of Divorcement.

"[90] Hepburn's next feature, Stage Door (1937), paired her with Ginger Rogers in a role that mirrored her own life—that of a wealthy society girl trying to make it as an actress.

[94] She was cast in Howard Hawks' screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938), where she played a flighty heiress who loses a leopard while trying to woo a palaeontologist (Cary Grant).

[99] She signed on for the film version of Holiday (1938) with Columbia Pictures, pairing her for the third time with Grant, to play a stifled society girl who finds joy with her sister's fiancé.

[103] Howard Hughes, Hepburn's partner at the time, sensed that the play could be her ticket back to Hollywood stardom and bought her the film rights before it even debuted on stage.

[114][115] Hepburn was also responsible for the development of her next project, the romantic comedy Woman of the Year about a political columnist and a sports reporter whose relationship is threatened by her self-centered independence.

[133] Her next film role came unexpectedly, as she agreed to replace Claudette Colbert only days before shooting began on Frank Capra's political drama State of the Union (1948).

She played Rose Sayer, a prim missionary living in German East Africa at the outbreak of World War I. Co-starring Humphrey Bogart, The African Queen was shot mostly on location in the Belgian Congo, an opportunity Hepburn embraced.

[154] Hepburn subsequently tried to get the play adapted into a film: a script was written by Preston Sturges, and she offered to work for nothing and pay the director herself, but no studio picked up the project.

[166] After two years away from the screen, Hepburn starred in a film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' controversial play Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.

[187] The movie was nominated in all the major categories at the 41st Academy Awards, and for the second year running Hepburn won the Oscar for Best Actress (shared with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl).

[199] Hepburn received an Emmy Award nomination for playing wistful Southern mother Amanda Wingfield, which opened her mind to future work on the small screen.

Echoing her African Queen character, Hepburn played a deeply religious unmarried woman who teams up with a masculine loner to avenge a family member's death.

[224] The majority of Hepburn's roles from this point were in television movies, which did not receive the critical praise of her earlier work in the medium, but remained popular with audiences.

[226] She received an Emmy nomination for 1986's Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry, then two years later returned for the comedy Laura Lansing Slept Here, which allowed her to act with her grandniece, Schuyler Grant.

In 1994, she worked opposite Anthony Quinn in This Can't Be Love, which was largely based on Hepburn's own life, with numerous references to her personality and career.

[259] Hepburn often expressed her gratitude toward Smith for his financial and moral support in the early days of her career, and in her autobiography she called herself "a terrible pig" for exploiting his love.

[277][282] Tracy suffered from a severe alcohol addiction and was extremely moody and frequently depressed; Hepburn described him as "tortured",[283] and she devoted herself to making his life easier.

[311] Garson Kanin described what he called "the formula for a Hepburn success: A high-class, or stuck-up ... girl is brought down to earth by an earthy type, or a lowbrow ... or a cataclysmic situation.

[314] Film critic Molly Haskell has commented on the importance of this to Hepburn's career: With an intimidating presence, it was necessary that her characters "do some kind of self-abasement, to stay on the good side of the audience".

[320] Regarding Hepburn's film legacy, one of her biographers, Sheridan Morley, said she "broke the mould" for women in Hollywood,[321] where she brought a new breed of strong-willed females to the screen.

[235] Film academic Andrew Britton wrote a monograph studying Hepburn's "key presence within classical Hollywood, a consistent, potentially radical disturbance",[314] and pinpoints her "central" influence in bringing feminist issues to the screen.

"[177] Mary McNamara, an entertainment journalist and reviewer for the Los Angeles Times wrote, "More than a movie star, Katharine Hepburn was the patron saint of the independent American female.

[335] Kent State University exhibited a selection of her film and theatre costumes from October 2010 to September 2011 in Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen.

In Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biographical film The Aviator, Hepburn was portrayed by Cate Blanchett, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Left to right: daughter Katharine, Marion, Robert, Thomas, and Richard. Her mother is seated at center with daughter Margaret, 1921
Portrait of Hepburn, age 21
Hepburn's yearbook photo, 1928, Bryn Mawr College
Hepburn, a young woman, dressed in a short tunic and armour, acting in a play.
Hepburn in the 1932 role that brought her to the attention of Hollywood, The Warrior's Husband
Hepburn and David Manners acting in A Bill of Divorcement. They are holding hands and looking at each other emotionally.
Hepburn's first movie appearance, in the melodrama A Bill of Divorcement (1932). Critics praised her performance, and she became an instant star.
Hepburn, dressed in 19th-century clothes, sat with tears in her eyes.
As Jo March in Little Women (1933), which was one of the most popular movies of its day
Hepburn dressed in medieval clothes, standing with a concerned look on her face.
In Mary of Scotland (1936), one of a series of unsuccessful films Hepburn made in this period
Hepburn and Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby, she is pointing at something and both look alarmed.
Hepburn made four films with Cary Grant . They are seen here in Bringing Up Baby (1938), which flopped on release, but has since become renowned as a classic screwball comedy . [ 91 ]
Screenshot of Hepburn and Spencer Tracy sat in an open-top car in mid-conversation. He looks unimpressed.
The majority of films Hepburn did in this period were with Spencer Tracy . She later said the partnership did much to advance her career, as he was the more popular star at the time. [ 124 ] Seen here in Adam's Rib (1949).
Hepburn is dressed in early-20th-century clothes, looking prim and proper. Behind her is Humphrey Bogart, also dressed as his character from The African Queen.
Hepburn often worked abroad in the 1950s, beginning with The African Queen with co-star Humphrey Bogart .
Hepburn, middle-aged, smiling.
In David Lean 's romantic drama Summertime (1955). Jane Hudson is one of the roles Hepburn played in the 1950s.
From the trailer for Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), based on the play by Tennessee Williams
Screenshot of Hepburn
In Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), which won Hepburn her second of four Academy Awards
Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine , her third of four Academy Awards in The Lion in Winter (1968)
Screenshot of Hepburn in rural clothes, age 68
In the western Rooster Cogburn (1975), where Hepburn costarred with John Wayne
Screenshot of Hepburn, now an elderly woman, seated on a sofa
Hepburn's final film role was in Love Affair (1994). Critics commented that the 87-year-old had lost none of her powerful screen presence.
Hepburn is sitting with Spencer Tracy, she age 50 and he age 57, and they are smiling at each other.
Spencer Tracy and Hepburn in a publicity photo for Desk Set (1957)
Hepburn's gravestone in Cedar Hill Cemetery
Film still of Hepburn in Woman of the Year
Hepburn, with her unconventional lifestyle and the independent female roles she played on screen (such as Tess Harding in Woman of the Year , pictured), represented the emancipated woman.
A street sign that reads "E 49 St", with another underneath it that reads "Katharine Hepburn Place".
East 49th Street in New York City, named after Katharine Hepburn