Katharine Hepburn

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Katharine Hepburn' (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003) was a notable American actress who was born in Hartford, Connecticut. 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. Hepburn won her first Academy Award in 1933 and won three more Oscars and eight nominations over the rest of her career. As of January 2003 she was tied with Meryl Streep as the most Academy Award-nominated actress in history.

In Woman of the Year (1942), she made her first of nine appearances opposite Spencer Tracy, launching one of Hollywood's most famous romances. Though they were together until Tracy's death in 1967, the couple never married because Tracy, a devout Catholic, would not divorce his wife. (Hepburn had previously married and divorced Ludlow Ogden Smith, and had long-term relationships with Leland Hayward and Howard Hughes).

Katharine Hepburn died at her home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

Contents

Rumors of bisexuality

Several books published after her death allege that Hepburn was bisexual, and that her widely publicized relationships with Spencer Tracy, John Ford, and Howard Hughes were greatly exaggerated. According to these books, Hepburn was romantically involved with several women including American Express heiress Laura Harding (1902–1994), who was truly a close friend; Jane Loring, film editor for Dorothy Arzner and other directors; and with actress Elissa Landi.[1] In his book Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn (2006), Hollywood biographer William J. Mann claims that Hepburn actually had three personalities: Jimmy, Kate, and Katherine. Jimmy was her true self (a boy), Kate was the female she presented to her family, and Katharine was the actress and Hollywood legend we all knew.[2]

Broadway

Filmography

Further Reading

  • Kate Remembered, A. Scott Berg, Penguin Putnam, July, 2003, hardcover, 384 pages, ISBN 0399151648 written after a long collaboration with Katharine Hepburn, but to be published only after her death.

References

  1. ^ William J. Mann, Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn; James Robert Parish, Katharine Hepburn: The Untold Story; Darwin Porter, Katharine the Great: A Lifetime of Secrets Revealed (1907-1950)
  2. ^ The man we knew as Katharine Hepburn Jerame Davis, January 17, 2007
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