Katharine Hepburn

American actress with a record four Academy Awards for Best Actress.

Her father was a urologist and her mother a feminist campaigner who headed the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association.^[1] On May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Connecticut, Katharine Houghton Hepburn arrived as the second child among six.^[1]

Quick Facts

Born: 12 May 1907
Birthplace: Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Died: 29 June 2003
Place of death: Old Saybrook, Connecticut, U.S.
Burial place: Cedar Hill Cemetery
Occupation: Actress
Education: Bryn Mawr College (BA)
Years active: 1928–1995

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Her breakout performance came in The Warrior's Husband on Broadway in 1932.^[2] She was listed as "box office poison" by the Independent Theatre Owners of America after Bringing Up Baby (1938).^[3] Hepburn created her own comeback vehicle with The Philadelphia Story on stage in 1939.^[4] Her father, Thomas Hepburn, encouraged physical activity and taught her swimming, running, diving, riding, wrestling, golf, and tennis; as a child she was a tomboy who went by the nickname Jimmy.^[5]

In June 1928, Hepburn completed her studies at Bryn Mawr College, earning a degree in history and philosophy.^[6][7] The 1932 film A Bill of Divorcement featured Hepburn acting alongside John Barrymore.^[8] Hepburn was awarded the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival for her role in Little Women.^[9] While making The African Queen (1951), her first Technicolor film, Hepburn contracted dysentery during location shooting.^[10]

What the cited sources add

The Golden Globe Awards history notes that Hepburn acted with Douglas Fairbanks in Morning Glory (1933) and with Cary Grant in Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Holiday (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and Bringing Up Baby (1938).^[11] The same source records that she acted with Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year (1942), Adam’s Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967).^[11] A Playbill article describes Hepburn's early stage career, including her role in The Czarina for Edwin Knopf's Baltimore stock company in 1928.^[12] The New York Film Critics Circle awarded Hepburn the Best Actress prize for The Philadelphia Story in 1940.^[13][14]

In her memoir The Making of The African Queen, Hepburn describes her first encounter with producer Sam Spiegel, during which they considered casting Bogart as Charlie Alnutt.^[15]

References

Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Britton 2003, p. 41; Berg 2004, p. 40; Chandler 2011, p. 37; Higham 2004, p. 2; "Katharine Hepburn: Part 2"; Hepburn 1991, p. 21; "Katharine Hepburn: Part 1"; Berg 2004, p. 40 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Higham 2004, p. 2 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Berg 2004, p. 40; Berg 2004, p. 40; Hepburn 1991, p. 21 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Higham 2004, p. 2; Berg 2004, p. 40; Berg 2004, p. 40; Atkinson, "The Play: Katharine Hepburn Appearing in Philip Barry's 'The Philadelphia Story' for the Theatre Guild", The New York Times, March 29, 1939; "Cinema: The Hepburn Story", Time, September 1, 1952 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chandler 2011, p. 37 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kanin 1971, p. 285; Hepburn 1991, p. 21; Dickens 1990, p. 4 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dickens 1990, p. 4; Samelson, "Katharine Hepburn On Stage", Playbill, July 6, 2009; "Margaret Barker, 83, Actress and Director", The New York Times, April 8, 1992, p. D22; Higham 2004, p. 2; Horton Simmons 2007, p. 119 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Higham 2004, p. 2; Berg 2004, p. 40 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Haver 1980, p. 94 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Berg 2004, p. 40; Dickens 1990, p. 4; "The Making of The African Queen, or: How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and almost lost my mind", Goodreads, 1987; Berg 2004, p. 40 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
"Katharine Hepburn Golden Globe Awards history", Golden Globe Award. facts only, no text reused. goldenglobes.com
Samelson, "Katharine Hepburn On Stage", Playbill, July 6, 2009. facts only, no text reused. playbill.com
"1940 Awards", New York Film Critics Circle. facts only, no text reused. nyfcc.com
Wikipedia, "Katharine Hepburn" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Golden, "The Philadelphia Story review", Variety, November 26, 1940; Higham 2004, p. 2; "1940 Awards", New York Film Critics Circle (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
"The Making of The African Queen, or: How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and almost lost my mind", Goodreads, 1987. facts only, no text reused. goodreads.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Katharine Hepburn (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.