Katharine Hepburn, died at her home in Old Saybrook, CT. She was 96.
Hepburn holds the record as the only four-time Academy Award-winning actress beginning with 'Morning Glory' (1933). Her career peaked in the late sixties with two Best Actress Academy awards for 'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner' (1967) and 'The Lion in Winter' (1968) the very next year. Her final Oscar was awarded for her touching role opposite Henry Fonda in 'On Golden Pond' (1981). All in all, she was nominated for a record 12 academy awards and in 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her the greatest actress of all time.
She also received Emmy nominations for her performances in "The Glass Menagerie" (1973) and "The Corn Is Green" (1979). And won an Outstanding Actress award for "Love Among the Ruins." (1975).
Born on May 12, 1907, Katharine Houghton Hepburn's father was a urologist, her mother a suffragette. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a B.A. in Drama in 1928, after which she launched her acting career as a member of a touring company. She started performing on Broadway where in 1931 she won many fans with performances in Art and Mrs. Bottle, and the following year in A Warrior's Husband.
Through the thirties she had many box office successes including 'Little Women' (1933), 'The Little Minister' (1934), 'Alice Adams' (1935), 'Mary of Scotland' and 'Stage Door' (1937). But there were also some failures including 'Christopher Strong' (1933), 'Sylvia Scarlett' (1935) and ‘Bringing Up Baby’ in which she starred opposite Cary Grant.
That run of poorly received movies prompted Hepburn to return to the stage. She accepted the role of Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story, but instead of taking a star salary, she acquired the screen rights. Her gamble paid off with the highly successful film version of the stage play in 1940.
The love of her life was the actor Spencer Tracy, with whom she spent 27 years and made nine films. She met Tracy on the set of Woman of the Year (1942), but their relationship was unusual. Despite being together for the best part of three decades, they never married. Tracy, a devout Roman Catholic, would not divorce his wife Louise and he remained married to her until his death in 1967. Shortly before his death, Tracy and Hepburn starred in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967). In this, their last film together, they tackled racism as a couple agonising over their daughter's choice of fiance. Tracy died two weeks after the film's completion, and Hepburn refused to watch it.
The one movie that proved to be pivotal in her career was The African Queen (1951), staring alongside Humphrey Bogart. Other notable films that marked her career include 'Long's Day Journey Into Night,' 'Suddenly, Last Summer' and 'The Rainmaker.' Her last film was the 1994 romance 'Love Affair,' in which she starred as Warren Beatty's aunt.
She wrote two books, including a successful autobiography which she titled - Me. Who else?
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