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| BIOGRAPHY |
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Katharine
Hepburn had a long and eventful career. She had a combination of
good luck and bad, but she always seemed to learn from her mistakes
and figure out how to make the best of any situation. While she
quickly became a celebrity she fought to keep her private life,
private and separate from her professional life. The following are
photos of her in "professional mode". She dressed often
in slacks and wore no makeup off the set.
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However,
she brought a distinguished touch of class to her movies and was
truly unique. She has had both success and failure in her career,
but always seemed capable to outstanding all challenges.
She
started her acting career while in college at Bryn Mawr college,
which was her mother's alma mater. In her junior and senior years,
she played the part of a young man in Milne's The Truth About
Blayds and appeared as Teresa in The Cradle Song.In the
spring of her senior year, she went to Baltimore, using money loaned
to her to seek out Edwin H. Knopf, who had a stock company there
which she quickly joined. Her first role for this group was that
of a lady-in-waiting in The Czarina. This small part was
acted well enough to give her bigger parts.
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| What appeared to be a big break came when Knopf decided
to move to New York and open a new play called The Big Pond.
After ten days of rehearsal, Kate was given the lead. However, her
acting was so unsettled that she was fired after just one performance.
It seems that it was too big a performance for such a novice actress.
But she persevered and she had several small parts which earned her
some good notices and even won a part as understudy to socialite
star Hope Williams in Philip Barry's Holiday. Finally in Benn
W. Levy's Art and Mrs. Bottle, she won praise from a number
of critics. |
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| During the summer of 1931, she joined the Ivoryton
Players at Ivoryton, Connecticut for a season of stock. She benefited
considerably from this experience and landed the role of Daisy Sage
in Philip Barry's comedy The Animal Kingdom. Unfortunately,
the play was too long and her part was cut from the production. Her
next play was The Warrior's Husband and the critics liked
her performance. Mrs. Kermet Roosevelt saw Kate and immediately telegramed
Merian C. Cooper, executive producer of RKO Radio Pictures, about
her. Soon, David O. Selznick offered her a contract. Because Kate
was not keen to go to Hollywood, she asked for a ridiculous salary
of $1,500/week. She did a screen test from Holiday and was shocked
to learn that RKO had met her price. |
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| So, in July, 1932 off to Hollywood she went with her
friend Laura Harding to star in her first film A
Bill of Divorcement which made her a star. She arrived
and had just gotten a piece of steel filing in her eye, which was
almost swollen shut, and was wearing what she thought to be a very
fashionable dress. Selznick was said to say "This is what they're
paying $1,500 for?" She made five films between 1932 and 1934.
For her third, she made Morning Glory and
won her first Academy Award. Next, she did Little
Women and it was very successful. |
| In 1934 she left Hollywood for a short time and returned
to Broadway to star in The Lake which was a disaster. Soon,
back in Hollywood, she didn't have much more luck. From the period
of 1935 to 1938 she had many flops except for Alice
Adams which she earned her second Oscar nomination for and Stage
Door, 1937 which was a critical success. Because she had so many
unsuccessful films, she was labeled as "box office poison" and
therefore decided to go once again, back to New York to star in the
stage version of The Philadelphia Story. |
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Lucky for her, it was a success and she quickly
bought the film rights and was able to therefore get herself back
to Hollywood on her own terms allowing her to choose both director
and costars. With the success of the film The
Philadelphia Story, she was once again on top winning her third
Oscar nomination. For the rest of the 1940's and 50's she made
many films with Spencer Tracy which are detailed in the Hepburn/Tracy
films area.
Starting in 1951 she moved into middle-aged spinster roles by
starring as Rose in The African Queen.
She received her fifth Oscar nomination for her part in this
film. |
So, from then on she played many
similar parts in such films as Summertime,
The Rainmaker and Suddenly, Last Summer. She also received
Oscar nominations for these films.
In the 1960's she made few films. She received her ninth
Oscar nomination for Long Day's Journey into Night and
during this decade made her last film with Spencer Tracy, Guess
Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967 for which she received
yet another Oscar nomination and won. She also won for
her portrayal in The Lion in
Winter. To see other awards and nominations go to this
page on the Internet
Movie Database.
In the 1970's she did mostly TV movies, the best of which
was Love Among the Ruins with Laurence Olivier and The
Corn is Green.
Then, in 1981 she won her latest Oscar for her role as
Ethel Thayer opposite Henry Fonda in On
Golden Pond. |
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She wrote her autobiography, "Me,
Stories of My Life" in 1991 and did a TV film about
her life based on this book. |
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Click buttons below to read more about
Hepburn's life in these other sections:
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