Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress and leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years. She appeared in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and received a record four Academy Awards for Lead Acting Performances. Hepburn epitomized the modern woman in the 20th-century U.S.

About Katharine Hepburn in brief

Summary Katharine HepburnKatharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress and leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years. She appeared in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and received a record four Academy Awards for Lead Acting Performances. Hepburn epitomized the modern woman in the 20th-century U.S. She was known for her fierce independence, spirited personality and the pushing of boundaries for women. In 1999, she was named by the American Film Institute the greatest female star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Her parents were Thomas Norval Hepburn, a urologist at Hartford Hospital, and Katharine Martha Hougton, a feminist campaigner. She died in 2003 at the age of 96. She was born on May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Connecticut, the second of six children. Her parents fought for social change in the US: Thomas Hepburn helped establish the New England Social Hygiene Association, which educated the public about venereal disease. The elder Katharine headed the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association and later campaigned for birth control with Margaret Sanger. As a child, Hepburn joined her mother on several \”Votes For Women\” demonstrations. She remained close to her family throughout her life, and went to see one every Saturday night and saw one movie every night. She took daily lessons and became a very adept golfer, reaching the semi-final of the Young Women’s Women’s Championship.

She loved swimming in Long Island Sound, and took ice-cold baths every morning in the morning. In March 1921, when she was 13, she and her brother Tom were visiting New York, and were visiting a Navajo man who was a bitterer. She told him that the better it was for him to be a doctor, “the better it is for you” He replied: “The bitterers, the better you are, the more medicine you have to have” She was married as a young woman, but thereafter lived independently. She wore trousers before they were fashionable for women, and was a tomboy who liked to call herself Jimmy, and cut her hair short. She had a passion for golf, and became very adept at the sport. She also loved to play golf, becoming a semi-finals finalist of the Women’s Golf Championship. In the 1970s, she began appearing in television films, which later became the focus of her career. She made her final screen appearance at the aged of 87. After a period of inactivity and ill health, she died in2003 at the Age of 96, and is remembered as an important cultural figure. Hepburn famously shunned the Hollywood publicity machine, and refused to conform to society’s expectations of women. She found a niche playing middle-aged spinsters, such as in The African Queen, which landed her another Academy Award nomination, and won her co-star Humphrey Bogart his only Academy Award for the movie.