One of the few true superstars of American film, Katharine Hepburn had a long, distinguished career, winning an unprecedented four Oscars for Best Actress. With her crisp New England accent, high cheekbones, and aristocratic manner, Katharine Hepburn played everything from light comedy to high tragedy. She was feisty and independent yet vulnerable and endearing. In all, she epitomized America’s idea of free-thinking womanhood.
Born to a wealthy Connecticut family, Katharine Hepburn pursued theater in college and made her acting debut in Baltimore as a lady-in-waiting in The Czarina (1928). But she had precious little theater training and her career was anything but smooth sailing. After landing the lead in a play called The Big Pond (1928), she made a shambles of her opening-night performance and was fired. In fact, most of her early stage career consisted of one disaster after another. Discouraged, she briefly gave up the theater and married Ludlow Ogden Smith (known to Kate as “Luddy”) in 1928. Neither her marriage nor her career fared very well over the next few years. She eventually divorced in 1934, but the marriage had long since ended amicably. In the meantime, Katharine Hepburn persevered in learning her craft in spite of little success on stage.
Finally, in 1932, she appeared in The Warrior’s Husband, a play that won her critical acclaim. She was offered a screen test from Fox and a long-term contract from Paramount. She turned down both because she did not want to leave the theater for any length of time. But when DAVID O. SELZNICK wired requesting her to test for his film version of A Bill of Divorcement (1932), she assented because it was a one-picture deal. Katharine Hepburn made the test and although everyone else in the screening room thought she was terrible, director GEORGE CUKOR and Selznick were pleased with the results. This first film began a lifelong association with Cukor, who almost always brought out the best in Katharine Hepburn. The pair would eventually work together in eight movies and two TV films.
A Bill of Divorcement made Katharine Hepburn an instant star. It seemed that Broadway could wait, after all. She made three more films in rapid succession—all of them hits. Morning Glory (1934), the third film of her career, won Katharine Hepburn her first Best Actress Oscar. She reached her peak of popularity in the early to mid- 1930s, after which the actress’s upper-class bearing began to wear on depression-era audiences. Two of her most beloved films today, Bringing up Baby (1938) and Holiday (1938), were flops in their day. By this time, she was labeled “box-office poison” by a group of theater owners.
Nonetheless, David O. Selznick, who had launched her career with A Bill of Divorcement, offered Katharine Hepburn the part of Scarlett O’Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). She was one of only three actresses to whom Selznick offered the plum role. To be fair to Selznick (and not wanting to be fired later if he changed his mind), Katharine Hepburn told him that she’d take the part at the last minute if he couldn’t settle on anyone else to play Scarlett. VIVIEN LEIGH ended that tantalizing offer. By 1939, however, Katharine Hepburn, who had commanded $175,000 per film, was offered $10,000 to star in an ERNST LUBITSCH vehicle (which she declined). It appeared as if her Hollywood career had come to a crashing end.
It was back to Broadway for Katharine Hepburn, and she commissioned Philip Barry (who had penned Holiday, among a great many other popular Broadway plays) to write something for her. The result was The Philadelphia Story. It was a smash on Broadway and Katharine Hepburn wisely bought the film rights. Despite her box-office poison label, any studio that wanted to adapt the hit play had to use her in the lead.
MGM took a chance on the actress, adding CARY GRANT and JAMES STEWART to the cast for insurance and putting George Cukor behind the camera. The movie, released in 1940, was a popular hit, and Katharine Hepburn was back in Hollywood to stay. It is interesting to note that while Katharine Hepburn’s fans were loyal, they were limited in number, and while her later career was a series of acting triumphs, she rarely received top billing after the 1930s. One reason for this was her pairing with the costar of her next film who had a contract that ensured top billing in all his films. That actor was SPENCER TRACY.
Katharine Hepburn and Tracy initiated one of the great screen teamings as well as a long love affair when they starred together in Woman of the Year (1942). The story of their first meeting bears retelling. Katharine Hepburn said to Tracy, “I’m afraid I’m too tall for you, Mr. Tracy.” To which he replied, “Don’t worry, Miss Katharine Hepburn. I’ll soon cut you down to my size.” On the basis of this film with MGM, the studio offered her a long-term contract. But of all the movies she made at MGM, the nine Tracy–Katharine Hepburn films were the most consistently successful, especially Keeper of the Flame (1942), State of the Union (1948), and Adam’s Rib (1949), which was also directed by George Cukor.
Perhaps her most well-known costar besides Tracy appeared with her in only one film—but what a film it was. She played the psalm-singing spinster in The African Queen (1951) against HUMPHREY BOGART’s irascible Charlie Alnut. The movie was a huge hit, and it became her most successful film up to that time. Except for her continued teamings with Tracy, the rest of the 1950s found her playing variations on the spinster role she had done to perfection in The African Queen. One of the best of these roles was in The Rainmaker (1956), with BURT LANCASTER doing the impossible—stealing the movie from her.
Katharine Hepburn appeared in relatively few films from the 1960s onward. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) was generally more interesting for being the last Tracy-Katharine Hepburn vehicle than a film about interracial marriage, and though Katharine Hepburn seemed to cry throughout the movie—perhaps because of it—she won her second Best Actress Academy Award. She was superb in The Lion in Winter (1968), winning yet another Oscar as Best Actress.
Katharine Hepburn tried a western version of The African Queen with JOHN WAYNE called Rooster Cogburn (1975) and appeared occasionally on TV in highly regarded productions, such as Love Among the Ruins (1975). But her final triumph came in 1981, when she starred with HENRY FONDA and JANE FONDA in On Golden Pond. She won her fourth Oscar, setting a record and showing no inclination to retire. Katharine Hepburn continued to act, adding laurels to a career that has no equal in Hollywood. In 1994, she had a small but moving role as WARREN BEATTY’s aunt in Love Affair.
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1. Robert Aldrich produced many social and political movies
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