Oscar winning Best Actress Katharine Hepburn born May 12 honored by hometown with Cultural Center

May 12, 5:42 PMNashville Entertainment ExaminerJonathan Pinkerton

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A stunning early publicity photo of Katharine Hepburn

Four-time Oscar winning Best Actress, Katharine Hepburn was born May 12, 1907. Hepburn, the daughter of Dr. Thomas Hepburn, a well-to-do urologist and Katharine Houghton Hepburn, the heiress to the Corning Glass empire as cofounder of Planned Parenthood, was born in Hartford, Connecticut--with her staunch New-England accent, was there any doubt? As a young girl, she attended the prestigious Oxford School, known now as the Kingswood-Oxford School. Early on, and at her father's urging, she excelled in many sporting activities, even winning a bronze medal in figure skating at a competition at Madison Square Garden. Swimming was another sport she took a liking to, a sport she continued to enjoy even in her later years. Her adept physical prowess would eventually play a part in many of her film roles.

Following her primary education at the Oxford School, Hepburn attended college at Bryn Mawr. As she revealed in her 1992 autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, she exhibited her characteristic "do what you want" attitude early on, even getting suspended from college for breaking curfew and smoking. She also recalled going skinny dipping in the Cloisters Fountain on the college campus. Graduating in 1928 with a degree in history and philosophy wasn't the only major occurrence for the future star. It was that same year that she married her first husband, Ludlow Luddy Ogden Smith. She also made her debut on the Broadway stage in a small role in the premiere staging of Night Hostess, a Phillip Dunning play that centers around a gambling hall in New York.
Hepburn continued to appear in a number of stage plays, but it was her appearance in 1932's The Warrior's Husband that caught the eye of an RKO talent scout, Leland Hayward, that lead to her move to the sliver screen. Hayward, with whom she would eventually be romantically involved, cast Hepburn in A Bill Of Divorcement that same year. Divorcement also starred John Barrymore. After the success of the film, in part attributed to Hepburn's performance, RKO offered the starlet a contract. Exhibiting a bit of that fiery spirit, Hepburn insisted she be paid a then un-heard-of $1,500 per week (a significant jump from the $80-$100 range she was currently receiving). Meeting Hepburn's demands was a wise decision on RKO's part. Her participation in the studio's film adaptation of Little Women broke all previous existing box office records, and to top it off, she won the Best Actress Oscar for her next film, Morning Glory; a role some feel mirrored the actresses own future. In 1933's Morning Glory she played a young actress who chooses a career over romance, while in real life, her marriage to Luddy ended with a Mexican divorce in 1934.

Opening sequence from Morning Glory

 In her book, she recalls feeling out of sorts after such quick success in the movies, and she wanted to return to the theatre, but RKO wouldn't let her out of her contract. The contract-fulfilling but forgettable Spitfire resulted. Unfortunately for the actress, her performance in the play, The Lake, was ill-received. Vanity Fair theatre critic, Dorothy Parker famously wrote, "Her performance ran the gamut of emotions from A to B." Feeling unsure of her theatrical ability, Hepburn returned to Hollywood and  RKO to star in Alice Adams. Her performance was nominated, but did not win the Oscar. Her career took a slight turn next, as she was cast in the comedies Bringing Up Baby and Stage Door.

Original Trailer for Bringing Up Baby

 Baby teamed her for the first time with Cary Grant, while Stage Door boasted a cast of current-and future-stars, Ginger Rogers, Ann Miller, Eve Arden and Lucille Ball among them.  Francis Reid, future soap opera matriarch, Alice Horton from Day of Our Lives, even had a bit part in the classic, mostly female comedy.  The two films are now considered classics, but despite good reviews at the time, initial audience response wasn't so kind.  This lead to a string of flops.  It wasn't long after this that Hepburn, along with Joan Crawford, Fred Astair, Mae West and others were virtually black-listed because of a poll that deemed the popular stars box office poison.

Hepburn finsihed out the 30s, and the negative publicity by again returning to her first love, the theatre.  She starred in The Philadelphia Story, a play written specifically for her.  A year later she starred in a film version of Holiday.  In 1940, with the help of her friend Howard Hughes, she purchased the rights to Philidelphia and sold them to MGM.  She was nominted for her work in the film and once agian she was on top.

1942's Woman of the Year marked her first on-screen teaming with Spencer Tracy.  Off-screen, Hepburn and her first husband sought a US divorce decree, not sure the earlier Mexican was completely legal stateside.  She also became romantically involved with the still-married Tracy; a legendary, mostly secret, Hollywood relationship that rivals anything Brad and Angelina could even dream up. Over the years, the duo would appear in a total of nine films together, including Keeper of The Flame (1942), Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), Desk Set (1957) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.  It was 1967's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; the interracial love story about a young daughter bringing home her black boyfriend to meet her family, that gave Hepburn her second Oscar win. During this period, she also co-starred with another leading man, Humphrey Bogart in the 1951 classic, The African Queen.  She was nominated for a fifth time, but lost to her friend Vivien Leigh for her work in A Streetcar Named Desire.  

The African Queen trailer

The year after her second Oscar win brought her an unprecedented third Oscar for her role in The Lion in Winter--in another bit of Hollywood trivia, she wasn't the only person to win the Best Actress statuette that year--she tied with Barbra Streisand for her work in Funny Girl.

In the late 60s and throughout the 70s, Hepburn's love of the theatre was evident in the roles she chose. She starred in many movie adaptations of plays, including: The Madwoman of Chailot, The Trojan Women and A Delicate Balance. She also took roles in television adaptations including The Glass Menagerie and her Emmy winning performance in 1975's Love Among the Ruins. That same year, she co-starred with yet another legendary leading man, John Wayne in Rooster Cogburn, a sequel to True Grit. In 1979, she starred in a television remake of the classic film, The Corn Is Green.

Another movie based on a play, On Golden Pond (1981) would once again secure Hepburn's place in cinematic history, as she won an astounding fourth Oscar in what is hands-down my favorite movie ever! As Ethel Thayer to Henry Fonda's Norman, with Fonda's real-life daughter Jane Fonda thrown in for good measure; the actress won over a new generation of fans. Her heart-wrenching portrayal as half of a seeming cantankerous elderly couple, who's lifelong love affair withstands the ravages of aging and boldly stares down the eminence of death hand in hand, is the stuff relationship dreams are made of.

My absolute favorite scene from my absolute favorite movie
ON GOLDEN POND starring Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda 1981

She continued to appear in a handful of films and television movies. 1985's The Ultimate Solution of Grace Quigley, which coincidentally touched again on facing death in the face (in this film, she hires Nick Notle as a hit man to end her life on her own terms). In 1994, at the age of 87, Hepburn appeared in one last motion picture and two final TV films. She had a small but memorable role in Love Affair, the Warren Beatty/Annette Benning remake of An Affair to Remember. On television, her final performances were in This Can't Be Love and One Christmas. One Christmas, co-starred Henry Winkler and Swoozie Kurtz and was based on Turman Capote's short story.

Hepburn died at the age of 96 on June 29, 2003 at her family home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. In her honor, the lights on Broadway were dimmed for an hour. In just two weeks, local residents of Old Saybrook can get a sneak peek as the town honors their most beloved resident when The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center hosts a memorial Day open house. The renovated 1911 former Old Saybrook Musical and Dramatic Club has undergone a massive remodel, including a state-of-the-art 250 seat theatre, and is expected to open by summer's end.

Katharine Hepburn's unconventional views of Hollywood, stardom and women in general were evident not only by her choice of roles, but even in the way she would dress. It wasn't unusual to see the young starlet wearing men's suits. While Hepburn herself said it was in an effort to be comfortable, the androgynous look quickly caught on with forward-thinking fashionistas of the day. Years later, in 1986, when Hepburn was honored by the Council of Fashion Designers with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Calvin Klein introduced the legend by saying, "In 1930, she wore pants and suits considered scandalous; today, they are sensational." Katherine almost never attended award ceremonies, but she showed up for this honor. When she took to the podium, she said, "We're in a pretty serious spot when the original bag lady wins a prize for the way she looks."