Born on May 12, 1907 in Connecticut, Katharine Hepburn was not your typical Hollywood starlet with her eccentric personality, hypnotizing voice, and drive for independence. These characteristics are what made her a hugely successful actress for more than six decades winning four Best Actress Awards and twelve Academy Award nominations.
Born into a academic family, Katharine was always encouraged to go above and beyond and learn more about the world around her. She attended an all girl’s college, Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, and there she earned a degree in history. Shortly after she graduated, she began preforming at shows in and around New York both on and off Broadway. Her big break came in the 1930’s where an RKO Radio Pictures talent scout watched her preform in a Broadway play and asked her to audition for a film starring John Barrymore called, A Bill of Divorcement. She got the part, and the rest is history, earning her first of four Best Actress awards a year later.
Something that Katharine Hepburn is well-respected for is the fact that she refused to play the traditional starlet part in a film or even take on the persona of one. She refused to wear makeup at all times, refused to give interviews and she wasn’t one to absorb all of the media attention she was getting. This is something that redefined femininity, and allowed women to realize that it was OK to not wear makeup or to preform the tasks put on women just for being a woman. RKO even went so far to take her slacks because they viewed slacks as boyish, so in protest she waled around the studio with only her underwear on refusing to put her clothes on until she got her pants back. These are things that helped redefine what it meant to be a woman and defied the societal expectations that were put on women in general. She even did all of her own stunts in her films which is very un-ladylike for that era.
Something that also stands out about Katharine is that she was in a serious relationship with Spencer Tracy for nearly 27 years and they never married. At the time he refused to divorce his wife, and she never pressured him to make the decision and marry her instead. This again was unusual because most people after being in a relationship for that long are married, that’s even relevant today. Hepburn even put her career on hold to nurse Tracy through the illness that would ultimately take his life in 1967. What is heartbreaking however is that she was with him the night he died, and did not attend his funeral in respect to his family. It is hard to even imagine how much of a sacrifice that must have been for her after being with this man for so long.
Katharine Hepburn stole the screen from her male counterparts in her films, and was named the best American Screen Legend of all time by the American Film Institute in 1999. She passed away in 2003 at the age of 96 and will always be respected for her independence and her ability to make waves for women during the classic film era. She refused to play by the rules the film industry and the world had for her, and she ultimately came out on top, she is the best American Screen Legend of all time, and she proved to women everywhere that even in a man’s world you can be your own person and make your own path.
Hollywood Heroines 