Katharine Hepburn Biography

This section contains Katharine Hepburn Biography
Katharine Hepburn was born Katharine Houghton Hepburn on the 12th of May 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut. Her mother was the co-founder of Planned Parenthood and her father was an advocate of the dangers of venereal disease. As a young child, Katharine, with her parents’ encouragement, won the medal for figure skating, shot golf in low eighties and became one of the semifinalists in the Connecticut Young Women’s Golf Championship.

Katharine Hepburn attended Kingswood Oxford School and then went to Bryn Mawr Colleger where she earned her history and philosophy degrees in 1928. That year, she also debuted onstage in the Broadway production of Night Hostess. She also married Ludlow Ogden Smith that year but divorced him in 1934 in Mexico and again in 1942 in the US. She and Smith remained good friends despite the divorce.

Katharine’s first major stage appearance was in The Big Pond at Great Neck, New York. When she was suddenly asked by the producer to play the leading role, Katharine tripped onstage and missed and delivered her lines rapidly that the producer fired her immediately. However, she continued to act on stage and was seen on Art and Mrs. Bottle, The Warrior’s Husband. Leland Hayward, an RKO scout saw her on stage and offered her a screen test for the studio’s A Bill of Divorcement. She got the part and the film loved her performance.

The following year, 1933, after signing with RKO and after A Bill of Divorcement, Katharine Hepburn appeared in Morning Glory. In the film Morning Glory, she had her first nomination and Best Actress Award from the Academy Awards. That same year, she was seen in the movie version of Little Women. Katharine Hepburn played the role of Jo and again, the moviegoers loved her performance. The film Little Women broke the box office records at the time it was released.

Refusing to become a superstar, Katharine Hepburn returned on stage. She was then seen in about to do the production of The Lake but RKO insisted that she return to do the film Spitfire. After Spitfire, she finally appeared in The Lake, for which she was praised for her performance.

In 1935, Katharine Hepburn appeared in Alice Adams, for which she was again nominated by the Academy Awards. She had already made several hits by 1938, including, The Little Minister, Mary of Scotland, Break of Hearts, Quality Street, Sylvia Scarlett, Bringing Up Baby, A Woman Rebels and Stage Door. She would continue to do more films and would again be nominated at the Oscars in the film Holiday, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, for which she won, The African Queen, Summertime and On Golden Pond, for which she won again.

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