In
Memoriam: WACJ Remembers
KATHARINE H. HEPBURN (1907-2003)
Katharine
Hepburn was born and raised in Hartford and West Hartford. She was the
daughter of Katharine Houghton Hepburn, a member of the rich and socially
prominent family that founded the Corning Glass Works and an active supporter
of women's rights, and Dr. Thomas Hepburn, a prominent surgeon. The second of
five children, Katharine was bright and independent and excelled in athletics.
She became interested in the theater at an early age, and at 8, she dramatized
Uncle Tom's Cabin, cast it with neighborhood children and presented it in the
tiny theater that her father had built for her in the back yard. In 1918,
Katharine enrolled at Oxford School and in 1924, at Bryn Mawr
College,
where she was known as a strange, aloof young woman with few friends. During
her first two years at Bryn Mawr, she did not do well scholastically, nor did
she participate in any college activities, but sometime during this period she
decided that she would become an actress. Two days after her graduation from
college, and over the strenuous objections of her father, she began work in a
stock company in Baltimore. It was here that she began her long and
illustrious acting career. She has received four Oscars and twelve Academy
Award nominations; she was named best actress for Morning Glory (1933), Guess
Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond
(1981). Among her other honors are a gold medal as the "world's best motion
picture actress" from The Venice International Motion Picture Exposition
(1934) and being named "Woman of the Year" by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club
(1958). She has also co-authored and narrated a documentary entitled Katharine
Hepburn: All About Me (1991) as well as a book on The Making of "The African
Queen" (1987).
Filmography
Continues on the following pages