Katharine Hepburn Quick Info
Height5 ft 6½ in
Weight55 kg
Date of BirthMay 12, 1907
Zodiac SignTaurus
Date of DeathJune 29, 2003

Katharine Hepburn was an American actor, stage artist, and writer. She was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute in 1999. During her career as a Hollywood leading lady for more than 60 years, she won 4 Academy Awards and received a total of 12 Oscar nominations for “Best Actress”.

Born Name

Katharine Houghton Hepburn

Nick Names

First Lady of Cinema, Kate, The Great Kate, Kathy

Age

She was born on May 12, 1907.

Died

On June 29, 2003, she died from cardiac arrest at the age of 96 in Fenwick, Connecticut, United States.

Resting Place

Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, Connecticut, United States

Sun Sign

Taurus

Born Place

Hartford, Connecticut, United States

Nationality

American

Education

She attended Oxford School and Bryn Mawr College, from where she graduated with a degree in History and Philosophy in June 1928.

Occupation

Actor, Stage Artist, Writer

Family

  • Father – Thomas Norval Hepburn (1879-1962) (Urologist at Hartford Hospital)
  • Mother – Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn (1878-1951) (A feminist social reformer and a leader of the suffrage movement in the United States)
  • Siblings – Thomas Houghton “Tom” Hepburn (1905-1921) (Older Brother), Richard Houghton “Dick” Hepburn (1911-2000) (Younger Brother) (Playwright), Dr. Robert Houghton “Bob” Hepburn (1913-2007) (Younger Brother) (Urologist), Marion Houghton Hepburn Grant (1918-1986) (Younger Sister) (Historian, Author, Congress of Industrial Organizations/CIO Organizer, Social Activist), Margaret Houghton “Peg” Hepburn Perry (1920-2006) (Younger Sister) (Librarian, Farmer)
  • Others – Rev. Sewell Stevely/Stavely Hepburn, Jr. (Paternal Grandfather), Selina/Selena Lloyd “Nina” Powell (Paternal Grandmother), Alfred Augustus Houghton (Maternal Grandfather), Caroline “Carrie” Garlinghouse (Maternal Grandmother)

Manager

She was represented by Leland Hayward.

Net Worth

According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, her net worth was $30 Million at the time of her death.

Build

Slim

Height

5 ft 6½ in or 169 cm

Weight

55 kg or 121 lbs

Girlfriend / Boyfriend / Spouse

Katharine Hepburn had dated –

  • Margaret Barker
  • Jane Loring – RUMOR
  • Ludlow Ogden Smith (1928-1934) – She married socialite-businessman Ludlow Ogden Smith on December 12, 1928, when she was 21 and he was 29. This was Hepburn’s only marriage. However, she was never fully committed to the marriage and prioritized her career. In 1932, she moved to Hollywood. After the duo’s estrangement, she traveled to Mexico to get a quick divorce in 1934. They remained friends until his death in 1979 and she often expressed her gratitude toward Smith for his financial and moral support in the early days of her career. In her autobiography, she called herself “a terrible pig” for exploiting his love.
  • Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (1930-1933)
  • Kenneth MacKenna (1930)
  • Joel McCrea (1932)
  • Leland Hayward – After moving to Hollywood in 1932, she started going out with her agent Leland Hayward, while they were both married. He then proposed to her after they had both divorced but she declined, later explaining, “I liked the idea of being my own single self.” Their romance lasted 4 years.
  • Leslie Howard (1933) – RUMOR
  • John Ford (1935)
  • Howard Hughes (1936-1938) – Their romance was portrayed by Cate Blanchett and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator (2004).
  • Margaret Early (1937)
  • James Stewart (1938-1939)
  • Joseph Cotten (1939)
  • Laura Harding
  • Spencer Tracy (1941-1967) – This was the most significant relationship of her life and the pair co-starred in 9 films. In her autobiography, she wrote, “It was a unique feeling that I had for [Tracy]. I would have done anything for him.” When his health declined in the 1960s, she took a 5-year break in her career to care for him and she later stated that they “just passed twenty-seven years together in what was to me absolute bliss”.
  • Judy Garland (1947) – RUMOR
  • Peter O’Toole (1968)

    • Race / Ethnicity

    White

    She was of English, Scottish, and Welsh descent.

    Hair Color

    Auburn

    Eye Color

    Blue

    Sexual Orientation

    Bisexual

    Distinctive Features

    • Often played strong independent women with minds of their own
    • Outspoken personality

    Religion

    Atheism

    She told a journalist in 1991, “I’m an atheist, and that’s it. I believe there’s nothing we can know, except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.”

    Also, she practiced Albert Schweitzer’s theory of “Reverence for Life”.

    Katharine Hepburn Favorite Things

    • Some Of Her Personal Favorite Films – Little Women (1933), Alice Adams (1935)
    • Favorite One Of The 9 Films She Made With Spencer Tracy – Pat and Mike (1952)
    • Female Actor – Bette Davis

    Source – Wikipedia, IMDb

    Katharine Hepburn Facts

  • In 1979, she won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990.
  • In her later years, she openly promoted birth control and supported the legal right to abortion.
  • In 1985, Katharine Hepburn was awarded the Humanist Arts Award by the American Humanist Association.
  • She described herself as a “dedicated Democrat”.
  • Hepburn had expressed fondness for actors Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Melanie Griffith, and Julia Roberts, and great disdain for Meryl Streep, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Woody Allen.
  • She loved going barefoot and usually wore casual clothes. She once said, “the thing that drove me out of skirts was the stocking situation … That’s why I’ve always worn pants … that way you can always go barefoot”.

    • Featured Image by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio / blogspot.com / Public Domain

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