Katharine Hepburn

At 96 years old, Katharine Hepburn has this physical status:

Katharine Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress known for her fierce courage and vivacious personality, who was a leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years.

She appeared in a variety of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and she received a coveted award (for any gender). There were eight additional nominations in the Academy of Acting Competitions.

Hepburn was named by the American Film Institute as the best female actor of Classic Hollywood Cinema in 1999. Hepburn, who was born in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, started to act while attending Bryn Mawr College.

Her Broadway work attracted her interest in Hollywood.

Her early days in film were marked by success, including an Academy Award for her third film, Morning Glory (1933), a team with Cary Grant, but this was followed by a string of commercial flops culminating in the critically lauded yet commercially unsuccessful comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938).

Hepburn mastered her own comeback by securing the film rights to The Philadelphia Story, which she sold on the condition that she be the star.

Early life and education

Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 12, 1907, the second of six children. Thomas Norval Hepburn (1879–1962), a Hartford Hospital urologist, and Katharine Martha Hepburn (1878–1951), a feminist campaigner, were both parents. Both parents fought for social justice in the United States: Thomas Hepburn founded the New England Social Hygiene Association, which notified the public of venereal disease, while Katharine Turner, a retired Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association leader, later campaigned for birth control with Margaret Sanger. Hepburn's mother was one of many "Votes For Women" protests as an infant. The Hepburn children were taught freedom of expression and were encouraged to explore and discuss any topic they desired. The parents were mocked by the community for their democratical convictions, which prompted Hepburn to confront barriers she encountered. Hepburn said she knew she was the product of "two very special parents" from a young age, and praised her "enormously fortunate" upbringing with the foundation for her triumph. Throughout her life, she remained close to her family.

The teen Hepburn was a tomboy who like to call herself Jimmy and cut her hair short. Thomas Hepburn was eager for his children to push their minds and bodies to their limits, and he taught them how to swim, run, dive, paddle, wrestle, and play golf and tennis. Hepburn's golf became a passion; she took daily lessons and became incredibly efficient at winning the Connecticut Young Women's Golf Championship in semi-finals. She loved swimming in Long Island Sound and took ice-cold baths every morning in the hopes that "the bitterer the medicine, the better it was for you." Hepburn was a huge fan of movies from a young age and went to see one every Saturday night. To raise funds for the Navajo people, she will perform for her neighbors, relatives, and siblings for 50 cents a ticket.

Hepburn, 13, and her 15-year-old brother Tom were in New York over the Easter break with a friend of their mother's in Greenwich Village. Hepburn discovered the body of her adored older brother, who had died from apparent suicide on March 30. He had tied a curtain tie around a beam and hanged himself. The Hepburn family denied it was suicide and said that Tom's death must have been an experiment that had gone wrong. The incident made Hepburn's teen Hepburn jittery, moody, and suspicious of people. She shied away from other girls, dropped out of Oxford University, and was tutored privately. For many years, she used Tom's birthday (November 8) as her own. Hepburn's true birth date was not revealed until her 1991 autobiography, Memories of My Life.

Hepburn was admitted to Bryn Mawr College in 1924. She initially planned to attend the university to please her mother, who had enrolled there, but later found the journey to be enriching. It was the first time she had been in school for many years, and she was both anxious and afraid of her peers. She struggled with university's academic demands, and was once banned from smoking in her room. Hepburn was attracted to acting, but college plays were conditional on solid grades. She began performing regularly as her marks had improved. She played lead role in a production of The Woman in the Moon in her senior year, and Hepburn's eager response cemented the company's determination to pursue a career in theater. In June 1928, she earned a degree in history and philosophy.

Personal life

Hepburn was known for her secrecy, and she would not give interviews or talk to followers for a substantial portion of her career. She distanced herself from celebrity life, uninterested in a social scene she perceived as stifled and superficial, and she wore casual clothing that went straight against convention in a period of glamour. She rarely appeared in public, even avoiding restaurants, and at one point wrestled a camera out of a photographer's hand when taking a photo without asking. Despite her obsessiveness for anonymity, she enjoyed her celebrity and later admitted that she would not have preferred the media to avoid her completely. Hepburn's mature attitude toward her personal life thawed as she aged; beginning with a two-hour interview on The Dick Cavett Show in 1973, she became more open with the public.

In biographies, Hepburn's steadfast energy and enthusiasm for life are often cited, though a headstrong independence became a defining factor in her celebrity. This self-assurance meant she could be both dangerous and difficult; her friend Garson Kanin likened her to a schoolmistress, and she was open and outspoken. Katharine Houghton said that her aunt could be "maddeningly self-righteous and bossy." Hepburn admitted to being "a me me me" in life, particularly early in life. "I love life and I've been so lucky, why shouldn't I be happy?" She said. A. Scott Berg knew Hepburn well in her later years, and she said that although she was demanding, she maintained a sense of humility and humanity.

According to reports, the actress lived a full life, swimming and playing tennis every morning. She was still playing tennis in her eighties, as shown in her 1993 documentary All About Me. She also loved painting, which became a passion later in life. "I always say be on the affirmative and liberal sides," Hepburn said when asked about politics. Don't be a "no" person." As she joined the Committee for the First Amendment in 1940s Hollywood, the anti-Communist attitude in 1940s Hollywood prompted her to political involvement. At the House Un-American Activities Committee's hearings, Her name was mentioned, but Hepburn denied being a Communist sympathizer. She openly promoted birth control and advocated for the fundamental right to abortion later in life. She described herself as a "dedicted Democrat." She followed Albert Schweitzer's "Reverence for Life" but not believe in faith or the afterlife, but not in religion or the afterlife. "I'm an atheist," Hepburn told a writer in 1991, and that's about it. I think there is nothing we can remember other than that we should be generous to each other and do what we can for others." The American Humanist Association awarded the Humanist Arts Award in 1985 in honor of these convictions' public declarations.

Hepburn preferred going barefoot, and she insisted that her character Pandora should not wear shoes, even though she did not appear in "The Woman in the Moon." And for formal events such as TV interviews, she mainly dressed in slacks and sandals off-screen, as well as for formal occasions such as television interviews. "The thing that pulled me out of skirts was the stocking situation," she says, "so that's why I've always worn pants so you can always go barefoot."

Hepburn's only marriage was to Ludlow Ogden Smith, a Philadelphia socialite-businessman who attended as a student at Bryn Mawr. When she was 21 and he was 29, the couple married on December 12, 1928. At her behest, Smith changed his name to S. Ogden Ludlow so that she would not be "Kate Smith" but not "Kate Smith," which she found too cynical. She never fully committed to her marriage and prioritized her career over the course. The couple's estrangement was cemented by the move to Hollywood in 1932. On April 30, 1934, Hepburn filed for divorce in Yucatán, and it was finalized on May 8. Hepburn expressed her appreciation towards Smith in his early years of her career's financial and moral assistance, and she described herself as a "terrible pig" for misusing his affections. Both the two people remained close until his death in 1979.

Hepburn began a relationship with her agent Leland Hayward shortly after he was relocated to California, although the two of them were already married. Hayward suggested to the actress after they had both divorced, but she later explained, "I like the prospect of being my own single self." The affair lasted four years. Hepburn began a friendship with entrepreneur Howard Hughes in 1936 when she was touring Jane Eyre. Cary Grant, a mutual friend, had introduced her to him a year earlier. Hughes wanted to marry her, and the tabloids announced their impending nuptials, but Hepburn kept her focus on resurrecting her failing career. They broke apart in 1938, when Hepburn left Hollywood after being branded "box office poison."

Hepburn stayed to her decision not to remarry and made a conscious decision not to have children. She believed that motherhood necessitated a full time commitment, but that it was not one she was able to do. "I'm obviously a selfish human being," she told Berg, "because I'm basically a terrible mother." She felt she had partially experienced parenthood through her older siblings, which fulfilled any desire to have children of her own.

Hepburn was a lesbian or bisexual, according to rumors, who often joked about. William J. Mann published a biography of the actress in which he argued this was the case. Katharine Houghton said, "I've never found any evidence that she was a lesbian" in reaction to this rumors surrounding her aunt. However, columnist Liz Smith, a close friend, argued that she was indeed who she was in a 2017 documentary.

Spencer Tracy, her co-star in nine films, had the most significant friendship of Hepburn's life. "I had a strange feeling that I had for [Tracy] in her autobiography." I'd have done something for him." Lauren Bacall, a close friend, wrote about how Hepburn was "blindingly" in love. The marriage has since been described as one of Hollywood's most legendary love affairs. Tracy was initially wary of Hepburn, unimpressed by her dirty fingernails and suspicion of being a lesbian, but Hepburn says she "knew right away that [she] found him irresistible." Tracy stayed married throughout their marriage. Despite the fact that he and his wife Louise had been living separately since the 1930s, there has never been an official split, and neither party had set down a divorce, and neither party had attempted to seek a divorce. Hepburn did not interfere, and he never fought for marriage.

With Tracy's insistence that he hides his affair with Hepburn, it was imperative that the affair be kept private. They were careful not to be seen in public together and had separate dwellings. Tracy was an alcoholic and was often depressed; Hepburn described him as "tortured" and she committed herself to making his life easier. According to accounts from people who attended them together, Hepburn's entire demeanor changed around Tracy. Tracy became heavily dependent on her mother and obeyed him. They often spent sighs of time apart due to their jobs, particularly in the 1950s, when Hepburn was often away for career commitments.

Tracy's health worsened in the 1960s, and Hepburn took a five-year break in her career to care for him. For this time, she stayed in Tracy's house and was with him when he died on June 10, 1967. Tracy's family was out of consideration, so she did not attend his funeral. Hepburn was only after Louise Tracy's death in 1983 that she started to talk open about her love for her frequent co-stars. "I honestly don't know" when she asked why she stayed with Tracy for so long, despite the fact of their friendship. I can only say that I should never have left him." She denied that she knew how she felt about her and that they "just passed twenty-seven years together in what was to me absolute bliss."

"I have no fear of death" in her eighties. It's likely to be wonderful, like a long sleep." Her health began to decline not long after her last film appearance, and she was hospitalized in March 1993 for exhaustion. She was hospitalized with pneumonia in the winter of 1996. She was extremely young and was speaking and eating little by 1997, and it was feared she would die. In her last years, she had signs of dementia. An aggressive tumor was discovered in Hepburn's neck in May 2003. She died of cardiac arrest on June 29, 2003, a month after her 96th birthday at the Hepburn family home in Fenwick, Connecticut. The decision was not made to medically interfere, and not to medically intervene. She was buried in Hartford's Cedar Hill Cemetery. Hepburn ordered that there be no memorial service.

Hepburn's death attracted a lot of public attention. Many tributes were held on television, and newspapers and magazines devoted pages to the actress. Hepburn "will be remembered as one of the country's cultural treasures," American President George W. Bush said. The lights of Broadway were dimmed for the evening of July 1, 2003, in honor of her extensive theatre work. Her belongings were auctioned with Sotheby's in New York City in 2004, according to Hepburn's wishes. Hepburn's family will be able to help her with the $5.8 million.

Source

Career

Hepburn left college determined to become an actress. She travelled to Baltimore the day after graduating to speak with Edwin H. Knopf, who operated a successful stock theatre company. In his latest film, The Czarina, Knopf cast Hepburn, who was impressed by her eagerness. Her small work received raves, and the Printed Word referred to her appearance as "arresting." She was accepted to appear in the following week's premiere, but her second appearance was less well received. She was chastised for her shrill voice, and she ended up in Baltimore to study with a voice tutor in New York City.

Knopf selected Hepburn, the understudy, to the leading lady, and decided to produce The Big Pond in New York. The lead was shot and replaced with Hepburn, a few weeks into her stage career, only four weeks into her performance debut. She arrived late, mixed her lines, tripped over her feet, and spoke too quickly to be understood on the first night. She was shot immediately and the original leading lady was rehired. Hepburn, the tenacious producer, joined forces with producer Arthur Hopkins and accepted the role of a schoolgirl in These Days. Her Broadway debut at the Cort Theatre on November 12, 1928, but the show's critics were skewed and it was cancelled after eight nights. In Philip Barry's play Holiday, Hopkins landed Hepburn as the lead understudy. She remarried Ludlow Ogden Smith, a college acquaintance, in early December, just two weeks after only two weeks. She intended to leave the theatre but soon began to miss the job and resuming her understudy work in Holiday, which she had for six months.

Hepburn turned down a role with the Theatre Guild in 1929 to take the lead in Death Takes a Holiday. She thought the job was fine, but she was fired once more. In A Month in the United States, she returned to the Guild and took on an understudy position for minimum wage. Hepburn joined the Berkshire Playhouse theater company in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1930. She stayed with a drama tutor halfway through the summer and began studying with a drama coach. She appeared in Art and Mrs.'s Broadway revival in early 1931. Bottle. After the playwright took a dislike to her, she said, "She looks like a fright, her demeanor is offensive, and she has no talent," she was dismissed. However, Hepburn was re-hired because no other actor could be found. It was still a modest success.

Hepburn appeared in a variety of plays with a summer stock firm in Ivoryton, Connecticut, and she was a hit. Philip Barry begged her to perform in his latest play, The Animal Kingdom, alongside Leslie Howard, during the summer of 1931. They began rehearsals in November, Hepburn being positive that the role would make her a celebrity, but Howard was dissatisfied with the actress and was fired again. "Well, to be brutally honest, you weren't very well," she told Barry when she asked why she had been let go." Hepburn's confidence was shaken by this, but she continued to search for work. She was small in a new play, but she was asked to read for the lead in The Warrior's Husband, a Greek fable.

Hepburn's Husband was the Warrior's breakout success. Charles Higham, a filmmaker, claims that the role was ideally suited for the actress, requiring an explosive passion and athleticism, and she eagerly participated in its production. The play opened in 1932 at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway and in 1932. Hepburn's first entrance required her to scrounge a narrow staircase with a stag over her shoulder, wearing a short silver tunic. Hepburn received glowing feedback after the show ran for three months. "It's been a night" for Richard Garland of the New York World-Telegram, "It's been a night when so brilliant a show has brightened the Broadway stage."

Hepburn's appearance in Hepburn's Husband was noticed by a scout for Leland Hayward, who had requested her to perform in the forthcoming RKO film A Bill of Divorcement. "This strange creature," director George Cukor recalled, "was unlike anything I'd ever heard." He loved the way she poured a glass: "I thought she was really good at this game." Hepburn made a bid for an unknown actor that was not offered the role. Cukor persuaded the studio to honor her demands, and Hepburn and the studio have agreed to a three-week deal. David O. Selznick, the RKO's chairman, told the reporter that he had a "tremendous chance" in casting the unusual actress.

Hepburn was born in California in 1932, at the age of 25. She appeared in A Bill of Divorce opposite John Barrymore but showed no sign of coercion. Though she struggled to adapt to film acting, Hepburn was intrigued by the field right from the start. The photograph was a hit, and Hepburn received praise. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times called her appearance "exceptionally fine" "Miss Hepburn's portrayal of her character "one of the finest seen on film." "Standout here is Katharine Hepburn's smash image in her first picture assignment," the Variety magazine announced. She has something that distinguishes her from the rest of the picture galaxy." RKO has signed her to a long-term deal as a result of A Bill of Divorcement. George Cukor became a lifetime friend and colleague, and he and Hepburn produced ten films together.

Christopher Strong (1933), Hepburn's second film, chronicled an aviator and her affair with a married man. The film was not commercially profitable, but Hepburn's reviews were fine. Regina Crewe wrote in the Journal-American that although her demeanors were grating, "they compel interest," they compel interest, and fascinate an audience. She is a distinct, definite, positive person. Hepburn's third photograph had her as a leading actress in Hollywood. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a young actress Eva Lovelace, a role created for Constance Bennett in Morning Glory. She had seen the script on producer Pandro S. Berman's desk, and though she was not born to play the role, she maintained that the role was her own. Hepburn did not attend the awards ceremony because she would not be around for the remainder of her career, but she was thrilled with the victory. With Jo's role in the film Little Women (1933), she continued to do well. The film was a hit, one of the film industry's most notable successes to date, and Hepburn took home the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival. Little Women was one of Hepburn's personal favorites, and she was proud of her appearance later this year when she said, "I defy anyone to be as good [as Jo] as I was."

Hepburn, a respected film actress by the end of 1933, was on Broadway, but she wanted to prove herself on Broadway. Jed Harris, one of the twentieth century's most influential theatre designers, was going through a career slump. He pressed Hepburn to appear in the play The Lake, which she did not do for a poor pay. RKO demanded that she film Spitfire (1934), before she was given permission. Trigger Hicks, an uneducated mountain girl, was the protagonist of Hepburn's film role. Spitfire is widely regarded as one of Hepburn's worst films, despite the fact that it received favorable reviews for the effort. "Keep" me humble" Hepburn maintained a snapshot of herself as Hicks in her bedroom throughout her life.

The Lake was held in Washington, D.C., where a large advance was sold. Hepburn's confidence had been eroded by Harris' bad direction, and she failed with the show. Despite this, Harris canceled the play without further rehearsal in New York. It opened in 1933 at the Martin Beck Theatre, but critics had it outraged Hepburn. Dorothy Parker wrote, "She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B." She had to deal with the embarrassment of slowly declining box office profits, despite being tied to a ten-week contract. Harris decided to bring the show to Chicago, despite Hepburn's words, "The only thing I have in you is the money I can make out of you." Hepburn did not want to continue on a losing show so she paid Harris $14,000, the majority of her life savings, to close the film instead. She later described Harris as "hands-down the most diabolical person I've ever encountered" and said that this experience was crucial in teaching her to take responsibility for her work.

RKO's Spitfire and The Lake cast Hepburn in The Little Minister (1934), based on a Victorian book by James Barrie, in an effort to recap Little Women's triumph. There was no such outbreak, and the photograph was a commercial disaster. Charles Boyer's romantic romance Break of Hearts (1935) was poorly researched and lost money, as well. Alice Adams (1935), a girl's desperation to scale the social ladder, made it back to Hepburn. Hepburn loved the book and was thrilled to be given the opportunity. The film was a success, one of Hepburn's personal favorites, and it earned the actor her second Oscar nomination. She gained her second most votes after winner Bette Davis.

Hepburn, despite being choosing her next film, has chosen Sylvia Scarlett (1935), which paired her for the first time with Cary Grant. For the part, her hair was cut short for the role, as her character masquerades as a boy for a large portion of the film. Critics slammed Sylvia Scarlett, who was unpopular in the public. She appeared in John Ford's Mary of Scotland (1936), which had a similarly poor reception. A Woman Rebel (1936) was followed by a Victorian-era drama in which Hepburn's character defied convention by having a child out of wedlock. Quality Street (1937) was also a period setting, this time a comedies. Neither film was well-received by the public, which meant she had produced four failed photos in a row.

Hepburn's attitude inspired a number of unpopular films, as well as a string of unpopular films. She had a rocky relationship with the media, with whom she could be rude and provocative. "Yes, I have five children, two white and three colored," she said when asked if she had any." She would not attend interviews or decline autograph requests, earning her the nickname "Katharine of Arrogance." Her boyish behavior and fashion picks also baffled the public, and she has since been largely unpopular. Hepburn realized she had to leave Hollywood and landed in a Jane Eyre theatrical version. It was a lucrative tour, but after the tragedy of The Lake, Hepburn decided against bringing the show to Broadway, Hepburn was uncertain about the script and unwilling to risk disappointment. Hepburn was competing for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, toward the end of 1936. David O. Selznick, a producer, declined to offer her the role because she had no sex appeal. "I can't see Rhett Butler chasing you for ten years," Hepburn told Hepburn, "I can't see Rhett Butler chasing you for ten years."

Stage Door (1937), Hepburn's next film, paired her with Ginger Rogers in a role that resembles her own life—that of a wealthy society girl struggling to make it as an actress. Hepburn was praised for her appearances in early previews, which earned her top billing over Rogers. The film was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but not the box-office hit RKO had hoped for. Hepburn's small fortune was criticized by industry pundits, but the studio kept its efforts to revive her fame. She appeared in Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938), where she played a flighty heiress who loses a leopard when attempting to woo a palaeontologist. (Cary Grant). She approached the physical comedy of the film with a calm attitude and obtained comedic timing from Walter Catlett. Critics lauded Bringing Up Babies, but the box office was also unsuccessful. With the genre and Grant being both extremely popular at the time, writer A. Scott Berg believes it was partially to moviegoers' rejection of Hepburn.

The Independent Theatre Owners of America included Hepburn on a list of actors deemed "box office poison" after the filming of Bringing Up Baby. Mother Carey's Chickens, a B movie with poor hopes, was her reputation at a low, and RKO's next film she was available was Mother Carey's Chickens, a B movie with poor prospects. Hepburn turned it down and instead decided to buy out her contract for $75,000. Many actors were reluctant to leave the studio system at the time, but Hepburn's personal fortune meant she could afford to be self-sufficient. She starred in the film version of Holiday (1938), partnering Grant for the third time. The comedy was well-received, but it didn't attract a large audience, and Hepburn's next script came with a salary of $10,000—less than she had earned at the start of her film career. "No other actor has emerged with greater vigor or with more ecstatic acclaim," Andrew Britton writes about Hepburn. "No other celebrity has become so popular in such a short time."

Hepburn decided to build her own comeback vehicle after her career's demise. She left Hollywood to pursue a stage role and went on to star in Philip Barry's latest film, The Philadelphia Story. It was designed to showcase the actress, with the appearance of socialite Tracy Lord and featuring a mixture of humor, violence, anxiety, and vulnerability. Hepburn's wife at the time, Howard Hughes, knew that this was going to be her return to Hollywood fame and that she had the film rights before it premiered on stage. The Philadelphia Story first appeared in the United States, to applauding reviews, before opening in New York at the Shubert Theater on March 28, 1939. It was a big hit, both financially and emotionally, running for 417 shows before moving to a second profitable tour.

Several of the major film studios in the United Kingdom contacted Hepburn to produce the movie version of Barry's play. On the condition that she be the actress, she decided to sell the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hollywood's top-one studio. She also received George Cukor, the director of her choice, and selected James Stewart and Cary Grant (to whom she ceded top-billing) as co-stars as part of the contract. Hepburn shrewdly stated, "I don't want to make a grand entrance in this film." I'm too lado da or something, according to moviegoers. A lot of people want to see me fall flat on my face." Grant was reportedly knocked unconsciously by the actress' backside, and so the film began. Berg explains how the character was designed to cause audiences to "laugh at her" enough that they would eventually identify with her, a step that Hepburn believes was crucial in "recreating" her public image. The Philadelphia Story was one of 1940's most popular hits, with radio City Music Hall's breaking records. "Come on back, Katie, all is forgiven," the Times said. "It's Katharine Hepburn's picture," Herb Golden of Variety said. The seamless combination of all flighty but a more realistic, Main Line socialite gals joined into one, and the tale without her is almost inconceivable." Hepburn was nominated for her third Academy Award for Best Actress and received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, while Stewart received his first Academy Award for Best Actor for his appearance.

Hepburn was also responsible for the creation of her next project, Woman of the Year, about a political columnist and a sports reporter whose relationship is threatened by her self-centered independence. Garson Kanin, who recalled how Hepburn contributed to the script, told her that the film was suggested to her in 1941. She presented the finished product to MGM, where she demanded $250,000-half for the authors. Hepburn was also given the director and co-star of her choice, George Stevens and Spencer Tracy, despite her terms. Tracy allegedly told Tracy, "I'm afraid I'm too tall for you," she replied, "I'm afraid I'm too tall for you," she said, "I'm afraid I'm too tall for you" on her first day on set together, and Tracy replied, "I'm sure I'm fine, Miss Hepburn, I'll soon trim you down to your size." It began as an on-screen and off relationship that lasted until Tracy's death in 1967, when the two actresses appeared in another eight films together. Woman of the Year, who was published in 1942, was another hit. Critics lauded the actors' chemistry, but Higham not, "increasing maturity and polish" in Hepburn. Two "brilliant performances" were recognized by the World Television Corporation, and Hepburn was nominated for his fourth Academy Award award. Hepburn signed a MGM actor contract during the filming.

Hepburn appeared in another Philip Barry play, Without Love, in 1942, which was also written with the actor in mind. Critics were unsatisfied with the production, but Hepburn's fame was so strong that it lasted for 16 weeks. Tracy and Hepburn were keen to reunite for a new picture and decided on Keeper of the Flame (1942). Hepburn saw the film as a chance to make a good political argument in the case of a tense mystery with a propaganda warning of fascism's dangers. It received poor feedback, but it was a financial success, confirming the Tracy-Hepburn team's fame.

Hepburn had committed to a romantic relationship with Tracy and dedicated herself to supporting the actress, who suffered from alcoholism and insomnia since being named Woman of the Year. As a result, her career slowed, and she spent less for the remainder of the decade than she had in the 1930s, notably because she did not appear on stage again until 1950. Her first appearance in 1943 was as a cameo in the morale-building wartime film Stage Door Canteen, in which she played herself. In 1944, she appeared in a high-budget drama Dragon Seed as a Chinese peasant. Hepburn was ecstatic about the film but it was met with a tepid response and she was described as miscast. She then reunited with Tracy for the film version of Without Love (1945), after which she turned down a role in The Razor's Edge to assist Tracy in his return to Broadway. Without Love received poor feedback, but a recent Tracy-Hepburn picture was a big affair and it was very popular on release, with a record number of tickets selling over the Easter weekend in 1945.

Hepburn's next film was Undercurrent (1946), a film noir starring Robert Taylor and Robert Mitchum that was poorly received. Tracy's fourth film since being in the American Old West named The Sea of Grass, a drama set in the United States. A lukewarm response from critics on both home and abroad meant it was a financial success. In Song of Love, Hepburn portrayed Clara Wieck Schumann the same year. She spent a lot of time as a pianist to prepare for the job. Hepburn's career had been greatly affected by the growing anti-communist movement in Hollywood by the time it was published in October. She had not been offered employment for nine months, and people reportedly threw things at screenings of Song of Love, according to some. Unexpectedly, she decided to replace Claudette Colbert just days before shooting on Frank Capra's political drama State of the Union (1948). Tracy had long been promised to play the male role, and so Hepburn was already familiar with the script and stepped up for his fifth Tracy–Hepburn picture. Critics responded enthusiastically to the film, and it did well at the box-office, as it did well.

Tracy and Hepburn appeared on screen together for the third year in Adam's Rib's 1949 film. It was a "battle of the sexes" comedy, written specifically for the pair by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, like Woman of the Year. Hepburn wrote a tale about married lawyers who challenge each other in court, which Hepburn described as "ideal for [Tracy] and me." Adam's Rib was a hit, favorably reviewed, and the most lucrative Tracy–Hepburn picture to date, despite the fact that her political convictions led to scattered picketing at theatres around the country. Bosley Crowther, a New York Times writer, gushed the film's "intuitive compatibility" and praised the pair's "perfect compatibility."

Hepburn faced a string of career setbacks during her time as a child actor, not least at a time when most other actresses began to decline. Berg describes the decade as "the center of her illustrious legacy" and "the time in which she truly came to her own" in the years. Hepburn ventured into Shakespeare in January 1950, playing Rosalind on stage in As You Like It. She wanted to show that she could play already established material, but she said, "It's better to try something difficult and flop than to play it safe all the time." It opened at the Cort Theatre in New York to a huge audience and was practically sold out for 148 performances. The performance then went on tour. Hepburn's reviews were mixed, but she was praised as the only leading lady in Hollywood to be onstage doing high-caliber material.

Hepburn shot The African Queen, her first film in Technicolor in 1951. Rose Sayer, a German East Africa missionary living during World War II, was shot mainly on location in the Belgian Congo, which Hepburn embraced. However, it was a challenging shoot, and Hepburn became sick with dysentery while filming. Later in life, she published a memoir about the experience. The film was released at the end of 1951 to widespread support and critical acclaim, and Hepburn received her fifth Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards, as well as capturing Bogart's first Academy Award for Best Actor. Tracy's first film since The Philadelphia Story a decade ago, it showed she could be a hit without him and had regained her fame.

Hepburn produced Pat and Mike (1952), the second film directed by Kanin and Gordon specifically as a Tracy–Hepburn vehicle. "As I watched Kate playing tennis one day, it occurred to me that she was missing a treat," Kanin later referred to it. Hepburn was under pressure to excel in several sports, but some of which did not appear in the film. Pat and Mike was one of the team's most well-known and critically acclaimed films, and it was also Hepburn's personal favorite of the nine films she made with Tracy. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her role.

Hepburn appeared in London's West End for ten weeks of George Bernard Shaw's The Millionaires in 1952. When she was a child, her parents read Shaw to her, making the performance a unique experience for the actress. Hepburn had exhausted after two years of heavy duty, but her companion Constance Collier said Hepburn was "on the brink of a nervous breakdown." The Millionairess were taken to Broadway, where they were widely distributed. The Shubert Theatre opened in October 1952, where despite a lukewarm critical reaction, it sold out its ten-week run. Hepburn later attempted to make the play turn into a film: Preston Sturges wrote a script and offered to do nothing and pay the director but no studio took on the project. She later referred to this as the biggest disappointment of her career.

Pat and Mike was the last film Hepburn produced on her MGM deal, leaving her free to choose her own projects. Before committing to David Lean's romantic drama Summertime (1955), she spent two years resting and traveling. The film was shot in Venice, with Hepburn playing a lonely spinster with a passionate love affair. She referred to it as a "very emotional part" and found it thrilling to work with Lean. Hepburn caused a persistent eye infection as a result of falling into a canal on her own initiative. The role earned her another Academy Award nomination and has been cited as some of her best work in recent history. Later, Lean said that it was his personal favorite of his films, and Hepburn was his favorite actress. Hepburn spent six months touring Australia with the Old Vic theatre company, including Portia in The Taming of the Shrew and Isabella in Measure for Measure. Hepburn's tour was a hit, and the effort was well-received.

Hepburn was nominated for her second year in Academy Award for her appearance in The Rainmaker (1956), opposite Burt Lancaster. She played a lonely woman embraced by a love affair again, and it became apparent that Hepburn had found a niche in playing "love-starved spinsters" that critics and viewers adored. "I was playing me" with Lizzie Curry [The Rainmaker] and Jane Hudson [Summertime] and Rosie Sayer [The African Queen]—hepburn said of playing such roles. Since I'm the maiden aunt, it wasn't difficult for me to perform those women. The Iron Petticoat (1956), a reworking of the classic comedy Ninotchka with Bob Hope, had less success this year. Hepburn portrayed a chilly-hearted Soviet pilot in Bosley Crowther's "horrible" role. It was a critical and commercial failure, and Hepburn called it the worst film on her resume.

For the first time in five years for the office-based comedy Desk Set (1957), Tracy and Hepburn reunited on screen. Berg notes that it was a hitch in romance and Hepburn's spinster persona, but that it failed at the box office. Hepburn performed in Shakespeare the summer. She reenacted her Portia in The Merchant of Venice and played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing while sitting in Stratford, Connecticut, at the American Shakespeare Theatre. The shows were well-received.

Hepburn appeared in a film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' tumultuous play Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift after two years away from the screen. Hepburn's film was shot in London and was "completely miserable experience" for the actor. During filming, she fought with director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, which culminated in her spitting at him in disgust. The film was a financial success, and Violet Venable's work as a creepy aunt earned Hepburn her eighth Oscar nomination. "Kate is a playwright's dream-actress," Williams wrote about the performance. "She makes dialogue seem more natural than it is by a lack of beauty and clarity of diction." Hepburn had conceived The Night of the Irmation (1961) with Hepburn in mind, but the actress, who had been flattered, felt the play was wrong for her and declined the role, which went to Bette Davis.

Hepburn played Viola in Twelfth Night, and Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1960. "Hepburn puts on a very versatile appearance, with her famous demeanors and always being fascinating to watch," the New York Times wrote about her Cleopatra. Hepburn herself was proud of her role. Her repertoire was enhanced even more when she appeared in Sidney Lumet's film adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962). It was a low-budget film, and she appeared in the film for tenth of her regular income. Mary Tyrone's role in American drama, according to her, was the best film work of her career, and she called it "the greatest [play] this country has ever produced" and the role of morphine-addicted Mary Tyrone "the most challenging female role in American drama." Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival as a result of his long day's Journey Into Night. It is still one of her most lauded appearances.

Hepburn took a break in her career to care for ailing Spencer Tracy after the completion of Long Day's Journey Into Night. She did not appear again until Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, her ninth film with Tracy, 1966. Katharine Houghton, Hepburn's niece, appeared in the film about interracial unions, played her daughter. By this time, Tracy was dying from heart disease, and Houghton later said that her aunt was "very tense" during the process. Tracy died 17 days after shooting his last scene. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was Hepburn's triumphant return and her most commercially lucrative picture to date. She received her second Best Actress Award at the Academy of Television Arts, 34 years after winning her first. Hepburn said that the award was not limited to her, but that it was also given to honor Tracy.

Hepburn recovered quickly after Tracy's death, opting to devote herself to grief rather than crying. She received numerous scripts and decided to play Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion (1968), which she described as "fascinating." She read extensively in preparation for the role, in which she appeared opposite Peter O'Toole in the film. Filming took place in Montmajour Abbey, France, where the actress loved the experience despite being—according to director Anthony Harvey—"enormously vulnerable" all the time. Eleanor was "the appearance of her [career]," according to John Russell Taylor of The Times, who later revealed that she was "a rising, prospering, and also surprising actress." All of the major categories were recognized by the Academy Awards, and Hepburn took home the Oscar for Best Actress (shared with Barbra Stingham for Funny Girl). The role, as well as her appearance in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, received a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Best Actress. Hepburn's next film appearance was in The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), which she shot in Nice right after finishing The Lion in Winter. The photograph was a failure both financially and financially, and media outlets chastised Hepburn for delivering a disorganized result.

Hepburn appeared in Coco Chanel's Broadway musical Coco from 1969 to 1970. She confessed that she had never been to a theatrical performance before the show. She was not a natural performer, but the bid was irresistible, and "what she lacked in euphony she made up for in guts," Berg says. In preparation for the performance, the actress took vocal lessons six times a week. She was worried about every performance and remembered "what the hell I was doing there" at the time. Reviewers of the film were poor, but Hepburn herself was lauded, and Coco was a hit among the public, with its run twice extended. Coco was the first time she acknowledged that the world did not condemn her, but she later expressed admiration for her. Her work was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical by the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Hepburn continued to work into the 1970s, concentrating on roles referred to by Andrew Britton as "either a devouring mother or a young old lady [alone]." Vanessa Redgrave and I went to Spain first to film a version of Euripides' The Trojan Women (1971) together. When asked why she had taken the position, she replied that she wanted to expand her field and try everything while still having time. Hepburn's role was poorly received, but the Kansas City Film Critics Circle named him the best from an actress this year. In 1971, she agreed to act in a travelogue with My Aunt Graham Greene, but she was dissatisfied with the early versions of the script and decided to rewrite it herself. Hepburn terminated the project and was replaced by Maggie Smith after the studio disliked her changes. Her next film, an adaptation of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (1973), directed by Tony Richardson, had a small release and received mostly critical feedback.

Hepburn appeared on television for the first time in 1973, appearing in a rendition of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. She had been suspicious of the medium, but it became one of the year's biggest television shows of the year, with high ratings in the Nielsen polls. Hepburn was nominated for her role as Amanda Wingfield, a wistful Southern mother who brought her attention to future work on the small screen. Laurence Olivier's next project was Love Among the Ruins (1975), a London-based Edwardian drama. It received positive feedback and high praise, earning Hepburn her first Emmy Award.

Hepburn received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to Lawrence Weingarten, her first appearance at the Academy Awards in 1974. "I'm very glad I didn't hear anyone call out, because it's about time" she got a standing ovation and joked with the audience. In the western Rooster Cogburn sequel to his Oscar-winning film True Grit, she was partnered with John Wayne the following year. Hepburn played a deeply religious spinster who teams up with a masculine loner to revenge a family member's death, echoeing her African Queen role. The film received poor reviews. Its casting was sufficient to bring some people to the box office, but it was not up to par with studio goals and was only moderately profitable.

Hepburn's play A Matter of Gravity, a 1976-19 play, has returned to Broadway for a three-month run. Mrs. An eccentric is the role of an eccentric lady. Despite poor reviews, Basil was considered a perfect showcase for the actress, and the performance was highly praised. It then went on a nationwide tour. Hepburn fractured her hip during the Los Angeles run, but she kept traveling in a wheelchair. By the People's Choice Awards, she was named "Favorite Motion Picture Actress" for the first year.

Hepburn appeared in the low-budget family film Olly Olly Oxen Free in the summer of 1976. The film was unable to find a major-studio distributor and was eventually released in 1978 as a result of free will. Because of its poor exposure, it appeared in a handful of theaters, resulting in one of Hepburn's best misfires. James Prideaux, a screenwriter who worked with Hepburn, later wrote that it "died at the time of publication" and referred to it as her "lost film" in the story. Hepburn said the primary reason she did it was the opportunity to ride in a hot-air balloon. The Corn Is Green (1979), a British film, was based on a television series. It was the last of Hepburn's ten films with George Cukor, and she received her third Emmy nomination.

Hepburn had a noticeable tremor by the 1980s, giving her a tremor that had been shaking all over the place. "I've had my day—let the kids scramble and sweat it out," she said in a television interview. During this time, she attended On Golden Pond in Broadway, and was impressed by the depiction of an elderly married couple struggling with the challenges of old age. Jane Fonda had bought the film rights for her father, actor Henry Fonda, and Hepburn wanted to play opposite him in the role of the eccentric Ethel Thayer. The second-highest-grossing film of 1981, Golden Pond, was a hit. As she fully clothed into Squam Lake and gave a lively singing performance, it showed how vivacious the 74-year-old Hepburn was. The film received her second BAFTA and a record fourth Academy Award for her second film. Henry Fonda received his first Academy Award for his role in the film (after James Stewart and Humphrey Bogart) who won his third male screen award (after Hepburn) who received his first Academy Award acting alongside Hepburn. In his book on Hepburn, Homer Dickens says it was widely regarded as a sentimental triumph "a nodulation to her persevering career."

In 1981, Hepburn returned to the stage. She was nominated for her second Tony nomination for her role in The West Side Waltz, a septuagenarian widow with a zest for life. According to Variety, the role was "an obvious and completely acceptable recreation of [Hepburn's] own public image." "One strange thing she has learned to do is convert unchallengeable life into lifeless lines," Walter Kerr of The New York Times wrote about Hepburn and her appearance. She had intended to make a film out of the process, but no one had purchased the rights. Hepburn's reputation as one of America's best loved actors was solidified by this time, when she was named the People magazine's favorite actress and then received the People's Choice award.

Hepburn appeared in the dark comedy Grace Quigley, the tale of an elderly woman who hires a hitman (Nick Nolte) to murder her. Hepburn found humor in the morbid theme, but studies were critical and the box-office was poor. In 1985, she presented Spencer Tracy's life and work on television. The bulk of Hepburn's roles from this point were in television shows, which did not receive critical acclaim for her earlier work in the field, but the genre remained very popular with audiences. Hepburn would announce it on screen for the final time with each release, but she continued to play new roles. She received an Emmy Award for 1986's Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry, but Laura Lansing Slept Here, which allowed her to perform with her grandniece, Schuyler Grant, was two years later.

Hepburn's autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, debuted in 1991, topping best-seller lists for more than a year. She returned to television screens in 1992 for The Man Upstairs, co-starring Ryan O'Neal, for which she received a Golden Globe award. She appeared in This Can't Be Love, a 1994 film based on Hepburn's own experience, with many references to her personality and work. Hepburn's later appearances have been described as "a fictional interpretation of the Typical Feisty Kate Hepburn role," and commentators have pointed out that Hepburn was actually playing herself.

Love Affair (1994), Hepburn's last film appearance in a theatrically released film and her first since Grace Quigley nine years ago. She appeared in a supporting role alongside Annette Bening and Warren Beatty at 87 years old. It was the only film of Hepburn's career other than the cameo appearance in Stage Door Canteen, in which she did not play a leading role. Roger Ebert said it was the first time she had seen frail, but that the "magnific spirit" was still present in her scenes, as she "steal the show." "If she moved more slowly than before, in demeanor, she was as game and modern as she had ever been." Hepburn appeared in One Christmas (1994), for which she received a Screen Actor Guild Award nomination at 87 years old.

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