Katharine Hepburn 1907 – 2003

When Katharine Hepburn died, many think that old Hollywood died with her. Born to the “velvet”, the legendary Kate marched across seven decades of theater and film history constantly challenging producers, directors, playwrights and even her fans to forget where she came from and watch where she was going. A private person, Kate found it difficult to talk about herself or her family and carefully hid the age-old family secrets she pledged never to disclose…until she grew older and they no longer haunted her. She was passionate not only in her career and her love affairs but about life itself. Kate only truly loved two men…both Irish…..both Catholic… and both married…tied to their wives by guilt and conscience. “Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get” she said, “only with what you are expecting to give…which is everything”. And so she did.

Mama and the six little Hepburns

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12th, 1907 in Hartford , Connecticut . Her father was Dr. Thomas Norval Hepburn, a noted urologist, and her mother was Katharine Martha Houghton of the Corning Glass Houghtons and a crusader for women’s rights and birth control. The Hepburns had six children all raised to express themselves frankly on any subject (including sex) and never asked to leave the room no matter what was being discussed. This “openness” didn’t sit well with the neighbors. “We were snubbed by everyone, but we grew quite to enjoy that”, Kate said.

Fenwick before 1938 when it was destroyed by a hurricane.

The little Hepburns grew up in a big rambling house called Fenwick. When it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1938, Dr, Hepburn had it rebuilt. Kate was 9 when she decided being a girl was “bunk”, cut off her long hair, dressed in her brother’s clothes and renamed herself Jimmy. That way she wasn’t hampered when she climbed trees and wrestled with her brothers. But at age 13, tragedy interrupted her childhood. Her older brother Tom, always her best friend, hung himself from the rafters in an attic bedroom while the family was visiting in New York. It was Kate who found the body and was so devastated the family had her tutored at home until she finished high school. The family refused to believe the death was a suicide…just a boy’s stunt gone wrong. Later Kate found out Tom’s death was the fifth in a succession of family “unexplained” deaths (two uncles, a grand uncle and Kate’s maternal grandfather had all committed suicide) one subject the family refused to discuss.

Kate does May Day at Bryn Mawr 1928

Kate graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1928 with a degree in history and philosophy and a burning passion to be an actress. That same year she got a bit part in a Broadway show “Night Hostess” and…she also got married. After a short affair, she married wealthy business man Ludlow (Luddy) Ogden Smith to changed his name at her request to S. Ogden Ludlow so she wouldn’t be confused with singer Kate Smith. But the marriage was shorter than the affair (it really only lasted only 3 weeks). They were finally divorced in 1934. But “Luddy” remained in the bosom of her family!

Hepburn in "The Warrior  Husband" 1932

Between 1928 and 1932 Kate was hired, fired and rehired by one stock company and another until she got her break-out role as Antiope, the Amazon Princess in “The Warrior Husband”. According to reports, she made her entrance bare-legged with a stag across her shoulders, hurtled down a stairway, threw the carcass at the feet of the Amazon queen and roared “Get me a bowl of water, will you? I’m in a terrific sweat”. The audience went wild. The play was a hit and so was Kate! RKO immediately sent a scout to woo her west but Kate doubted films were “legitimate” and asked a whopping $1,500 a week to scare them off. But, after a screen test, RKO agreed to her terms. Kate won a role opposite John Barrymore in “A Bill of Divorcement” and the heart of their scout, Leland Hayward. The affair lasted four years.

Hepburn in publicity photo

The year 1933 brought Kate a Best Actress Oscar or her third film “Morning Glory”. She also had a box office smash with “Little Women” that same year. Feeling on top of the world, Kate packed her bags and went back to New York to capture Broadway again. She had the lead in the Jed Harris production of “The Lake”. But Broadway didn’t respond this time and the play was a flop. It was then that Dorothy Parker made her infamous quip about Kate’s performance that she claimed “runs the emotional gamut from A to B”. Hepburn returned to Hollywood and RKO. On February 25, 1936 on the set of her next film “Mary of Scotland” Kate fell truly in love for the first time…with director John Ford.

John Ford

She called him Sean (Ford’s real name was Sean Aloysius O’Fearna). He told her “You’re a hell of a fine girl. If you’d just learn to shut up and knuckle down, you’d make somebody a nice wife”. But this red-haired, hard-drinking Irishman already had a wife and his Celtic guilt complex and Catholic conscience wouldn’t let him divorce her. Everyone on the set knew he was unhappy in his marriage and that he really fell head over heels in love with Kate, but eventually even Kate would realize it was a hopeless situation. He wouldn’t even sleep with her. But Kate was in love and took him home to meet the family. They loved him, too.

Hepburn and Dennis Hooey in "Jane Eyre"

By 1937 Hepburn as well as several other female stars, was named “box office poison” in a ad run by a film distributor. When RKO didn’t support her in the press, Kate bought out her contract at a cost of $200,000 and returned to Broadway. Her first role was the lead in the Theatre Guild production of “Jane Eyre” with Dennis Hooey. She expected Ford to join her there but he never came. When the show played Boston, she accepted a dinner invitation from millionaire aviator/film producer Howard Hughes and when the play closed, she sailed to Nassau with him on his yacht. Finally, with no word from Ford, Kate moved in with Hughes.

Fenwick post-1938

It was on September 21, 1938, while Kate was making one of her visits home, that a hurricane hit Connecticut and Rhode Island without warning. It claimed 682 lives and Kate, her mother and the family maid just barely escaped with their lives. Fenwick was literally washed out to sea. The third floor stayed above water and was found a half a mile away. Kate and her brother Dick were only able to save her mother’s silver tea service that was somehow buried in the sand. Howard Hughes sent a plane with food and water to the area but it was a long time before power and communication were restored. Dr. Hepburn immediately made plans to rebuild on the same site….but he vowed this time it would be 3 feet higher!

with Joseph Cotton in " The Philadelphia Story" on Broadway

In 1939 Kate signed to do Philip Barry’s “The Philadelphia Story” for the Theatre Guild on Broadway. Although her affair with Howard Hughes had ended the year before, she still sought his advice on business matters. When the play looked like a hit, Hughes urged her to buy up the movie rights. It was a smash hit and before its run was even over, MGM was angling for the rights to do the film version and L. B. Mayer found he had to deal with Kate. Hepburn got her price and choice of director but Mayer balked at the casting. She wanted Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy but got Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart instead.

Then, in June of 1941, Kate took a project directly to the MGM studio head. She asked an exorbitant price, but after reading the script, Mayer gladly paid up. In fact, he signed Hepburn to a multi-picture contract. The script was “Woman of the Year” and this time Kate demanded Spencer Tracy for her leading man. Mayer blinked and Kate got Tracy. It became the longest star teaming in Hollywood history…and the beginning of a 27-year love affair.

Kate and Jimmy

She called him “Spencuh” to which he often answered “Why do you always have to sound like you have a broomstick up your ass?”. He called her “That woman”, “Shorty” or just Kathy. The two were worlds apart but somehow managed to bridge the gap. For Kate, the similarity between Tracy and John Ford went beyond their red hair, Irish background, hard drinking and religious beliefs. It was the dark moods and deep depressions that dogged both men that brought back haunting memories from Kate’s childhood.

Kate and Spence in "Woman of the Year"

Everyone in Hollywood knew they were lovers but the press kept a respectful distance. The two stars were always discreet using separate entrances to and from the studio or restaurants and never openly living together until the last years of Tracy’s life. Kate always knew that Spencer would never divorce his wife and that he feared any scandal that might touch her or the children. He had been married to Louise Treadwell since 1923 and they had publicly separated only once….during his intense love affair with Loretta Young. Even Loretta couldn’t fight that Irish conscience. Spencer’s love for Kate went much deeper even though he sometimes "done her wrong". Through good times and bad Kate was steadfast. In fact there were times when Tracy was fighting his demons that Kate slept on the floor outside his hotel room just in case the demons were getting the upper hand.

Kate in a pensive mood!

“Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” in 1967 was their last film together. Two weeks after he finished his last scene, Spencer Tracy died in the little cottage he leased on George Cukor’s estate. Kate was with him when he died but didn’t go to the funeral for the family’s sake. But later when she called Louise to express her condolences she was speechless when Mrs. Tracy remarked “I thought you were only a rumor”. Kate continued to lease the cottage for eleven years after Tracy’s death but then gradually moved back to the townhouse in Manhattan and worked from there. Later when asked about her years with Tracy, she said “We were together 27 years. It worked. Why it worked, who knows? But it worked, didn’t it.”

"Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" 1967

Katharine Hepburn resumed the career she had left in the 1960s to tend ailing Spencer. She won her second Oscar for “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” but regarded that award as belonging to both of them, She won her third Best Actress award for “The Lion in Winter” in 1968 and her fourth for “On Golden Pond” in 1981. She even tackled television and won getting an Emmy for “Love in the Ruins”. In 1999, the American Film Federation (AFI) ranked her as the top female star in their 100 Greatest American Screen Legends.

Kate and George Cukor

Kate continued to commute from New York to wherever a good script called her. But after suffering some significant injuries in an automobile accident in 1985 and some age-related illnesses, Kate gave up her townhouse in New York and went to Fenwick. But she cycled, golfed and swam in the sea well into her nineties. She died at Fenwick on June 29, 2003 at the age of 96. She was cremated and her ashes were interred in the family plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut.

Kate in 1992

For More on Kate Hepburn on and off the set, see Arabella's Notes

Filmography