00:00Women who change the world.
00:30If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
00:37Katherine Hepburn
00:39Katherine Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Connecticut.
00:44In her autobiography, Hepburn stated her birth date as 1907.
00:49She was one of six children, born to a socially prominent, well-to-do activist family.
00:55Her mother was a well-known and passionate suffragette.
00:58Her physician father was a creative pioneer in the field of sexual hygiene.
01:04Her youth was filled with physical activity.
01:07Her social conscience was developed early in her life.
01:10She and her siblings formed a neighborhood performing group, sending the proceeds from
01:15one production to benefit Navajo children in New Mexico.
01:18Hepburn entered Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania in 1924.
01:23Upon graduating four years later, she immediately embarked on a successful career in the theater.
01:30Her critical success as an Amazon queen in the satire The Warrior's Husband led to a contract
01:36with the film studio RKO.
01:39In 1932, she made her film debut in that company's A Bill of Divorcement, playing opposite John
01:46Barrymore.
01:47She received rave reviews for her performance and achieved stardom overnight.
01:53Hepburn's screen career lasted for over 50 years and was based on a persona whose essentials
01:58included energy, grace, determined, trim athletic good looks, and obvious upper-class breeding.
02:06This persona led her to four Academy Awards as Best Actress in the films Morning Glory, Guess
02:13Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond.
02:19Hepburn also received an additional eight Oscar nominations.
02:23Her role in the 1975 made-for-television film Love Among the Ruins won her an Emmy Award.
02:31Hepburn's next MGM film brought Spencer Tracy into her life, with whom she began a relationship
02:37that lasted over two decades, until his death in 1967.
02:43Tracy never divorced her.
02:45In the 1960s, Hepburn interrupted her career to care for the ailing Tracy.
02:51They made nine films together over a period of 25 years.
02:55Not all of these films were commercially or critically successful, but whether comedies
03:00or dramas, they were provocative and interesting, especially for their emphasis on the personal
03:06interaction between the sexes.
03:09Both Tracy and Hepburn played strong characters in these films, but neither was forced to give
03:14in to the other.
03:16Hepburn had been married in 1928 to the social and well-to-do Ludlow Ogden Smith, who had changed
03:23his name to Ogden Ludlow, because she did not want to be called Kate Smith.
03:28Among her other romantic attachments in the 1930s was the well-known businessman and millionaire,
03:34Howard Hughes .
03:38In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her the top American screen legend of all time.
03:46In the 1990s, Katherine Hepburn developed a progressive neurological disease, but this
03:51did not prevent her from keeping up an active lifestyle in her Connecticut hometown, and even
03:57from acting in select roles.
04:00Her last Hollywood film credit came in 1994, more than 60 years after she made her memorable
04:07debut in A Bill of Divorcement.
04:09Katherine Hepburn died on June 29, 2003, at the age of 96, in the same house in which she
04:17had grown up.
04:18Life is hard, she once said.
04:21After all, it kills you.
04:24Katherine Hepburn never conformed to the traditional star image, but there is no doubt that she was
04:30a superstar as an actress in movies, on stage, and on television.
04:35A strong-minded, independent woman, she has lived her life and her career to suit herself.
04:42In the process, she has entertained, delighted, and aroused millions, and she has done so without
04:48compromising her beliefs.
04:56Women Who Change The World
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