50 Fun Facts About Katharine Hepburn

Which actress broke Katharine Hepburn's record of 12 Oscar acting nominations in 2003?

Meryl Streep passed her with a 13th nomination, for Adaptation, and has since reached 21; Hepburn's four acting wins, all for Best Actress, were still the record in 2026.

In which Connecticut city was Katharine Hepburn born in 1907?

Hartford was home to her mother, who led Connecticut's campaign for women's votes, and Hepburn credited her outspoken parents for her own independence.

At which college did Hepburn begin acting?

Bryn Mawr, her mother's college too, gave her a degree in history and philosophy in 1928; she went straight from graduation into the theatre, sure, she later admitted, that she would be famous.

What daily habit did young Hepburn keep, believing "the bitterer the medicine, the better"?

Ice-cold baths were her doctor father's own routine, which he thought invigorating; she kept up cold-water swimming for most of her life.

In which sport did the teenage Hepburn reach the semi-final of a Connecticut young women's championship?

Golf was one of many sports her father pushed on his children, raised to keep in top physical condition; in later years she swapped it for daily tennis and swimming.

For years Hepburn gave her birthday as November 8, a date that really belonged to whom?

Her older brother Tom died in 1921, and it was the teenage Hepburn who found him; she then used his November 8 birthday as her own for decades.

In which book did Hepburn finally reveal her true birth date?

Me: Stories of My Life (1991) put it bluntly: she was born on May 12, 1907, 'despite everything I may have said to the contrary', after years of claiming to be two years younger.

Which wit quipped that Hepburn's acting in the Broadway play The Lake ran the gamut of emotions 'from A to B'?

Dorothy Parker's jibe summed up the reviews of The Lake; rather than tour in a failing show, Hepburn paid its producer to close the production.

For which studio did Hepburn make her first film, A Bill of Divorcement, in 1932?

RKO kept her under contract through an Oscar win and a run of flops, until in 1938 she bought herself out rather than make a B picture the studio had assigned her.

Which star played Hepburn's father in her screen debut, A Bill of Divorcement (1932)?

John Barrymore played her troubled father, newly home from years in an asylum; the newcomer's reviews were so strong that her studio signed her to a long-term contract.

For which 1933 film, only her third, did Hepburn win her first Academy Award?

Morning Glory cast her as Eva Lovelace, a stage-struck newcomer; the script had been tailored for the studio's biggest star, Constance Bennett, until Hepburn read it and insisted the part be hers.

Which of the March sisters did Hepburn play in Little Women (1933)?

Jo, the tomboy writer, suited her so well that she later defied anyone to be as good in the part as she had been; the film was one of the biggest hits of its day.

Which director made ten films with Hepburn?

George Cukor picked her out from a screen test and became a lifelong friend: Hepburn and Spencer Tracy lived for years in a guest house on his estate.

Which film first paired Hepburn with Cary Grant, with her disguised as a boy?

Sylvia Scarlett cast Grant as a Cockney con man who teams up with the disguised Sylvia; audiences stayed away, yet he and Hepburn went on to make three more films together.

What animal does Hepburn's flighty heiress lose in Bringing Up Baby (1938)?

A leopard named Baby, a pet her brother has sent from Brazil, gives the film its title; poor ticket sales dented her standing for a while.

What label did the Independent Theatre Owners of America attach to Hepburn in 1938?

Box office poison was the verdict of a cinema owners' list that also named Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Mae West; Hepburn answered by buying out her studio contract.

Which of Hepburn's partners helped her secure the film rights to The Philadelphia Story, her comeback vehicle?

Howard Hughes's backing gave her control of the hit play's screen rights, so she could sell them to MGM on condition that she starred, with a director of her own choosing.

Which playwright wrote Holiday and Without Love and modelled the heroine of another Broadway hit on Hepburn?

Philip Barry's other hit was The Philadelphia Story, whose Tracy Lord he modelled on Hepburn herself, years after she had been dropped from the cast of one of his earlier plays.

Which co-star won his only Academy Award for Best Actor for The Philadelphia Story?

James Stewart played the reporter covering the wedding; Hepburn had wanted Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy for the male leads and got Stewart and Cary Grant instead.

Which 1942 film was the first of nine that Hepburn made with Spencer Tracy?

Woman of the Year was a script Hepburn sold to MGM herself, asking for Tracy, whom she had never met, to play the sportswriter opposite her political columnist.

Which film casts Hepburn and Tracy as married lawyers?

Adam's Rib sets them against each other over a wife who shot at her unfaithful husband, and at home the two lawyers still call each other Pinky.

Which married writing team wrote two Tracy–Hepburn comedies?

Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon were friends of the pair and wrote both scripts with them in mind; Kanin later turned the friendship into a memoir, Tracy and Hepburn.

In which comedy is Hepburn a champion athlete managed by Spencer Tracy?

Pat and Mike was written to show off Hepburn's real sporting skill, and champions such as Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Gussie Moran turn up in it playing themselves.

Which director's political drama State of the Union did Hepburn join at days' notice, replacing Claudette Colbert?

Frank Capra lost Colbert after disagreements with her just before shooting; Hepburn, who had been helping Tracy with the script, already knew the part and stepped in.

The African Queen (1951) was Hepburn's first film made in which format?

Technicolor came late to a star of almost twenty years' standing, and its bulky three-strip cameras had to be hauled out to rough African locations.

Besides Uganda, where in Africa did Hepburn and Bogart shoot The African Queen on location?

The Belgian Congo shoot was rough on cast and crew: Hepburn was sick during filming, while Bogart boasted that he stayed healthy by drinking whiskey instead of the local water.

Which 1955 David Lean romance, filmed in Venice, earned Hepburn an Oscar nomination?

Summertime had her fall backwards into a Venetian canal for one scene; the dirty water left her with an eye infection that troubled her for the rest of her life.

In which Tennessee Williams adaptation did Hepburn play Violet Venable opposite Elizabeth Taylor?

Suddenly, Last Summer was a miserable shoot for Hepburn, who ended it by spitting in disgust at the film-makers; accounts name director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, producer Sam Spiegel or both.

For which Eugene O'Neill adaptation did Hepburn win the Best Actress award at Cannes?

Long Day's Journey Into Night was shot for under half a million dollars, yet all four of its stars came home from Cannes with acting prizes, Hepburn for the morphine-addicted Mary Tyrone.

Tracy died 17 days after finishing which film with Hepburn?

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner cast them as husband and wife; Hepburn had put her own career on hold for nearly five years to nurse Tracy, and the film won her a second Oscar.

Which historical queen did Hepburn play in The Lion in Winter (1968)?

Eleanor of Aquitaine is let out of captivity for Christmas and spends it fighting her husband, Henry II, over which of their sons will inherit the throne; the part won Hepburn her third Oscar.

With whom did Hepburn share the 1968 Best Actress Oscar in a tie?

Barbra Streisand, winning for Funny Girl, collected her statuette in person while Hepburn stayed away as usual; as of 2026 it is still the only tie the Best Actress award has produced.

Which fashion designer did Hepburn play in a 1969 Broadway musical?

Coco Chanel gave Hepburn her singing debut at 62, in Alan Jay Lerner's musical Coco; it was the only stage musical of her career and brought her a Tony nomination.

For which 1975 television romance, opposite Laurence Olivier, did Hepburn win her only Emmy?

Love Among the Ruins cast her as an ageing actress sued for breach of promise, whose barrister, played by Olivier, turns out to be a suitor she jilted forty years earlier.

Hepburn made her only Oscar-night appearance in 1974 to present the award named after which MGM producer?

Irving Thalberg's memorial award went that night to Lawrence Weingarten, who had produced comedies of hers with Tracy; she never collected any of her own four Oscars in person.

With which star did Hepburn appear in the 1975 western Rooster Cogburn?

John Wayne returned as the one-eyed marshal who had won him an Oscar in True Grit, with Hepburn as a preacher's daughter riding along to catch her father's killers.

Who bought the screen rights to On Golden Pond so that her father could star opposite Hepburn?

Jane Fonda also played the estranged daughter, a rift that echoed her real relationship with Henry Fonda; it was his last feature film and won him Best Actor.

Which star's 1981 film alone out-grossed On Golden Pond in North America?

Harrison Ford's Raiders of the Lost Ark alone out-earned it: a quiet drama about a long-married couple growing old took more than Superman II.

In which 1994 remake did an 87-year-old Hepburn make her last big-screen appearance, as Warren Beatty's aunt?

Love Affair gave her a few scenes advising Annette Bening's character, and at 87 she still slipped in an unprintable line about ducks.

Which 1938 disaster destroyed the Hepburn family home at Fenwick, Connecticut?

A hurricane, the great New England storm of September 1938, wrecked the house; Hepburn narrowly escaped, and the Hepburns rebuilt.

Which famous role, one she longed to play, did producer David O. Selznick deny Hepburn in the late 1930s?

Scarlett O'Hara went to Vivien Leigh instead: Selznick, the studio boss who had gambled on Hepburn for her first film, felt she lacked the sex appeal for the part.

Which director took Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart to Africa to shoot The African Queen?

John Huston insisted on real African locations, and Hepburn later wrote a whole book about the ordeal: The Making of The African Queen, or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind.

Which organisation named Hepburn the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema in 1999?

The American Film Institute's poll put her first among actresses, one place ahead of Bette Davis, the rival who had beaten her to the Best Actress Oscar for 1935.

Which actress won an Oscar for playing Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator?

Cate Blanchett took home Best Supporting Actress for playing a woman who never once turned up to collect her own four Oscars.

What item of clothing did Hepburn famously wear before it was fashionable for women?

Trousers were her uniform off screen, even at formal occasions; skirts, she said, were hopeless, and in 1986 America's fashion designers gave her a lifetime achievement award.

Why did Hepburn have her husband Ludlow rearrange his name to S. Ogden Ludlow?

She found 'Kate Smith' too plain, and another Kate Smith was already in show business; the marriage ended in 1934, yet the two stayed friendly until he died.

Which star traded wisecracks with Hepburn as her roommate in the 1937 film Stage Door?

Ginger Rogers and Hepburn spar as roommates in a boarding house full of hopeful actresses; the film also gave Hepburn her most imitated line, 'The calla lilies are in bloom again.'

Which low-budget Hepburn family adventure, shot in 1976, got only a limited cinema release two years later?

Olly Olly Oxen Free takes its name from a children's hide-and-seek call; Hepburn, in her late sixties, did her own stunts, even dangling from a rising hot-air balloon.

Which country stood in for ancient Troy in Hepburn's 1971 film The Trojan Women?

Spain's hill village of Atienza offered ready-made ruins, so its walls and rocks could stand in for fallen Troy, with Hepburn as the defeated queen Hecuba.

What kind of warrior did Hepburn play on Broadway in The Warrior's Husband?

An Amazon named Antiope was the part: she made her first entrance down a narrow staircase with a stag over her shoulder, and the 1932 role won her a Hollywood screen test.