Katherine Hepburn, whose biography will be presented in the article, is one of the greatest actresses in classic Hollywood. She worked on stage for more than sixty years, was awarded several Academy Award for her outstanding work.
Childhood and youth
Hepburn Katherine was born in a state called Connecticut in 1907. She was the second of six children in the family. Her parents worked in a hospital. Both occupied an active social and public position. In many ways, the nature of the parents and their activities left an imprint on young Katherine, who in life was also distinguished by her energy and enviable independence. Actress Katherine Hepburn has always been close with her family.
As a child, Katherine was that tomboy. She gave odds to many boys from the street. I must say that her father took a very responsible approach to the healthy lifestyle of children, so they constantly engaged in sports, whether swimming, running, playing tennis or golf.
From early childhood, Hepburn Katherine had one big love. This movie. She dreamed of a career as an actress and from the age of twelve, she staged beautiful performances at home weekly.
In 1921, a terrible tragedy occurred. Katherine found her brother Tom hanged. This terrible incident unsettled her. The girl suffered so much that she began to be afraid of people, stopped attending school and switched to home schooling.
Education
In 1924, Hepburn entered Brin-Mor College. It was the desire of a mother who once studied there. The first classes were given to Katherine with difficulty, because several years before that she was a recluse. Her classmates considered her strange and very shy.
There was a theater club in college , which could only be reached with good grades. Katherine did that too. Soon, she began to get the main roles, and the girl became entrenched in the thought that she should build a theatrical career.
Hepburn Catherine graduated in 1928 (Department of History and Philosophy).
Carier start
Katherine went to Baltimore. Edward Knopf, the owner of the theater company, was struck by the talent of the girl and offered her a small role in the play "Queen". The debut was highly praised by critics, but Hepburn had flaws in speech. She went to New York to solve these problems.
In the big city, Knopf put the girl as the understudy performer of the leading role in the play "Big Pond". But soon Katherine herself shone on this stage, although a month has not passed since the beginning of her theatrical career.
In 1928, her debut on Broadway took place. However, the show was not rated very highly, and soon it was closed.
For some time she worked as a backup for the leading actresses of New York theaters, and in the spring of 1930, Hepburn Katherine joined the theater troupe in Massachusetts.
Katherine had to go through many failures before she began to get decent work. But she waited. In 1932, the play "Woman Warrior" was held on the stage of Broadway, where the actress showed not only her talent, but also excellent physical fitness.
The show was shown for three months, critics praised Hepburn for the Olympus of Glory.
Success in hollywood
One Hollywood agent saw Katherine on a Broadway show and was incredibly impressed by her beauty and artistry. He invited her to sign a contract with one film company. The actress requested an unprecedented price for the beginning artist, but her request was granted and the contract was concluded.
Hepburn starred in films based on second-rate novels or not-so-talented scripts, but despite this (apparently due to the character of the girl), the films were very popular with the audience.
Her debut was the film "Bill of Divorce." Then followed "Little Women", "Alice Adams", "Mary of Scotland." Everywhere Katherine was in the title role.
By the way, the film "Little Women", for which the actress received the prize of the Venice Festival, remained Catherine's favorite until the end of her career.
At the end of 1933, Hepburn was a respected film actress, whose opinion everyone reckoned with. But she longed for theatrical fame. So that the producers of the film company let her go on Broadway, Hepburn had to agree to participate in a film that she did not like.
But in the theater, everything went wrong. The production was stopped, and the actress returned to California.
Unexpected failure
The next four years were in some ways unsuccessful for the actress, although she was nominated for an Oscar. However, most films released during this period, contrary to the expectations of the film company, failed at the box office. And critics did not leave the actress alone.
Along with a string of unpopular films, Hepburn himself had problems. She had a very difficult relationship with the press: she could be rude or sarcastically respond, did not give autographs and interviews, and avoided publicity. For this she was nicknamed "Miss Pride."
Katherine felt that she needed a break from the hype, and again went to the east coast. She was to play a role in the play based on the novel "Jane Eyre". The performance was greeted very friendly.
At the end of 1936, Hepburn tried to get the role of Scarlett in Gone With the Wind. The reason for the rejection was the fact that Katherine is not sexy enough. Katherine Hepburn, whose figure parameters were ideal, with her characteristic categoricality, did not accept any apologies from the producers, but began acting in a new film.
But neither "Service Entrance to the Theater" nor "Holiday" impressed viewers and critics. The last straw was the eccentric comedy “Bringing Up Baby”, where Hepburn played the eccentric heiress, who is trying to get the paleontologist's location (his role was played by Carey Grant). Critics spoke neutrally about the picture, but the viewer did not go at all. The company again suffered losses. Streams of mud poured on Katherine immediately, the "yellow press" claimed that only this actress was the cause of the failures of recent films.
Katherine was almost crushed. She decided to leave cinema forever. The next two years, the actress refused any job offers.
Rebirth
Katherine Hepburn, whose films left so much hype in the press, returned to the screens in 1940. It was a picture of the Philadelphia Story. Instead of a fee for the role, the actress took away the rights to a theatrical production of the same name. The return was triumphant. Katherine was again nominated for an Oscar.
The next film of 1942 was a turning point in the fate of the actress. The painting "Woman of the Year" introduced her to the man of her dreams - Spencer Tracy, and also turned out to be successful.
After that, the star signed a contract with Metro Goldwin Meyer and returned to Broadway the same year. The success of the performances brought one name - Catherine Hepburn.
The films where Tracy played together with her were a resounding financial success. Among them: "Without Love", "Adam's Rib", "Pat and Mike." In total, they starred in nine films.
Subsequent career
In 1967, Katherine was last shot in the same film with her lover. Picture "Guess who will come to dinner?" became the final in the life of Spencer Tracy.
However, after the death of her common-law spouse, Katherine did not stop filming. She decided to extend her acting age, despite the fact that she was already sixty years old.
Katherine Hepburn, whose filmography consists of more than fifty paintings, played a movie until 1994, that is, up to eighty-seven years. In the period from 1967 to 1994, she performed seventeen roles and received two more Oscars to two available.
Also, the actress did not forget her love for the theater and from time to time appeared in new performances.
In the late 1970s, Katherine first tried herself on television. However, this plan was not very successful, and Hepburn abandoned this venture.
Katherine Hepburn in her old age was not inferior to her young colleagues, and even many critics noted that her work in the movie became soulful.
Personal life
As mentioned earlier, Katherine was a fairly private person to the press and the public. She did not stand out from the crowd, she was alien to excessive attention. She defended her privacy with all her might and could not only be rude to the reporter, but also knock the camera out of his hands if he tried to photograph her.
Katherine Hepburn, whose personal life was a secret behind seven seals, became tolerant of journalists only in the 1970s. Then she gave her first big interview, from which it became known that she was married to the broker Ogden Smith until 1934.
But her relationship with Spencer Tracy was not a secret. Now their novel is called legendary in Hollywood. He was married, but had not lived with his wife for a long time. However, in order to maintain decency, he and Katherine carefully concealed their relationship.
During the illness of Tracy Katherine Hepburn, her personal life, for which her family was in the first place, refused to work. And after his departure, the actress did not fall in love again.
Last years. Death
After completing a career, the actress's health deteriorated. She had pneumonia. In 2003, she was diagnosed with a tumor, but medical intervention could kill the actress. Until the last days, she was on palliative treatment.
Katherine Hepburn, whose children were never born, died alone in her house in June 2003.