Born in Hartford, Connecticut. Katharine Hepburn was born to a very wealthy and prominent New England family; her father was a famous surgeon, her mother an early crusader for women's rights. After graduating from Bryn Mawr College in 1928, she embarked on a career as a theatrical actress, training diligently with drama and voice coaches. She appeared in numerous summer stock and Broadway productions, gathering a reputation for flinty independence. Her 1932 Broadway appearance in The Warrior's Husband led to a film contract with RKO. Hepburn's film debut in A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT (1932) was a propitious one, for it teamed her with director George Cukor, with whom Hepburn would collaborate on some of her best films. In Hepburn's early films she often portrayed strong female characters, anticipating feminist concerns in such works as LITTLE WOMEN (1933) and STAGE DOOR (1937), which depict women in mutually supportive relationships. SYLVIA SCARLETT (1935), perhaps the most notable early example of the androgyny that runs through Hepburn's career, was a groundbreaking film for its undermining of socially constructed norms of femininity and masculinity. Hepburn won the first of her four Academy Awards for MORNING GLORY (1933), but five years later she was forced to buy out her contract from RKO rather than appear in a woefully unsuitable film, MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS. Hepburn, an intelligent, individualistic woman who knew her own strengths and weaknesses, often refused inappropriate casting, publicity and the superficialities of Hollywood fashion and society. In 1938, after starring in a fine version of Philip Barry's play HOLIDAY at Columbia opposite Cary Grant, she returned to Broadway to do The Philadelphia Story, a play written expressly for her by Barry. After the play was a smash, Hepburn, who owned the movie rights, returned to Hollywood and chose Cukor to direct her in the film version opposite Grant and James Stewart. The 1940 film is a showcase for her remarkable charm and vitality, even as it attributes her famed rebelliousness to the acts of a spoiled socialite who is eventually punished and tamed. In this film and other comedy classics such as BRINGING UP BABY (1938), Hepburn's strength and self-assertion in the face of male domination appealed to female audiences. In many films her vigorous persona, with its vocal eccentricities and powerful physical presence, was exaggerated to the point that she seemed more male than female -- as "one of the boys" she was less threatening. It was her marvelous pairing with Spencer Tracy -- onscreen in a series of successful romantic comedies and dramas, offscreen in an enduring love affair that never led to marriage -- that made her New England rebelliousness most acceptable. Tracy, the most solidly masculine of all Hollywood actors (at least onscreen), could act securely as a foil to Hepburn's feminist struggles, and, in spite of role reversals such as those in WOMAN OF THE YEAR (1942), dominate in the end. The Hepburn-Tracy films may end on a conventional note, but they are full of scenes depicting Tracy's admiration for Hepburn's intelligence (as in ADAM'S RIB, 1949) or natural athletic ability (as in PAT AND MIKE, 1952), and they are sparked by the charged dynamism of a relationship between equals that is rare in much Hollywood product of the 1940s and 50s.
	With THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951), Hepburn began a series of roles as perverse or odd spinsters or women in need of a man, even as they maintained a certain aloofness and independence. She found success and Academy Award nominations in several of these films, including SUMMERTIME (1955), THE RAINMAKER (1956) and SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1959) and would later reprise the role for the lesser likes of THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT (1969) and ROOSTER COGBURN (1975). Stage work, too, whether in a 1952 London adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's The Millionairess or a strange but delightful turn in a Broadway musical, Coco (1969, as Coco Chanel), capitalized on this image of the eccentric but high-flying individualist.
	Hepburn continued to act in both film and theater through the 1980s. She gave perhaps the performance of her career as the drug-addicted Mary Tyrone in the memorable film version of O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (1962) and won a second Academy Award for GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967), her final appearance with Tracy, who died shortly after production was completed. Her stellar work in the juicy theatrics of THE LION IN WINTER (1968) and in the sentimental nostalgia of ON GOLDEN POND (1981) boosted her Oscar nomination count to an unprecedented twelve and her number of wins to an equally unprecedented four. Many consider Miss Hepburn's best work of this later period to be the TV films she made with George Cukor, "Love Among the Ruins" (1975) and "The Corn Is Green" (1979). She continued working intermittently through the 80s and 90s in enjoyable TV movies including "Mrs. Delafield Wants To Marry" (1986), "The Man Upstairs" (1992) and "This Can't Be Love" (1994) where her presence counted for more than her material, and made a guest spot return to features with LOVE AFFAIR (1994). Throughout her life, Hepburn continued to exert a firm control over her career and to maintain her dignity and extraordinary vitality.
	Actress 1932-33: MORNING GLORY  Nominated for Actress 1935: ALICE ADAMS  Nominated for Actress 1940: THE PHILADELPHIA STORY  Nominated for Actress 1942: WOMAN OF THE YEAR  Nominated for Actress 1951: THE AFRICAN QUEEN  Nominated for Actress 1955: SUMMERTIME  Nominated for Actress 1956: THE RAINMAKER  Nominated for Actress 1959: SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER  Nominated for Actress 1962: LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT  Actress 1967: GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER  Actress 1968: THE LION IN WINTER (Co-winner with Barbra Streisand for FUNNY GIRL)  Actress 1981: ON GOLDEN POND 12 nominations, 4 Awards