Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Graceful, charming, hilarious, self-confident, hard-working, determined, outrageous...Katharine Hepburn has been gathering adjectives for years, adding them to her image with carelessness and calculation. In an era of changing roles for women, Katharine Hepburn was able to use her influence on the American film to stand out as an early role model of the modern American woman. She had the essence of the successful adventuress: no mater the challenge, she survived in tact with her sense of humor in good working order.

Born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut, Katharine had the good fortune to be born to her well-to-do parents, Katharine and Thomas Hepburn, who believed in freedom of thought and put no obstacles in their daughter's way. Both were active in the fight for many social and medical reforms for women: the vote, prostitution, white slavery, teen-age pregnancy, venereal disease, domestic hygiene, birth control; topics that were not discussed in polite private conversation, much less publicly. Although opposed by conservative neighbors, the Hepburns were eventually praised for their forward thinking (Anderson, 93). Their lesson to their daughter, Katharine, was clear: do what you know is right, even if you are out of step with the popular morals of the time. If you are right, the times will catch up with you. This attitude was instilled in her from birth and is evident in her "do what is right for you" personality. In her book Me, Katharine Hepburn wrote that her character is the power behind the throne, the thing that gives her common sense and the strength to keep going through the rough times. And that her character is a gift from her parents. When thinking about her background it is easy to understand why she chose and was successful in her roles involving family ties; she was the member of an extraordinary family that she was very close with. Her family life was not wealthy, but as a successful surgeon, her father provided a financially secure life for his family, sending Katharine to Bryn Mawr College--a good background for her many roles she would later play as rich young socialites with a strong family presence. "The family with us was strong and remains strong.... We're sort of a group, going through the world together....I feel cared for and always felt cared for"(Hepburn, 30).

During her early stage parts, Katharine had the charisma and dash to get the part, but not always the experience and skill to maintain it (Prideaux, 32). Many people in the profession immediately recognized her star quality, but she was fired many times for incompetence as an actress; however, at least by her own account, she left as bravely and graciously as possible and was always practical. But she didn't like all the rejection and regarded it as a challenge. She studied what stood in her way and did her best to prepare herself to meet the demanding profession she had chosen. She began keeping parts as understudies to leads, getting better parts, and then leaving for Hollywood. In a year and a half (from 1932-1933) she had completed five pictures, and she had won her first Academy Award. Afterwards, she returned to New York to do The Lake, produced by Jed Harris, who later admitted to trying to destroy her professionally by pushing her to do things against her own instinct; the play was a failure and she was blamed. During the run of the play she tried to pick up the pieces. "My main task now was to see whether I could learn to act under fire. And to learn how to be a star. I hadn't been either. I had lost my nerve. I had moaned. I had not passed the exam. I had not delivered the goods. And I had let everyone know I was absolutely miserable and terrified. And that I didn't know what I was doing...as one goes through life one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don't move" (Hepburn, 163). After performing The Lake, Katharine had a turning point in her career. She went back to Hollywood and made a string of new movies and later went back to New York to perform in a series of Shakespearian plays. "All these adventures were great fun, and luckily the audience thought so too and came in droves--which is always reassuring.