Katharine Hepburn was one of the great American actresses of the 1940's and 1950's playing opposite some of the great actor of the periond including Cary Grant, Spencer Tracey and Humphrey Bogart. She had a film career that lasted 60 years with 12 Oscar nominations and 4 wins from the 53 films she made. She had a tremendous screen presence. Brought up in a middle class family she started her career in the theatre. She arrived in Hollywood with a differnt attitude to the usual aspiring starlet. In the early 1930's she joined RKO andher first film was A Bill Of Divorcement. She then played a series of strong feminist characters.
This led her winning her first Best Actress Oscar for Morning Glory in 1933. As an actor she was prpeared to challenge the studio system as it then functioned. Her performance in Little Women showed her vesatility as an actor. Not all her early films were successful, including Christopher Strong. By 1935 she was infulential in who was directing her films, notably Alice Adams in 1935 and Katherine Hepburn described Sylvia Scarlet as a bad film. However in Bringing Up Baby she changed her image and it has becone a classic film as a scewball comedy although it lost RKO money. She palyed a number of great comedy roles. In 1950 she moved to MGM for The Philadelphia Story as she had bought the rights to the film as picked thr director and stars. This was a success and showed Hollywood that despite her strong character she was box office success.
It was an axample of how she varbally sparred with her male co-stars. On Woman Of The Year she met and continued a long term affair with Spencer Tracy. She appeared in 9 films him including Adam's RIb, again directed by George Cuckor. After these she played against Humphrey Bogart in the African Queen and this is probably her most famous film. She followed up the mature romantic role with David Lean's Summertime. After Long Day's Journey Into Night in 1962 she did not appear in a film until Guess Who's Coming To Dinner in 1967, her final film with Spencer Tracy having looked after him in the intervening years and for which she won an Oscar. Her 3rd Oscar came for the historical dram Lion in Winter. Rooster Coburn was a differnt role opposite John Wayne. Her 4th Oscar was for On Golden Pond.
