Katharine Hepburn: A Life in Photos

Today is Katharine Hepburn's 119th birthday. From her motion picture debut in A Bill of Divorcement (1932) to iconic performances in such films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), The African Queen (1951), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and On Golden Pond (1981), she had a career like no other. She won four Academy Awards, the most out of any other performer, and got nominated for eight more. She was intelligent, headstrong, independent and outspoken, at a time when women were generally regarded as being the opposite. She was always unapologetically herself; there were no airs about her, no pretense, no façade. She was always just Kate. This is her life in photos.

At the age of four, in 1911.

 

With fellow Bryn Mawr students Margaret Barker (left) and Elizabeth Stewart (middle) in a production of A. A. Milne's The Truth About Blayds, in April 1927.

 

 In costume for the Broadway play The Lake, in November 1934.

 

 With Ginger Rogers, during a break from filming Stage Door (1937).

 

With Cary Grant, practising for an acrobatic sequence for Holiday (1938).

 

 In the stage version of The Philadelphia Story, in 1939.

 

Playing tennis at the Merion Cricket Club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October 1940. 

 

With Cary Grant and James Stewart during rehearsal for their CBS radio presentation of The Philadelphia Story (1940), on March 17, 1947. 

 

With Clark Gable in Paris in 1948. 

 

In a Broadway production of William Shakespeare's As You Like It, at the Cort Theatre, in January 1950.

 

With Humphrey Bogart during a break from filming The African Queen (1951). 

 

After her arrival in London to star in George Bernard Shaw's play The Millionairess, in March 1952.

 

 Driving a Singer Nine Roadster along the waterfront with American socialite and theatrical producer Irene Mayer Selznick, at Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1953. 

 

In a publicity still for Summertime (1955). 

 

During the filming of The Rainmaker (1956). 

 

 With her niece, Katharine Houghton, c. 1966.

 

 With Spencer Tracy during the making of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).

 

 

 On the set of The Lion in Winter (1968).

 

 Playing Coco Chanel in the Broadway musical Coco, in December 1969.

 

On The Dick Cavett Show, on September 14, 1973. 

 

With John Wayne during the making of Rooster Cogburn (1975).

 

With Laurence Olivier during the making of the ABC film Love Among the Ruins (1975). 

 

In Wales with George Cukor, during the making of the CBS movie The Corn Is Green (1979), in July 1978.

 

Cycling near her apartment in New York City, in January 1979. 

 

At her home in Connecticut in 1981.

 

 Hauling brush at her property in Connecticut in September 1981.

 

 With Henry and Jane Fonda during the making of On Golden Pond (1981).

 

With playwright Ernest Thompson during the opening performance of The West Side Waltz at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, on November 19, 1981. 

 

 Outside her house on East 48th Street in Manhattan, New York City, in May 1987.

 

In a publicity photo for the CBS movie The Man Upstairs (1992). 

 

 

At a benefit auction for Planned Parenthood at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, in May 1992.

 

In the NBC movie One Christmas (1994), the final performance of her career. 

 

With her unconventional lifestyle, Katharine Hepburn refused to conform to societal expectations of women, and came to epitomize the «modern woman» of the 20th century. Always assertive and strong-willed, she remains the greatest female star in American film history. Happy birthday to her.