Katharine Houghton Hepburn

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

One of this kind of woman I would discuss here today.
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an iconic star of American film, television and stage, widely recognized for her sharp wit, New England gentility and fierce independence. A screen legend, Hepburn holds the record for the most Oscars won for acting- four. She received a record 12 Best Actress nominations. Hepburn won an Emmy Award in 1975 for her lead role in Love Among the Ruins, and was nominated for four other Emmys and two Tony Awards during the course of her more than 70-year acting career. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Hepburn the greatest actress of all time. Hepburn had a famous and longtime romance with Spencer Tracy, both on- and off-screen.

"I'm a personality as well as an actress," Katharine Hepburn once declared. "Show me an actress who isn't a personality and you'll show me a woman who isn't a star." Hepburn's bold, distinctive personality was apparent almost from birth. She inherited from her doctor father and suffragette mother her three most pronounced traits: an open and ever-expanding mind, a healthy body (maintained through constant rigorous exercise), and an inability to tell anything less than the truth.

Hepburn was more a personality than an actress when she took the professional plunge after graduating from Bryn Mawr in 1928; her first stage parts were bits, but she always attracted attention with her distinct New England accent and her bony, sturdy frame. The actress' outspokenness lost her more jobs than she received, but, in 1932, she finally scored on Broadway with the starring role in The Warrior's Husband.

One of the silver screen's most unique and enduring personalities, onscreen and off, Katharine Hepburn's career as a leading lady spanned seven decades, over fifty quality films (running the gamut from screwball comedies and romances to high drama). One of the first stars to take control of her career while still working within the confines of the studio system, Hepburn's career suffered its share of ups and downs, but Hollywood learned never to write her off.

Katharine Hepburn – Famous Quotes

• I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.
• If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.
• Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don't do that by sitting around.
• Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything.
• We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change.
• Without discipline, there's no life at all.