Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 "The lack of work destroys people." (1993) [1954 comment on Judy Holliday] My, I like Judy Holliday! She looks like a Monet model. And she`s so -- so defenseless. I like defenseless people. They`re the best.
[Describing Cary Grant]: "He is personality functioning".
[on director George Cukor] He has the ability to make me trust myself.
[on Humphrey Bogart] Bogart was like Henry Fonda -- proud and happy to be an actor.
[on Humphrey Bogart] He was a real man -- nothing feminine about him. He knew he was a natural aristocrat -- better than anybody.
[On Marlon Brando]: I don`t think he`s a limited actor at all - I think he`s a very gifted actor. Although, I`m afraid he may be a limited person.
[on Peter O`Toole] He can do anything. A bit cuckoo, but sweet and terribly funny.
[When asked what star quality is] "It`s either some kind of electricity or some kind of energy. I don`t know what it is, but whatever it is, I`ve got it."
[When Barbara Walters asked her if she owned a skirt] "I have one Ms. Walters. I`ll wear it to your funeral".
"I always wanted to be a movie actress. I thought it was very romantic. And it was."
"I don`t fear death, it must be like a long sleep."
"I welcome death. In death there are no interviews!"
"In some ways I`ve lived my life like a man, made my own decisions etc.. I`ve been as terrified as the next person, but you`ve got to keep going." (1993)
"I`m an atheist, and that`s it. I believe there`s nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for each other."
"I`m what is known as gradually disintegrating. I don`t fear the next world, or anything. I don`t fear hell, and I don`t look forward to heaven."
"Listen to the song of life."
"Who is Katharine Hepburn? It took me a long time to create that creature."
`Isn`t it fun getting older` is really a terrible fallacy. That`s like saying I prefer driving an old car with a flat tyre.
"Enemies are so stimulating."
"I can remember walking as a child. It was not customary to say you were fatigued. It was customary to complete the goal of the expedition."
"I have many regrets, and I`m sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret if you have any sense, and if you don`t regret them, maybe you`re stupid."
"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased."
"If you survive long enough, you`re revered - rather like an old building."
"It`s life isn`t it? You plow ahead and make a hit. And you plow on and someone passes you. Then someone passes them. Time levels."
"Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I`ve had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got not to forget to laugh."
"Life`s what`s important. Walking, houses, family. Birth and pain and joy. Acting`s just waiting for a custard pie. That`s all."
"The lack of work destroys people."
"I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be inferior."
"I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they`re good - or because they`re lucky."
"If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married."
"Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don`t do that by sitting around wondering about yourself."
"Acting is a nice childish profession - pretending you`re someone else and at the same time selling yourself."
"It`s a bore - B-O-R-E - when you find you`ve begun to rot."
"Life is full of censorship. I can`t spit in your eye."
"Life is hard. After all, it kills you."
"Only when a woman decides not to have children, can a woman live like a man. That`s what I`ve done."
"Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do."
"Afraid of death? Not at all. Be a great relief. Then I wouldn`t have to talk to you."
"At my age, you don`t get much variety - usually some old nut who`s off her track."
"I can`t say I believe in prizes. I was a whiz in the three-legged race - that`s something you CAN win."
"I find a woman`s point of view much grander and finer than a man`s."
"I remember as a child going around with Votes For Women balloons. I learnt early what it is to be snubbed for a good cause."
"My father, a surgeon and urologist, studied sex professionally all his life. Before he died at 82, he told me he hadn`t come to any conclusions about it at all."
"Once a crowd chased me for an autograph. `Beat it,` I said, `go sit on a tack!` `We made you,` they said. `Like hell you did,` I told them."
"With all the opportunities I had, I could have done more. And if I`d done more, I could have been quite remarkable."
On fashion: "I wear my sort of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear."
On marriage: "It`s bloody impractical. `To love, honor, and obey.` If it weren`t, you wouldn`t have to sign a contract."
"I don`t regret anything I`ve ever done; As long as I enjoyed it at the time."
"I often wonder whether men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."
"I`m a personality as well as an actress. Show me an actress who isn`t a personality, and you`ll show me a woman who isn`t a star."
"I`ve been loved, and I`ve been in love. There`s a big difference."
"Love` has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything."
"Not everyone is lucky enough to understand how delicious it is to suffer."
"People have grown fond of me, like some old building."
"There are no laurels in life...just new challenges."
"Wouldn`t it be great if people could get to live suddenly as often as they die suddenly?"
On Hollywood: "They didn`t like me until I got into a leg show."
Trivia
According to Anthony Harvey - the director of The Lion in Winter (1968) - she kept the Oscar she received for the film in a paper bag and in a cupboard for years after he`d delivered it to her.
Appointed Cynthia McFadden Executrix of her estate.
Godmother of Sam Robards, son of Lauren Bacall and Jason Robards.
Suffered from pyrophobia (fear of fire).
Was fired by the producer of "Travels with My Aunt" (1972) early in the filming for demanding too many script changes .
The intersection of East 49th Street and Second Avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City was renamed "Katherine Hepburn Place" shortly after her passing. Hepburn lived in a brownstone (244 East 49th Street) which is close to the intersection.
Was a close friend of actor Peter O`Toole. His daughter, Kate O`Toole, was named after her.
Despite her success at the Oscars, she never attended an Academy Awards ceremony as a nominee. Her only appearance was at the 1974 awards to present the Irving Thalberg Award to her friend Lawrence Weingarten. When she went onstage to a standing ovation, she said "I`m living proof that a person can wait forty-one years to be unselfish.".
Godmother of Stanley Kramer`s daughter Katharine. She was named after Hepburn, who was directed by Kramer in Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner (1967).
Her former maid, Emma Faust Tillman, held the title of "World`s Oldest Person" for only four days (January 24-28, 2007). Her four-day reign, which was certified by the Guinness World Records committee was also the shortest one on record.
Spoofed in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon "Little Red Walking Hood", in which Little Red Riding Hood speaks exactly like her.
Did all her own stunts because the stunt woman never stood up straight enough.
Gained a permanent eye infection while failing to close her eyes when she was asked to fall into a Venice Canal during the filming of Summertime (1955).
Is in the Guinness World Records-book for "Most `Best Actress` Oscars Won".
Is known for being an avid golfer, tennis player, and swimmer. She is also known for taking cold showers.
Is one of only four thespians to be nominated for acting honors by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences over five decades: (1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1980s)). Only Laurence Olivier (1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s), Paul Newman ( (1950s, 1960s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s). and ,Jack Nicholson (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s) have turned the trick.
Was nominated 12 times for the Academy Award, all as Best Actress, winning three times. Jack Nicholson also has 12 nominations (8 as Best Actor and 4 Best Supporting Actor nominations) and three win (two Best Actor trophies and one Best Supporting Actor gong). Hepburn beat out previous acting nomination record holder Bette Davis (a double winner who was nominated 10 times for an Academy Award, all of them Best Actress nods) with her 11th nod and 3rd win for The Lion in Winter (1968) (a record she extended with her 12 nomination and fourth win for On Golden Pond (1981). Herpburn herself was surpassed by Meryl Streep, with 13 nods (11 in the Best Actress category) and two wins (one in the Best Actress category and one Best supporting actress award). While it is possible that Nicholson might equal her four Oscar acting wins, it is improbable that her record of four wins in the top category will ever be equaled, let alone surpassed.
A resident of Manhattan`s Turtle Bay Gardens for most of her life, Hepburn actually lived in a four-story brownstone at 244 East 49th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Avenue). Famous neighbors over the years have included, Robert Benton, Stephen Sondheim, Garson Kanin and wife Ruth Gordon
According to Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley`s book "Hollywood Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry in the 1930s and 1940s", Hepburn was a leftist in her politics in the 1940s. When the Conference of Studio Unions, headed by suspected Communist Party member Herb Sorrell, launched a strike in 1946-47 against the studios and fought other unions for control over Hollywood`s collective bargaining, she expressed support for him. (Sorrell had been kidnapped, beaten, and left as dead during the strike, possibly by by the Mafia, which up until the early 1940s, had controlled the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which was contesting the CSU for jurisdiction over Hollywood unions.) At a Screen Writers Guild meeting during the CSU strike, Hepburn made a speech which anti-communist, anti-CSU SAG activist Ronald Reagan recognized as being based word for word on a CSU strike bulletin. Hepburn`s lover Spencer Tracy`s admonition that actors should stay out of politics ("Remember who shot Lincoln") was ignored by Hepburn, whose mother had been sympathetic to Marxism and the Soviet Union, despite their family`s wealth. On May 19, 1947, Hepburn addressed a Progressive Party rally at the Hollywood Legion Stadium with Progressive Party stalwart and later presidential candidate Henry Wallace, the former vice president of the U.S. who had been sacked from President Harry S. Truman`s cabinet for being pro- Soviet. Wearing a red dress, Hepburn delivered a speech, written by Communist Party member and soon-to-be Hollywood Ten indictee Dalton Trumbo. When screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. (winner of an Oscar for writing her picture Woman of the Year (1942) and one of the Hollywood Ten) was jailed, she wrote a letter of support for him. Years later, in 1964, when Lardner was trying to get Tracy to star in The Cincinnati Kid (1965), he thanked Hepburn for her support. She told him she didn`t remember writing the letter and refused to talk about it.
After marrying Ludlow Ogden Smith in 1928, she forced him to change his name to S. Ogden Ludlow. She objected to her married name being "Katharine Smith" because there was already a well-known (and rather portly) radio singer with the same name.
Became very fond of Christopher Reeve, both as an actor and as a person, when he made his Broadway debut opposite her in the 1978 production of "A Matter of Gravity". She became so fond of him that she used to tease him that she wanted him to take care of her when she retired. Ironically, his reply was "Miss Hepburn, I don`t think I`ll live that long".
Did not attend Spencer Tracy`s funeral out of respect to his family.
Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna`s song "Vogue"
Is the only movie star to win four Academy Awards, all for her leading roles in Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981).
Kate Bosworth has said that Hepburn was her primary inspiration for her portrayal of "Lois Lane" in Superman Returns (2006).
One of Hollywood`s early tall leading ladies, standing over 5` 7" in an era when most actresses were only a little over 5` 0".
She thought Melanie Griffith was a good actress, but would fade away quickly. She also saw Julia Roberts as the next big thing. But the actress she loved above all was Vanessa Redgrave. She adored every performance Ms Redgrave has ever given and would tell people that she was, "A thrill to look at and to listen to".
Expressed great fondness for actors Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Melanie Griffith and Julia Roberts, and great disdain for Meryl Streep, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and - in particular - Woody Allen.
Her affair with Howard Hughes was portrayed by Cate Blanchett and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator (2004).
In a letter to Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences President Gregory Peck, she claimed that sentiment for the passing away of her long-time lover and co-star, Spencer Tracy, had been part of the reason she won her second Oscar for Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner (1967). She told Peck that she modeled her award-winning characterization of "Christina Drayton" on her mother.
In The Lion in Winter (1968) she plays the mother of Richard Lionheart, who is played by Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins later said that Hepburn`s voice was, in part, the basis for Hannibal Lecter`s voice.
On June 2004 Sotheby`s auction house hosted a two-day estate of Katharine Hepburn, auctioning of personal belongings of the legendary actress to collectors. The auction included her furniture, jewelry (which included the platinum, diamond and sapphire given to her by then-boyfriend Howard Hughes which fetched $120,000, six times its estimated price), paperwork (such as personal checks, telegrams, birth certificates, letters, film contracts, movie scripts), and nomination certificates from the Academy Awards. Among other items were casual clothes, and gowns that included her unusual wedding dress to Ludlow Ogden Smith in 1928, made of crushed white velvet with antiqued gold embroidery, sold for $27,000. Also consisted in the lot were house decorations drawings and paintings done by the actress herself, glamour portraits, and a glass bronze sculpture entitled "Angel on a Wave" sold for $90,000 while a self-portrait entitled "Breakfast in Bed and a Self-Portrait in Brisbane, Australia", fetched $33,000, some 40 times the estimated price. Movie memorabilia comprised of a ring from her 1968 film The Lion in Winter (1968), Gertrud (1964), the canoe from the film On Golden Pond (1981) sold for $19,200 to entertainer Wayne Newton and the most sought after piece and the most expensive item was the bronze bust of Spencer Tracy that Hepburn created herself and was featured in Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner (1967). The audience cheered when the 3-inch sculpture sold for $316,000, compared to an estimate of $3,000-$5,000. The only awards that were won by the actress to be auctioned of were the 1958 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, the annual Shakespeare club of New York City, the Fashion Desinger Lifetime Achievment, a few Box Office Blue Ribbons, the Walk of Fame plaque and the 1990 Kennedy Center Honor. Her four Oscars were not included due to contract reasons.
She was of Scottish and English descent.
She was one of the few great stars in Hollywood who made no attempt to sugarcoat her true personality for anyone, a personality that was by all accounts feisty and some would say nasty. She was infamous for letting those whom she disliked know it.
Was a natural red head.
Was a self-confessed fan of John Gilbert and Greta Garbo.
When Cate Blanchett won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Aviator (2004), Hepburn became the first previous Oscar winner to become an Oscar-winning movie role.
Admitted that she was menstruating while making _African Queen, The (1951)_, which resulted in giving her fellow crew members the impression that she was moody and difficult.
As of 2003, "Only Tie in Oscars For Best Actress", Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968) and Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter (1968) in 1969.
Her maternal grandfather; her father`s brother, Charlie; and her older brother, Tom, all committed suicide. These tragedies were never talked about in her family. Ms. Hepburn said of her parents, "There was nothing to be done about these matters and [my parents] simply did not believe in moaning about anything."
Made nine films with Spencer Tracy, the first of which was Woman of the Year (1942).
Meryl Streep beat her in the number of Oscar nominations, when she received her 13th Oscar nod for Adaptation. (2002). However, Hepburn still reigns as the only 4-time Oscar recipient for acting.
On American Film Institute`s list of "Top 100 U.S. Love Stories," compiled in June 2002, Hepburn led all actresses with six of her films on the list. (Actor Cary Grant, co-star with her in two of them, led the male field, also with six films on list). The duo`s The Philadelphia Story (1940) was ranked #44 and their Bringing Up Baby (1938) ranked #51. Hepburn`s four other movies on AFI Top "100 Love Movies list" are: - #14 The African Queen (1951) - #22 On Golden Pond (1981) - #58 Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner (1967) - #74 Woman of the Year (1942)
Turned down the role of Marilla in Anne of Green Gables (1985) (TV), but recommended her great-niece, Schuyler Grant for the role of Anne. Schuyler ended up playing Diana instead.
Was a direct descendant of Britain`s King John through one of his illegitimate children. Hepburn played King John`s mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in The Lion in Winter (1968).
Was admitted to a Hartford hospital for treatment for a urinary infection. Her release was delayed because doctors wanted to monitor her walking. [18 July 2001]
Was nominated for two Tony Awards: in 1970 as Best Actress (Musical), for playing the title character, Coco Chanel in "Coco," and in 1982 as Best Actress (Play), for "The West Side Waltz." She lost both times.
A leading contender for Scarlett O`Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), she later served as Maid of Honor at Vivien Leigh`s and Laurence Olivier`s wedding.
Admitted to using her brother`s birthdate as her own for years.
Distinctive way of speaking, with what many say is a "Bryn Mawr" accent.
Does not suffer from Parkinson`s disease. She set the record straight in the 1993 TV documentary Katharine Hepburn: All About Me (1993) (TV), which she narrated herself. Quote: "Now to squash a rumor. No, I don`t have Parkinson`s. I inherited my shaking head from my grandfather Hepburn. I discovered that whisky helps stop the shaking. Problem is, if you`re not careful, it stops the rest of you too. My head just shakes, but I promise you, it ain`t gonna fall off!"
Had a relationship with Spencer Tracy from 1943 until his death in 1967.
Often wore slacks instead of dresses, decades before it became fashionable for women to do so
She never watched Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner (1967) because it was Spencer Tracy`s last film.
She was nearly decapitated by an aeroplane propeller when she was rushing about an airport, avoiding the press.
Walked around the studio in her underwear in the early 1930s when the costume department stole her slacks from her dressing room. She refused to put anything else on until they were returned.
Was named Best Classic Actress of the 20th Century in an Entertainment Weekly on-line poll, just barely (21.5% to 20.6%) beating out runner-up Audrey Hepburn. [September 1999]
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