The People of Kate's Word
"I looked at them for a long time. My people. To whom I had given. And who had given to me." --KH
Katharine Houghton Hepburn: Born into a wealthy family in upstate New York, Katharine “Kit” Hepburn (nee Houghton) became a survivor at an early age. After losing her father to suicide and her mother to stomach cancer, the teenage Kit fought viciously against her guardian uncle to fulfill her late mothers’ wish that she and her younger sisters would attend college at Bryn Mawr. After earning her Bachelor’s degree in history and political science, she went on to earn a Master’s degree before meeting and marrying Thomas N. Hepburn. They were married until her death 47 years later and had six children. Unusually for the time, marriage and motherhood did not keep Hepburn from taking an active role in the women’s suffrage movement even serving as President of the Connecticut Women’s Suffrage Association and working alongside Alice Paul and Emmeline Pankhurst. She worked relentlessly for the legalization of contraceptives, eventually becoming the legislative chairwoman of the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control. Hepburn was an extremely devoted mother and wife missing the family’s tradition of taking tea at five every evening only once in her daughter Katherine’s memory—the day of her death.
Dr. Thomas Norval Hepburn:
“Such a remarkable man Dad had been. So strong. So definite. So tough and funny. He’ll never be forgotten.” ---KH Virginia born son of an Episcopal minister, Thomas Hepburn is described by his son-in-law Ellsworth Grant as having “a lifelong chip on his shoulder” engendered by his Southern mother toward the “Yankees” that he would come to live amongst, and the public image he projected in Connecticut society was important to him. According to biographer William J Mann, he was an extremely strict father to his six children with an unpredictable temper—though Katharine Hepburn would remember her father’s outbursts as “games” in her own autobiography. The Hepburn household was extremely progressive for its day, and the family regularly discussed taboo social issues like birth control, social hygiene and sex, and entertained such liberal icons as Sinclair Lewis, Margaret Sanger, and Emmeline Pankhurst. A graduate of Johns Hopkins Medical School, Hepburn became Connecticut’s first urologist and the founder of the Urology Department at Hartford Hospital. He co-founded the Connecticut Social Hygiene Association to fight the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Although extremely successful, the Hepburn family was regularly shunned by conservative members of Hartford society who did not approve of their political leanings. |
Fanny Ciarrier: “During all this time [Hepburn’s childhood] we’d had a cook—Fanny Ciarrier—and her son Marcel, who was my age and always lived with us. She was an Italian-French woman who was blind in one eye. She could cook anything and everything. If we needed a maid—a nurse—a whatever, Fanny would import them from Italty or France. She was an angel and with us all our lives. And when Fanny died, Mother soon followed her.”
Boris Karloff:
Boris Karloff was an extremely thin English actor best known for his roles in horror films, particularly Frankenstein’s monster.
Boris Karloff was an extremely thin English actor best known for his roles in horror films, particularly Frankenstein’s monster.
Louella Parsons: Self-credited as “the first movie columnist in the world,” Parsons was a powerful Hollywood gossip columnist who began her career in 1915. At the height of her long career, her column was syndicated in over 370 newspapers worldwide. Contemporaries described her as “to the right of Genghis Kahn.”
Howard Hughes:
“Howard Hughes was a curious fellow. He had guts and he had a really fine mind…but he was absolutely incapable of changing.” –KH
Howard Hughes was an eccentric billionaire, aviator, filmmaker and philanthropist who courted Hepburn in the 1930s. An accomplished pilot, Hughes made habit of getting her attention by landing his plane wherever she was—at a picnic, on a golf course etc. They were together for three years. Hepburn describes the relationship, “We were a colorful pair. It seemed logical for us to be together, but it seems to me now that we were too similar…We each had a wild desire to be famous. I think that this was a dominant character failing. People who want to be famous are really loners. Or they should be.” In the end “Ambition beat love, or was it like?” When they broke up, Hepburn suggested that her staff remain with him, insisting that they would have a better life in his employment. Most took her advice. Even after they broke up, they remained friendly. In fact, he bought the rights to The Philadelphia Story for her. A business move that she maintained “insured my later success.” Later, Hepburn speculated that his early hearing loss contributed to his increasing isolation in life, which was exacerbated by extreme mental health issues including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. “Howard had had a serious airplane accident which caused him unbearable pain. For the pain he was given morphine—and Howard finally found this blank road more comfortable than the endless life struggle. One cannot blame him, but it was very sad. He was a remarkable man.” (Hepburn, 205).
“Howard Hughes was a curious fellow. He had guts and he had a really fine mind…but he was absolutely incapable of changing.” –KH
Howard Hughes was an eccentric billionaire, aviator, filmmaker and philanthropist who courted Hepburn in the 1930s. An accomplished pilot, Hughes made habit of getting her attention by landing his plane wherever she was—at a picnic, on a golf course etc. They were together for three years. Hepburn describes the relationship, “We were a colorful pair. It seemed logical for us to be together, but it seems to me now that we were too similar…We each had a wild desire to be famous. I think that this was a dominant character failing. People who want to be famous are really loners. Or they should be.” In the end “Ambition beat love, or was it like?” When they broke up, Hepburn suggested that her staff remain with him, insisting that they would have a better life in his employment. Most took her advice. Even after they broke up, they remained friendly. In fact, he bought the rights to The Philadelphia Story for her. A business move that she maintained “insured my later success.” Later, Hepburn speculated that his early hearing loss contributed to his increasing isolation in life, which was exacerbated by extreme mental health issues including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. “Howard had had a serious airplane accident which caused him unbearable pain. For the pain he was given morphine—and Howard finally found this blank road more comfortable than the endless life struggle. One cannot blame him, but it was very sad. He was a remarkable man.” (Hepburn, 205).
Leland Hayward:
“What can I say of Leland? He really danced his way through life. Do you know what I mean? We met at a time when to each of us everything was joy and laughter and exciting and perfect. But we had such fun! Oh yes—fun. I was lucky to know him”--KH Hayward was a Hollywood and Broadway agent and best known for his collaborations with Rogers and Hammerstein. He represented Hepburn as her agent. They also dated for about four years. Then he went East for work and fell in love with and married actress Margaret Sullavan. Hepburn found out he’d broken off their relationship with a telegram of their wedding announcement. This would be the first of five marriages (one to the same woman twice). |
Luddy (Ludlow Ogden Smith):
“Luddy would make anything work—my life—the car-the furnace—the this—the that. Carpenter—mechanic—plumber. It was great...He was there. He was like breathing. My friend. I could ask him anything. He would do anything. You just don’t find people like that in life. Unconditional love."
A wealthy businessman about 10 years her senior, Ludlow Ogden Smith, married Katharine Hepburn--who he met through a mutual friend--the year she graduated from Bryn Mawr. He was both financially and emotionally supportive of her career, but by her own accounts she was more interested in being famous. Their marriage was short-lived, but they stayed close for several years after divorcing and reconnected before his death.
Hepburn explains their relationship this way:
“What the hell would I have done without Luddy—my protector? I would been frightened away from this big city and I would have shriveled up and died. And Luddy—all he wanted was me, and of course all I wanted was to be a great big star in the movies…I am horrified by what an absolute big I was. You can see that when I say about Luddy I spend his money, I broke his heart, and my sister (Peg) took his blood. That is the truth…Dear Luddy. He would always meme the train or plane when I came back from Hollywood. He would drive me to Fenwick or Hartford. We were separated. Then we were divorced...You couldn’t be expected to believe this, but it was in 1941 when I was going around with Spencer that Spencer said to me, “Why do you keep stringing Luddy along? Why don’t you stop using him?” Then I thought. I finally used what sense or sensitivity I had. I stopped using him. In about six months, he was remarried” (Hepburn, 152-3).
“Luddy would make anything work—my life—the car-the furnace—the this—the that. Carpenter—mechanic—plumber. It was great...He was there. He was like breathing. My friend. I could ask him anything. He would do anything. You just don’t find people like that in life. Unconditional love."
A wealthy businessman about 10 years her senior, Ludlow Ogden Smith, married Katharine Hepburn--who he met through a mutual friend--the year she graduated from Bryn Mawr. He was both financially and emotionally supportive of her career, but by her own accounts she was more interested in being famous. Their marriage was short-lived, but they stayed close for several years after divorcing and reconnected before his death.
Hepburn explains their relationship this way:
“What the hell would I have done without Luddy—my protector? I would been frightened away from this big city and I would have shriveled up and died. And Luddy—all he wanted was me, and of course all I wanted was to be a great big star in the movies…I am horrified by what an absolute big I was. You can see that when I say about Luddy I spend his money, I broke his heart, and my sister (Peg) took his blood. That is the truth…Dear Luddy. He would always meme the train or plane when I came back from Hollywood. He would drive me to Fenwick or Hartford. We were separated. Then we were divorced...You couldn’t be expected to believe this, but it was in 1941 when I was going around with Spencer that Spencer said to me, “Why do you keep stringing Luddy along? Why don’t you stop using him?” Then I thought. I finally used what sense or sensitivity I had. I stopped using him. In about six months, he was remarried” (Hepburn, 152-3).
David O Selznick:
Selznick was an American producer best known for his work on Gone with the Wind. He worked closely with his older brother Myron, a successful talent agent and producer. Myron was representing Lawrence Oliver when he met Vivian Leigh and introduced her to his brother, who was casting Gone with the Wind at the time, as "Miss Scarlett O'Hare." |
Bette Davis: One year younger than Hepburn, Hollywood legend Bette Davis came up in the movie industry around the same time, Davis making her film debut the year before Hepburn. Davis won two Academy Awards relatively early in her career—both in the 1930s—but Hepburn would eventually outpace her with 4 wins throughout her career. Although the same age, Hepburn and Davis rarely seriously competed for roles with the exception of the part of Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, which both lost to British Actress Vivien Leigh. Davis is best known for her performances in All About Eve (1950) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)
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Margaret Sullavan: The famously temperamental film and stage actress Margaret Sullavan is best known for her failed marriage to Henry Fonda, being an early champion of Jimmy Stewart’s career, and their hit film together The Shop Around the Corner. Sullavan fell for her third husband, agent Leland Hayward (who was then in a three-year relationship with Hepburn) while a Broadway production of Stage Door. Already pregnant with their first child, Sullavan married Hayward in 1936. They had three children and divorced eleven years later.
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Tom Hepburn:
“My older brother Tom…I adored him.”--KH
Born in 1905, Thomas Hepburn was the oldest child of Katharine H. and Dr. Thomas N. Hepburn and a close friend and protector to his sister Kate, two years his junior. According to his younger sibling Bob (via family lore) beginning at an early Tom suffered from uncontrollable facial tics caused by a neurological disorder called chorea. This disorder was a source of great embarrassment to his father, whose anger only triggered young Tom’s anxiety, exacerbating his symptoms. According to Barbara Leaming’s 1995 biography of Katharine Hepburn, the teenaged Tom’s ongoing struggles with anxiety and depression are in fact what prompted his and Kate’s fateful trip to New York City on Easter weekend 1921. During a visit to their aunt’s house, Tom failed to turn up for breakfast. When Kate went to fetch him, she found the door locked. She forced her way in and found that he had hanged himself. Despite obvious evidence in support of suicide (not the least of which was that Tom’s feet reached the ground with his self-made noose indicating that he could have stopped his own death by slow suffocation at any point), the family vehemently disputed newspaper reports that Tom’s death was intentional, with Dr. Hepburn going so far as to publish a statement asserting that Tom’s death was the accidental result of a game the family occasionally played in which they pretended to hang themselves. Hepburn articulates the family’s denial and her own doubt in her autobiography asserting: “At first the newspapers said Tom had committed suicide. There was no reason for this that anyone could see…I thought at first that it was possible that he was practicing hanging. Now I wonder. Deep in my heart—I wonder” After Tom’s death, Dr. Hepburn scolded his wife for crying and the boy was unspoken of after his burial. As Hepburn explains her in autobiography “In the first terrible shock Mother cried. Yes. But she never allowed the fact of his death to dominate the atmosphere. We were not a sad household.” Even when she talks about missing her late family members—her parents and a younger sister—she does not mention Tom.
“My older brother Tom…I adored him.”--KH
Born in 1905, Thomas Hepburn was the oldest child of Katharine H. and Dr. Thomas N. Hepburn and a close friend and protector to his sister Kate, two years his junior. According to his younger sibling Bob (via family lore) beginning at an early Tom suffered from uncontrollable facial tics caused by a neurological disorder called chorea. This disorder was a source of great embarrassment to his father, whose anger only triggered young Tom’s anxiety, exacerbating his symptoms. According to Barbara Leaming’s 1995 biography of Katharine Hepburn, the teenaged Tom’s ongoing struggles with anxiety and depression are in fact what prompted his and Kate’s fateful trip to New York City on Easter weekend 1921. During a visit to their aunt’s house, Tom failed to turn up for breakfast. When Kate went to fetch him, she found the door locked. She forced her way in and found that he had hanged himself. Despite obvious evidence in support of suicide (not the least of which was that Tom’s feet reached the ground with his self-made noose indicating that he could have stopped his own death by slow suffocation at any point), the family vehemently disputed newspaper reports that Tom’s death was intentional, with Dr. Hepburn going so far as to publish a statement asserting that Tom’s death was the accidental result of a game the family occasionally played in which they pretended to hang themselves. Hepburn articulates the family’s denial and her own doubt in her autobiography asserting: “At first the newspapers said Tom had committed suicide. There was no reason for this that anyone could see…I thought at first that it was possible that he was practicing hanging. Now I wonder. Deep in my heart—I wonder” After Tom’s death, Dr. Hepburn scolded his wife for crying and the boy was unspoken of after his burial. As Hepburn explains her in autobiography “In the first terrible shock Mother cried. Yes. But she never allowed the fact of his death to dominate the atmosphere. We were not a sad household.” Even when she talks about missing her late family members—her parents and a younger sister—she does not mention Tom.
Dick Hepburn: Katherine’s second sibling closest to her in age after her late older brother Tom, Dick was the third Hepburn child and four years younger than his famous sister. He had aspirations to be a playwright, but did not have much success. He and Katharine shared the Fenwick home, where he passed away at the age of 89.
Frances Robinson-Duff: Frances Robinson-Duff was a famous vocal and singing coach to whom Hepburn credited her unique "voice." She was one of the most highly sought-after (and expensive) vocal coaches in New York when Hepburn moved there to study with her.
Hope Williams:
“Hope Williams obviously had a tremendous influence on my career. Vocally, walk-wise. I incorporated a lot of Hope into my so-called personality. It was in the air, that boy-woman...the easy distinction, the independence, the integrity... A forthright manner. Great good looks. A slim figure, a boy’s haircut…and she was [a star]. And the half-boy, half-woman had been born." --KH Hope Williams was a popular Broadway actress in the 1920s and 30s, from whom Kate took over the role of Antiope in the Warrior’s Husband in when the more established actress passed on reprising her role for a new play that turned out to be a flop. Hepburn also understudied her in a Broadway production of Holiday, the film version of which would star Hepburn |
JJ and Lee Shubert—Lithuanian-born American theatre producers and managers, Jacob J. Shubert and his older brother Lee’s (along with theiroldest brother Sam who died early in their business career) Shubert Organization eventually grew to become the most powerful (and often tyrannical) theatre empire of the 20th Century. By 1924, the brothers owned 86 theatres in the United States and were producing one quarter of the plays being staged in the country. Despite losing an anti-trust lawsuit in 1956, the company saw continued success well into the 1980s.
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George Cukor:
“From the beginning to the day he died, we just got on…George Cukor was really my best friend in California…Total comfort. The same liberal point of view—the same sense of right and wrong. I miss him.”--KH Cukor was a close friend of Hepburn’s and a Hollywood director with whom she did ten films, most famously her first film, A Bill of Divorcement, and The Philadelphia Story. “His was an extraordinary career and yet he is seldom listed with the so-called great directors…I think that I have finally figured out why. He was primarily an actor’s director. He was primarily interested in making the actor shine. He saw the story through the eyes of the leading characters” (Hepburn, 178). |
John Barrymore:
“What an odd man. Full of charm—a wonderful actor—a generous spirit—a wild sort of passion for the opposite sex but not caring a bit whether or not he succeeded…he was sweet—he was funny—and he could certainly act.” --KH An acclaimed stage, silent and speaking film, and radio actor, from the famous Barrymore stage family, Barrymore played Hepburn’s father in A Bill of Divorcement, her first film, she credits him with making sure she came off well in the film. |
Jed Harris:
“One of my—well, I started to write ‘friends’, but with Jed Harris one was never really sure." --KH Harris was a Broadway producer, probably best known for Our Town, directed Hepburn in The Lake and despite negative reviews planned a tour for the show. When she asked not to tour, he forced her to buy her way out for $13,675.75—all of her savings at the time |
Helen Hayes:
“The First Lady of American Theatre,” Helen Hayes was a stage and film actress best known for being only one of two women to ever to earn an EGOT, winning an Emmy, a Grammy, a Tony, and two Oscars. The Helen Hayes Awards, founded in her honor, continue to recognize excellence in professional theatre in the Washington D.C. (her hometown). |
Stella Surrege: The character Katharine Hepburn played in The Lake in 1933. Her line “The calla lilies are in bloom again, such a strange flower” was immortalized by Hepburn in the 1936 film Stage Door.
Dorothy Parker:
Parker was an American writer and critic particularly known for her cutting wit. She was an editor at Vogue by the age of 22 and an original member of The New Yorker editorial board. Although she did not publish her famous insult of Hepburn’s acting in The Lake herself, Time magazine reported it as overheard from Parker during intermission of the play. |
Vivien Leigh:
English actress Vivien Leigh was already known in Britain both for her classical acting and her public love affair with (a then married) Lawrence Olivier when won the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. She did a screen test for George Cukor during a brief vacation to California to visit Oliver, who introduced her to the Selznick brothers (David was producing the film). To American audiences, she seemed to be an overnight success, winning an Academy Award for her performance in the blockbuster hit. She won a second Oscar for her performance as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire. |
Spencer Tracy:
"He was a great actor--Simple. He could just do it. Never over-done. Just perfection. There was no complication. The performance was unguarded. He could make you laugh. He could make you cry. He could listen." --KH
Spencer Tracy was an Irish-Catholic American actor who, after finding success on regional and Broadway stages moved to Hollywood with his wife, Louise (a stage actress), for a contract with Fox Studios in 1930. By this time, the couple had already had a son, John, who was born deaf—the cause of which Spencer believed was a sexually transmitted infection he’d passed to Louise after an extramarital affair (of which there would be many during the couple’s forty-four year marriage). Tracy carried guilt about his son's condition for his entire life. The actual cause of John's deafness was later discovered to be a rare genetic disorder known as Usher Syndrome.
During his time at Fox where he played primarily tough guys and criminals thanks to his unconventional looks, Tracy developed a reputation as a heavy drinker. He also had a rather public affair with actress Loretta Young. Louise blamed the pressure of Hollywood on this behavior, but there’s ample evidence that both infidelity and alcoholism were challenges for Tracy before his time in Hollywood.
In 1935, he moved to MGM where he had the opportunity to play a wider range of roles, winning his first Academy Award for Captains Courageous in 1937.
By the early 1940s, beginning with The Philadelphia Story, Katharine Hepburn had begun shadow producing her own pictures. She hand-picked Tracy to star opposite her in Woman of the Year. Thus began a nearly 27 year professional and romantic partnership between the couple, who would make nine movies together over the next two decades. For more on their relationship, see the Love Story page.
"He was a great actor--Simple. He could just do it. Never over-done. Just perfection. There was no complication. The performance was unguarded. He could make you laugh. He could make you cry. He could listen." --KH
Spencer Tracy was an Irish-Catholic American actor who, after finding success on regional and Broadway stages moved to Hollywood with his wife, Louise (a stage actress), for a contract with Fox Studios in 1930. By this time, the couple had already had a son, John, who was born deaf—the cause of which Spencer believed was a sexually transmitted infection he’d passed to Louise after an extramarital affair (of which there would be many during the couple’s forty-four year marriage). Tracy carried guilt about his son's condition for his entire life. The actual cause of John's deafness was later discovered to be a rare genetic disorder known as Usher Syndrome.
During his time at Fox where he played primarily tough guys and criminals thanks to his unconventional looks, Tracy developed a reputation as a heavy drinker. He also had a rather public affair with actress Loretta Young. Louise blamed the pressure of Hollywood on this behavior, but there’s ample evidence that both infidelity and alcoholism were challenges for Tracy before his time in Hollywood.
In 1935, he moved to MGM where he had the opportunity to play a wider range of roles, winning his first Academy Award for Captains Courageous in 1937.
By the early 1940s, beginning with The Philadelphia Story, Katharine Hepburn had begun shadow producing her own pictures. She hand-picked Tracy to star opposite her in Woman of the Year. Thus began a nearly 27 year professional and romantic partnership between the couple, who would make nine movies together over the next two decades. For more on their relationship, see the Love Story page.
Phyllis Wilbourn:
"Phyllis Wilbourn is my right hand...She is a totally selfless person--(well, I have to say to you what just came into my mind)--working for a totally selfish person. She can do everything, which through the years has been wildly handy for me...She can talk to anyone--from the President to the doorman. She never takes vacation. She backs me up...she's unique. She's an angel." --KH Originally a personal secretary to Constance Collier, Wilbourn met Hepburn (a friend of Collier's) filming Summertime in Venice. Hepburn’s personal secretary from the mid-1950s on, historians have speculated about the nature of Ms. Wilbourn’s relationship with Hepburn, though the women maintained the friendship was platonic. According to A. Scott Berg, Hepburn once introduced Wilbourn as her "Alice B. Toklas" to which Wilbourn took exception saying "It makes me sound like an old lesbian, and I'm not." |
Robert "Bob" Hepburn: Six years her junior, Hepburn's brother Robert or "Bob" carried on the family tradition of going into medicine--specifically urology like his father. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and served in WWII. Like so many of the Hepburns, he lived most of his life in Connecticut.
Norah Considine Moore: Norah Moore worked for Hepburn as a cook and housekeeper for 30 years—from 1972 to the star’s death. Moore’s daughter saved her mother’s keepsakes and remembrances of the time to write At Home with Kate. Despite the heckling and abuse Norah takes from the crabby, recovering Hepburn in the play, she was not ever really fired. In fact, in addition to thanking her in her autobiography, Hepburn left her housekeeper at least $100,000 (more according to some sources).
Warren Beatty:
Warren Beatty is an American actor and filmmaker and fourteen time Oscar nominee whose breakout film was Splendor in the Grass in 1961. He starred in and produced the 1994 remake of the 1939 movie of the same name Love Affair. The film features his actual wife Annette Benning as the romantic lead and Katharine Hepburn as his aunt. This was her last film appearance. |
Stephen Sondheim:
Sondheim is a composer-lyricist who rose up through the ranks of Broadway under the mentorship of Oscar Hammerstein Jr. and made his initial Broadway debut writing the lyrics for West Side Story. Widely believed to be the most famous and talented American composer/lyricist still living, he is best known for Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, and the Tony Award-Winning classic Company, which he was apparently writing when he so annoyed Hepburn. The click on the link to hear the song that was driving her "crazy." |