Katharine Hepburn
In Woman of the Year (1942), she made her first of nine appearances opposite Spencer Tracy, launching one of Hollywood's most famous romances. Though they were together until Tracy's death in 1967, the couple never married reportedly because Tracy, a devout Catholic, would not divorce his wife. Hepburn had previously married and divorced Ludlow Ogden Smith (who changed his name to Smith Ogden Ludlow, so that his bride would not have to be known as Kate Smith) and had long-term relationships with Leland Hayward and Howard Hughes.
Hepburn biographer Anne Edwards, however, believes that both Tracy and Hepburn were bisexual and told journalist Kevin Howell in PW Daily (July 11, 2003) that Hepburn "was not honest about her life. Between the lines, I was able to say that she lived a bisexual life most of her life. She and Spencer were great beards for each other throughout their lives. I can understand why she would have to keep her sexuality a secret, but in later years I felt it was less moral of her to never make some sort of gesture to the gay community. This was, after all, a woman who married a gay man and took her longtime companion, Laura Harding, on their honeymoon." Harding, a former debutante and sometime actress who lived with Hepburn for a number of years, was a daughter of brokerage heiress Dorothy Barney and her husband, J. Barclay Harding, a millionaire New York banker and art collector who was a founder and chairman of the board of American Express.
On June 29, 2003 at 2:50 p.m., 96-year-old Katharine Hepburn died at Fenwick, the Hepburn family home, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton (nee Katharine Houghton Grant) is an award-winning stage and film actress and co-starred with her aunt in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"
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Broadway
Filmography
Further reading
