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Katharine Hepburn Filmography
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Katharine Hepburn: Hepburn's early years
Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut to a successful urologist, Thomas Norval Hepburn, and a suffragette, Katharine Houghton Hepburn. Hepburn's father was a staunch proponent of publicizing the dangers of venereal disease in a time when such things were not discussed, and her mother advocated birth control and equal rights for women. "We were snubbed by everyone, but we grew quite to enjoy that," Hepburn later said of her unabashedly liberal family, who she credited with giving her a sense of adventure and independence.
Her father insisted that his children be athletic, and encouraged swimming, riding, golf and tennis — a characteristic for which Hepburn would later become recognized. Hepburn excelled at physicality, fearlessly performing her own pratfalls in films such as Bringing Up Baby, which is now held up as an exemplar of screwball comedy.
She was educated at Bryn Mawr College, receiving her drama degree in 1928, the same year she debuted on Broadway after landing a bit part in Night Hostess. A banner year for Hepburn, 1928 also marked her nuptuals to socialite businessman Ludlow Ogden Smith, whom she had met at Bryn Mawr. Hepburn and Smith's marriage was rocky from the start—she insisted that he change his name to S. Ludlow Ogden, so she would not be called the "too ordinary" name of "Mrs. Smith". Succumbing to the pressures created by Hepburn's burgeoning film career, the couple divorced in 1934.
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Hepburn's film career begins >>
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