Trivia

In The Lion in Winter (1968) she plays the mother of Richard the Lionheart, who is played by Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins later said that Hepburn's voice was, in part, the basis for Hannibal Lecter's voice.

Was with Spencer Tracy the night he died. According to her, he had gotten up in the middle of the night to get a glass of milk. She followed the sickly Tracy to the kitchen but before she got there she heard a glass shatter and then a loud thud. She found Tracy dead on the floor; he had suffered a massive heart attack.

Did all her own stunts because the stunt woman never stood up straight enough.

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 blunt and feisty.

Had a relationship with Spencer Tracy from 1941 until his death in 1967.

Despite her success at the Oscars, she never attended an Academy Awards ceremony as a nominee. Her only appearance was at 46th Annual Academy Awards (1974) 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.".

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 in leading roles. Only Frances McDormand and Daniel Day-Louis come close to her record, each having earned three Oscars for leading roles.

She never watched Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) because it was Spencer Tracy's last film.

Was a direct descendant of England's King John through one of his illegitimate children. Hepburn played King John's mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in The Lion in Winter (1968).

A leading contender for Scarlett O'Hara in Cuốn Theo Chiều Gió (1939), she later served as Maid of Honor at Vivien Leigh's and Laurence Olivier's wedding.

Was known for being an avid golfer, tennis player, and swimmer. She was also known for taking cold showers and for riding her bicycle around Manhattan.

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.

When Cate Blanchett won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Phi Công Tỷ Phú (2004), Hepburn became the first previous Oscar winner to become an Oscar-winning movie role.

Did not suffer from Parkinson's disease. She set the record straight in the 1993 TV documentary Katharine Hepburn: All About Me (1993), 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 whiskey 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!".

Received academy awards for her first as well as her final three nominations, with 34 years between her first and second win.

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.

Her final screen appearance was Truman Capote's One Christmas (1994) which John Philip Dayton produced/executive produced for her - their fourth film together - her final line was, 'I can sit back in my old age and not regret a single moment, not wish to change a single thing. It's what I wish for you...a life with no regrets'.

She and Walter Brennan are the only actors to win 3 Oscars on 3 consecutive nominations.

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".

She was nearly decapitated by an aeroplane propeller when she was rushing about an airport, avoiding the press.

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".

Graduated from Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1928, with a degree in history and philosophy.

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".

As of 2021, "Only Tie in Oscars For Best Actress", Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968) and Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter (1968) in 1969.

Thought very highly of the acting talents of Jeremy Irons and John Lithgow. She particularly disliked Meryl Streep, claiming she could recognize Streep's constant search for tactics during a performance. Hepburn also thought Glenn Close talented, but said openly Close's feet were too big for audiences to take her seriously as an actress.

In 2010, Jason Bateman, who was in one of Hepburn's last movies, This Can't Be Love (1994), told New York Magazine that the legend only wore white Reebok high-top sneakers on and off the set. If a scene called for her to be wearing something fancier, she would wear black socks over the white sneakers.

Survived the Great New England Hurricane of Sept. 21, 1938 while at her summer home in the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook, CT. Reportedly she was there considering a marriage proposal by Howard Hughes. The storm killed at least 682. Hepburn, her family and servants barely escaped with their lives: Soon after fleeing it on foot in the storm, her home was washed away along with her Oscar for her film Morning Glory (1933) which was later found intact. Hepburn rebuilt the home in 1939, and was locally famous for running people off "her" (public) beach in her later years.

Did not attend Spencer Tracy's funeral out of respect to his family. Instead she went to the home of writer/director Richard Brooks where she watched, and wept, as he screened Tracy 's Oscar-winning performance in Captains Courageous (1937) for her. Later, Brooks and his wife Jean Simmons named their only child, Kate Brooks, after Hepburn.

Was a natural redhead.

Her first name is often misspelled as Katherine, it is actually spelled Katharine with a second A. She was known for correcting those who spelled it wrong.

Although she never committed to her marriage with Ludlow Ogden Smith, and she admitted to treating him poorly, they remained friends for the rest of their lives.

Admitted to using her brother's birthdate as her own for years.

Her favorite actress was Bette Davis.

Was fired by the producer of Travels with My Aunt (1972) early in the filming for demanding too many script changes. Was replaced by Maggie Smith.

Godmother of Sam Robards, son of Lauren Bacall and Jason Robards.

The scene in which her character falls into the canal in Summertime (1955) left her with a permanent eye infection as the water was contaminated.

Is one of 14 Best Actress Oscar winners to have not accepted their Academy Award in person. Hepburn did not accept any of her 4 wins (for Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). The others are Claudette Colbert, Judy Holliday, Joan Crawford, Vivien Leigh, Anna Magnani, Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Anne Bancroft, Patricia Neal, Elizabeth Taylor, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson and Ellen Burstyn.

According to her friend and biographer A. Scott Berg, although she said often that Alice Adams (1935) was her favorite film role, it was actually her performance as Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) that she regarded as her greatest achievement in film.

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.

During what is argued by film historians to be the greatest year in classic American cinema, she was a rare star who did not appear in a film in 1939. Instead, she was on stage playing Tracy Lord in "The Philadelphia Story," which proved to be her comeback (Chuyện ở Philadelphia (1940)) after being branded as box-office poison (shortly after Bringing Up Baby (1938)).

In her book "Me: Stories of My Life", she admitted to posing for nude photos when she was in her 20s. The pictures were later lost.

On June 2004 Sotheby's auction house hosted a two-day estate sale auctioning personal belongings of the legendary actress to collectors. The 700-plus items included Hepburn's furniture, jewelry (which included the platinum, diamond and sapphire brooch from one-time lover 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, which sold for $27,000. Also 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", which 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 included a ring from 1968's The Lion in Winter (1968), and Gertrude, the canoe from the film On Golden Pond (1981) which was bought for $19,200 by entertainer Wayne Newton. The most sought-after piece and the most expensive item was the bronze bust of Spencer Tracy that Hepburn created herself and that was also featured in their Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). The audience cheered when the three-inch sculpture sold for $316,000, compared to the estimated $3,000-$5,000. The only awards won by the actress that were auctioned were her 1958 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, the annual Shakespeare Club of New York City award, the Fashion Desinger Lifetime Achievement, a few Box Office Blue Ribbons, her Hollywood Walk of Fame plaque and the 1990 Kennedy Center Honor. Hepburn's four Oscars were not included due to contract reasons.

As of 2021, has the longest gap of any actress between her first and second Best Actress Oscar wins, a gap of 34 years between Morning Glory (1933) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), and the largest gap of any actor between her first and last acting Oscars, which was 48 years between Morning Glory (1933) and On Golden Pond (1981).

Spencer Tracy wanted her to play his wife in Father of the Bride (1950), but it was felt that they were too romantic a team to play a happily domesticated couple with children, so Joan Bennett got the part.

She was of mostly English, with distant Scottish, ancestry. She had deep Colonial American roots in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia.

Aunt of actress Katharine Houghton, who portrayed her character's daughter in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).

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 very portly radio singer named 'Kate Smith'.

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."

She is not related to Audrey Hepburn.

She was voted the 14th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.