Compromises are out of character for Katharine Hepburn. In sixty years onscreen, she's proved herself to be one of Hollywood's strongest-willed women. She wore slacks, never liked make-up and turned up her nose when asked to pose for pin-up pictures. She would be a star, but it would have to be on her own terms. Hepburn graduated from Bryn Mawr, a prestigious all-girl college, in 1928 and headed for the Broadway stage. Shortly following Hollywood's conversion to sound, talent scouts lured her to the West Coast. Her bold outspoken distinctive personality came across brilliantly onscreen and she claimed her first Oscar for Morning Glory (1933), the year after she arrived in Hollywood. Great roles followed and she was nominated again for playing a poor girl with gumption in Alice Adams (1935). Hepburn was a dedicated professional, the first to arrive on the set in the morning and last to leave. She researched her roles and learned her lines…but she didn't play the Hollywood game. She was a no-show at celebrity functions and rarely hobknobbed with the other stars. Her co-workers and the press perceived this as arrogance. By the end of the decade she was starring in classic screwball comedies such as Stage Door (1937) with Ginger Rogers and Lucille Ball and Bringing Up Baby (1938) with Cary Grant, but they couldn't help her win supporters in the business. She had alienated herself from the temperamental film community. In 1938, the Independent Theater Owners of America labeled Hepburn "Box Office Poison." She left the Dream Factory and headed back to Broadway. List of films Today! on TCM Alice Adams (1935) The African Queen (1951) Pat and Mike (1952) Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn Katharine Hepburn by Barbara Leaming Katharine Hepburn: An Independent Woman by Ronald Bergan Playwright Phillip Barry wrote a stage vehicle for her that lampooned the stuffy East Coast aristocracy. The Philadelphia Story was a sensation. Hepburn acquired the film rights and brought the play to Hollywood to negotiate a new contract on her own terms. She angled for Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable, but MGM delivered Cary Grant and James Stewart-not bad for second choices, and the cast of the 1940 film version sparked with electricity. Hepburn was nominated and James Stewart claimed his one and only Best Actor Oscar. Box Office Poison had found the antidote-success. Katharine Hepburn found her ultimate partner, on-screen and off, in Spencer Tracy. They met on the set of Woman of the Year (1942) and, as the characters in the film feuded, the chemistry between the two was hard to ignore. Although Tracy was married, the two actors began an off-screen romance. Tracy would never divorce so they continued their relationship for years in secret. Ultimately the Hepburn-Tracy combo would make nine films together, ending with Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967). By the 1950s, Hepburn, once exiled from Hollywood, had become an undeniable superstar. In ten years she earned 5 Oscar nominations (for a record total of 12) as she made the transition from a young lass to a more mature woman. She went on location in Africa with John Huston and Humphrey Bogart. Between drinks at the hotel bar and shooting big game in the veldt, they managed to make The African Queen (1951). Hepburn was equally at ease with the god-fearing spinster in The African Queen as with Tennessee Williams' viscous dowager in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). In one of Williams' darkest plays, Hepburn hides a secret of homosexuality, insanity and cannibalism while arranging to lobotomize her niece who might tell all. With Montgomery Clift as an inquisitive doctor and Elizabeth Taylor as the defensive niece, the film was an undeniable tour-de-force for its cast. From Tennessee Williams to Eugene O'Neill, Katharine Hepburn didn't fool around. She came out of a three-year retirement following Suddenly, Last Summer to star in Sidney Lumet's film version of perhaps the greatest American play, Long Day's Journey into Night (1962). For anyone who doubted, Hepburn was not just a star, she was an actress. By the late 1960s, the Glory Days of Hollywood had ended, but Hepburn went on. She kept busy on Broadway and in television movies with other stage and screen luminaries such as Sir Laurence Olivier. She began each project by announcing that it would be her last performance. But she couldn't stop; she was driven. Even as she aged, Katharine Hepburn lost none of her manic energy. In 1969 she paused on stage to discipline an audience member for taking flash photography. She helped chaperone some of Hollywood's greatest stars through their final roles. She stood up to John Wayne in Rooster Cogburn (1975) and helped bring the Fonda family (Henry and Jane) back together again On Golden Pond (1981). Fifty years after she won her first Oscar, Katharine claimed another-her fourth-for On Golden Pond. She overcame career obstacles and maintained her inimitable personality. Hard-headed, self-centered and brutally frank, Katharine Hepburn succeeded in becoming a Hollywood screen legend on her own terms. 12 Wednesday 6:00 AM   Sylvia Scarlett (1936) A female con artist masquerades as a boy to escape the police. Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Edmund Gwenn. D: George Cukor. BW 95m. CC 8:00 AM   Stage Door (1937) Women at a theatrical boarding house try to make their big break happen. Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou. D: Gregory La Cava. BW 91m. CC 10:00 AM   Keeper of the Flame (1942) A reporter digs into the secret life of a recently deceased political hero. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Margaret Wycherly. D: George Cukor. BW 101m. 12:00 PM   Without Love (1945) A World War II housing shortage inspires a widow to propose a marriage of convenience with an inventor. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball. D: Harold S. Bucquet. BW 111m. 2:00 PM   Undercurrent (1946) A sheltered woman realizes that either her husband or his mysterious brother is a psychopath. Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum. D: Vincente Minnelli. BW 117m. 4:00 PM   Song of Love (1947) True story of Clara Schumann’s battle to save husband Robert’s health and resist the romantic overtures of Johannes Brahms. Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Robert Walker. D: Clarence Brown. BW 119m. 6:00 PM   Suddenly Last Summer (1960) A dowager tries to buy a lobotomy to silence the woman who witnessed her son's murder. Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift. D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. BW 114m. 8:00 PM   Bringing Up Baby (1938) A madcap heiress upsets the staid existence of a straitlaced scientist. Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Charlie Ruggles. D: Howard Hawks. BW 103m. CC DVS 10:00 PM   The Philadelphia Story (1940) Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage. Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart. D: George Cukor. BW 113m. CC DVS 12:00 AM   A Delicate Balance (1973) An aging couple is caught between their divorced daughter and troubled friends. Katharine Hepburn, Paul Scofield, Joseph Cotten. D: Tony Richardson. C 134m. LBX 2:30 AM   Rooster Cogburn (1975) An aging U.S. Marshall and a minister's daughter join forces to catch a band of outlaws. John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Zerbe. D: Stuart Miller. C 108m. LBX 4:30 AM   Break of Hearts (1935) An unknown composer tries to save the conductor she loves from his drinking problem. Katharine Hepburn, Charles Boyer, John Beal. D: Philip Moeller. BW 79m.