Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. Her mother headed the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, and as a child Hepburn went along to “Votes for Women” marches. She started acting at Bryn Mawr College, got good reviews on Broadway and was brought to Hollywood. Her third film, Morning Glory (1933), won her the Best Actress Oscar.

Then things went wrong. After Bringing Up Baby (1938) flopped at the box office, a group of cinema owners put her on a list of stars they called “box office poison”. She bought out her contract with RKO, left Hollywood and starred on Broadway in Philip Barry’s The Philadelphia Story. She got hold of the film rights and sold them on one condition: she would play the lead. The 1940 film was a hit and put her back on top.

She went on to make nine films with Spencer Tracy, then found a new line in mature, independent women, as in The African Queen. Three more Oscars followed, including one for The Lion in Winter, a record for the category. She never turned up to collect them. In 1969, past 60, she played Coco Chanel in the Broadway musical Coco.

Start with Bringing Up Baby, a commercial failure that critics loved, then watch The Philadelphia Story, the film she made happen by buying the rights herself.