Katharine Hepburn parents: Meet Thomas Norval Hepburn & Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress whose career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women.

Hepburn left university determined to become an actress. The day after graduating, she traveled to Baltimore to meet Edwin H. Knopf, who ran a successful stock theatre company. Impressed by her eagerness, Knopf cast Hepburn in his current production, The Czarina.

In May 2003, an aggressive tumor was found in Hepburn’s neck. The decision was made not to medically intervene, and she died from cardiac arrest on June 29, 2003, at the Hepburn family home in Fenwick, Connecticut.

Katharine Hepburn parents: Meet Thomas Norval Hepburn & Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Connecticut, the second of six children. Her parents were Thomas Norval Hepburn (1879–1962), a urologist at Hartford Hospital, and Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn (1878–1951), a feminist campaigner.

Both parents fought for social change in the United States: Thomas Hepburn helped establish the New England Social Hygiene Association, which educated the public about venereal disease, while the elder Katharine headed the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association and later campaigned for birth control with Margaret Sanger.