Coordinates	43°01′″N44°39′″N
name	Katharine Hepburn
alt	Portrait of Hepburn, 33 years old
birth date	May 12, 1907
birth place	Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
nationality	American
death date	June 29, 2003
death place	Fenwick, Old Saybrook, Connecticut, U.S.
occupation	Actress
years active	1928–1994
birth name
spouse	Ludlow Ogden Smith(1928–1934)
partner	Spencer Tracy(1941–1967, his death)
parents	Katharine Martha Houghton HepburnThomas Norval Hepburn }}

Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907June 29, 2003) was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies.

Raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn turned to acting after graduating from Bryn Mawr College. After four years in the theatre, favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. She became an instant star with her feature debut, 1932's ''A Bill of Divorcement'', and within 18 months received an Academy Award for ''Morning Glory''. This initial success was followed by a series of commercial failures, and in 1938 she was labeled "box office poison". Hepburn masterminded her own comeback, buying herself out of her contract with RKO Radio Pictures and acquiring the film rights to ''The Philadelphia Story'', which she sold on the condition that she be the star. The movie was a hit, and Hepburn's career was successfully revived.

In 1941 she joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and began an alliance with Spencer Tracy, forming a popular partnership that produced nine movies over 25 years. Her work began to slow in this decade, and is dominated by the pictures she made with Tracy. Hepburn's output expanded in the 1950s, as she frequently worked overseas and appeared in a number of Shakespeare stage productions. On screen she found a niche in playing middle-aged spinsters, such as in ''The African Queen'', and the public embraced Hepburn in these roles. She enjoyed great success in the latter half of her life, winning three more Oscars for her work in ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'', ''The Lion in Winter'' and ''On Golden Pond''. In 1973 she made her first appearance in a television movie, for which she found her greatest success in her later years. She remained active into old age, making her final screen appearance in 1994 at the age of 87.

Hepburn was famously outspoken and evasive with the press, while refusing to conform to societal expectations of women. She married once, before moving to Hollywood, but thereafter maintained an independent lifestyle. In 1941, Hepburn began an affair with her co-star Spencer Tracy and became devoted to the actor. They remained together until his death in 1967, although the relationship was hidden from the public and Tracy never divorced his wife. After a period of inactivity and ill-health, Hepburn died in 2003 at the age of 96.

Hepburn received a total of 12 Academy Award nominations for Best Actress throughout her career, and her four wins is a record for a performer. Her on-screen persona often matched her own independent personality, and she came to epitomize the "modern woman" in 20th century America. Credited with helping change the way females were depicted on screen, she is acknowledged as an influential figure in the public's changing perception of women. In 1999, she was named by the American Film Institute as the top female legend of the screen.

Early life and career beginnings

Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut on May 12, 1907, the second of six children. Her parents were Katharine Martha Houghton (1878–1951), a feminist who headed the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association and later fought for birth control with Margaret Sanger, and Thomas Norval Hepburn (1879–1962), a urologist at Hartford Hospital. Katharine Martha instilled in her daughter the belief that women are equal to men, and the virtues of perseverance, independence and fortitude. As a child, Hepburn joined her mother on several "Votes For Women" demonstrations. Thomas Hepburn helped establish the New England Social Hygiene Association, which aimed to educate the public about venereal disease. The Hepburn children were raised to exercise freedom of speech, and encouraged to think and debate on any topic they wished. Her parents were criticized by the community for their progressive views, which biographer Charles Higham believes stimulated Hepburn to fight against barriers she encountered in life. Hepburn said she realized from a young age that she was the product of "two very remarkable parents", and credited her upbringing with providing the foundation for her success. She remained close to her family throughout her life.

The young Hepburn was a tomboy who liked to call herself Jimmy and cut her hair short like a boy's. Thomas Hepburn was eager for his children to use their minds and bodies to the limit, and taught them to swim, run, dive, ride, wrestle, and play golf and tennis. Golf became a passion for his oldest daughter: she took daily lessons and became very good, reaching the semi-final of the Connecticut Young Women's Golf Championship. She loved swimming in Long Island Sound, and took ice-cold baths every morning—generally believing that "the bitterer the medicine, the better it was for you." Hepburn was a fan of movies from a young age, and went to see one every Saturday night. With her friends and siblings, she would put on plays and perform to her neighbors for 50 cents a ticket to raise money for the Navajo people.

On April 3, 1921, while visiting friends in Greenwich Village, Hepburn discovered the body of her older brother Tom, whom she adored, dead from an apparent suicide. He had tied a sheet around a beam and hanged himself. The Hepburn family denied it was suicide and maintained that Tom's death must have been an experiment that had gone wrong. The incident made the teenage Hepburn nervous, moody and suspicious of people. She shied away from other children, dropped out of Oxford School, and began receiving private tutoring. For many years, she used Tom's birthday (November 8) as her own. It was not until her 1991 autobiography, ''Me: Stories of My Life,'' that Hepburn revealed her true birth date.

In 1924, Hepburn gained a place at Bryn Mawr College. She attended the institution primarily to satisfy her mother, who had studied there, and recalled disliking the experience. It was the first time she had been in school for several years, and she was self-conscious and uncomfortable with her classmates. She struggled with the scholastic demands of university, and was once suspended for smoking in her room. Hepburn was drawn to acting but roles in college plays were conditional on good grades. Once her marks had improved, she began performing regularly. The lead role in a production of ''The Woman in the Moon'' in her senior year, and the positive response it received, cemented Hepburn's plans to pursue a theatrical career. She graduated with a degree in history and philosophy in June 1928.

Breaking into theatre (1928–1932)

Hepburn left Bryn Mawr 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''. She received good notices for her small role, with the ''Printed Word'' describing her as "arresting." She was given a part in the following week's show, but here Hepburn was less accomplished. She was criticized for her shrill voice, and so left Baltimore to study with an acclaimed voice tutor in New York City.

Knopf decided to produce ''The Big Pond'' in New York and called for Hepburn to be the understudy to the leading lady. A week before opening, the lead was fired and replaced with Hepburn, which gave her a starring role after only four weeks in the theatre. On opening night, Hepburn turned up late, mixed her lines, tripped over her feet, and spoke too high and fast to be comprehensible. She was promptly fired, and the original leading lady rehired. Undeterred, Hepburn joined forces with producer Arthur Hopkins, and accepted the role of a schoolgirl in ''These Days''. Her Broadway debut came on November 12 1928, at the Cort Theatre, but reviews for the show were poor and it closed after eight nights. Hopkins promptly hired Hepburn as the lead understudy in Philip Barry's play ''Holiday''. In early December, after only two weeks, she quit to marry Ludlow Ogden Smith, her beau from college. She planned to leave the theatre behind, but began to miss the work and quickly resumed the understudy role in ''Holiday'', which she held for six months.

In 1929, Hepburn turned down a role with the Theatre Guild to play the lead in ''Death Takes a Holiday''. She felt the role was perfect, but again she was fired. Hepburn went back to the Guild and took an understudy role for minimum pay in ''A Month in the Country''. In the spring of 1930, Hepburn joined a stock company in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She left half-way through the summer season, and continued studying with a drama tutor. In early 1931, she was cast in the Broadway production of ''Art and Mrs. Bottle''. She was released from the role after the playwright took a dislike to her, saying "She looks a fright, her manner is objectionable, and she has no talent", but then rehired when no other actress could be found. It went on to be a small success.

Hepburn appeared in a number of plays with a summer stock company in Ivoryton, Connecticut, and she proved to be a hit. During the summer of 1931, Philip Barry asked her to appear in his new play, ''The Animal Kingdom'', alongside Leslie Howard. They began rehearsals in November, Hepburn feeling sure this was the role to make her a star, but Howard disliked the actress and again she was fired. When asking Barry why this was, he responded: "Well, to be brutally frank, you weren't very good." This unsettled the self-assured Hepburn, but she continued to look for work. She took a small role in an upcoming play, but as rehearsals began she received an offer to read for the lead role in the Greek fable ''The Warrior's Husband''.

''The Warrior's Husband'' proved to be Hepburn's break-out performance. Higham states that it was ideal for the actress, requiring an aggressive energy and athleticism, and she enthusiastically involved herself with its production. It opened on March 11, 1932 at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway. Hepburn's stage entrance called for her to leap down a narrow stairway with a stag over her shoulder, wearing a short silver tunic. The show ran for three months, and Hepburn received positive reviews. Richard Garland of the ''New York World-Telegram'' wrote: "It's been many a night since so glowing a performance has brightened the Broadway scene."

RKO Radio Pictures

Instant success (1932–1934)

A scout for the Hollywood agent Leland Hayward spotted Hepburn's appearance in ''The Warrior's Husband'', and asked her to test for the part of Sydney Fairfield in the upcoming RKO film ''A Bill of Divorcement''. Hepburn was unhappy with her test scene, and sent material from ''Holiday'' instead. Director George Cukor was impressed by what he saw: "There was this odd creature," he recalled, "she was unlike anybody I'd ever heard." He particularly liked the manner in which she picked up a glass: "I thought she was very talented in that action." On being offered the role, Hepburn demanded $1,500 a week—a large amount for an unknown actress. Cukor encouraged the studio to accept her demands and they signed Hepburn to a temporary contract with a three week guarantee. RKO head David O. Selznick recounted that he took a "tremendous chance" in casting the unusual actress.

Hepburn arrived in California in July 1932, at 25 years old. She starred in ''A Bill of Divorcement'' opposite John Barrymore, showing no sign of intimidation. Although she struggled to adapt to the nature of film acting, Hepburn was fascinated by the industry from the start. The picture was a success and Hepburn received rave reviews. ''The New York Times'' described her performance as "exceptionally fine … Miss Hepburn's characterization is one of the finest seen on the screen". ''Variety'' wrote, "Standout here is the smash impression made by Katharine Hepburn in her first picture assignment. She has a vital something that sets her apart from the picture galaxy." On the strength of ''A Bill of Divorcement'', RKO signed the actress to a long-term contract. George Cukor became a lifetime friend and colleague and they proceeded to make a total of 10 films together.

Hepburn's second film was ''Christopher Strong'' (1933), the story of an aviatrix and her affair with a married man. The picture was not commercially successful, but Hepburn's personal reviews were good. Regina Crewe wrote in the ''Journal American'' that although her mannerisms were grating, "they compel attention, and they fascinate an audience. She is a distinct, definite, positive personality." Her third picture confirmed Hepburn as a major actress in Hollywood. For playing aspiring actress Eva Lovelace in ''Morning Glory'', she won an Academy Award for Best Actress. She had seen the script on the desk of producer Pandro S. Berman and, convinced that she was born to play the part, insisted that the role be hers. Hepburn chose not to attend the awards ceremony, a choice she would follow for the duration of her career, but was thrilled with the win. Her success continued with the role of Jo in the screen adaptation of ''Little Women'' (1933). The movie was a hit, one of the film industry's biggest successes to date, and Hepburn won the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival. ''Little Women'' was one of Hepburn's personal favorites and she was proud of her performance, later saying "I defy anyone to be as good as I was [as Jo]".

By the end of 1933 Hepburn was at the top of her profession, but yearned to prove herself on Broadway. Jed Harris, one of the most successful theatre producers of the 1920s, was experiencing a slump in his career. He asked Hepburn to appear in the play ''The Lake'', which she agreed to do for a low salary. Before she was given leave, RKO asked that she film ''Spitfire'' (1934). Hepburn's role in the movie was Trigger Hicks, an uneducated mountain girl. It is widely considered one of her worst films, and Hepburn received poor reviews for the effort. Hepburn kept a picture of Hicks in her bedroom throughout her life to "[keep] me humble."

''The Lake'' previewed in Washington, D.C., at the end of 1933, where there was a large advance sale. Harris' poor direction had eroded Hepburn's confidence, and she struggled with the performance. Despite this, Harris moved the play to New York without further rehearsal. It opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on December 26, where Hepburn was slated by the critics. Dorothy Parker quipped, "Katharine Hepburn runs the gamut of emotions from A to B." Already tied to a ten-week contract, Hepburn had to endure the embarrassment of rapidly declining box office sales. Harris decided to take the show to Chicago, saying to Hepburn, "My dear, the only interest I have in you is the money I can make out of you." Hepburn refused, and paid Harris $14,000 to close the production instead. She later referred to Harris as "hands-down the most diabolical person I have ever met", and claimed this experience was important in teaching her to take responsibility for her career.

Career struggles, "box office poison" (1934–1938)

After the failure of ''Spitfire'' and ''The Lake'', RKO cast Hepburn in ''The Little Minister'' (1934), based on a Victorian novel by James Barrie, in an attempt to repeat the success of ''Little Women''. This failed to materialize, and the picture was a commercial failure. The romantic drama ''Break of Hearts'' (1935) then garnered Hepburn her worst reviews to date, and fared poorly at the box office. After three forgettable movies, success returned to Hepburn with ''Alice Adams'' (1935), the story of a girl's desperation to climb the social ladder. Hepburn loved the book and was delighted to be offered the role. The picture was a hit, one of Hepburn's personal favorites, and gave the actress her second Oscar nomination.

Berman allowed Hepburn to select her next feature. She chose George Cukor's new project, ''Sylvia Scarlett'' (1935), which paired her for the first time with Cary Grant. Her hair was cut short for the part, as her character masquerades as a boy for much of the film. Critics disliked ''Sylvia Scarlett'' and it was unpopular with the public. For her next film she played Mary Stuart in John Ford's ''Mary of Scotland'' (1936). It met with a similarly poor reception. ''A Woman Rebels'' (1937) followed, a Victorian era drama where Hepburn's character fights against convention. ''Quality Street'' (1937) also had a period setting, this time a comedy. Neither movie was popular with the public, which meant she had made four unsuccessful pictures in a row.

Alongside a series of unpopular films, problems arose from Hepburn's attitude. She had a difficult relationship with the press, with whom she could be rude and provocative. When asked if she had any children, she snapped back "Yes I have five: two white and three colored." She would not give interviews and denied requests for autographs, which earned her the nickname "Katharine of Arrogance". The public were also baffled by her boyish behavior and fashion choices, and she became a largely unpopular figure. Hepburn sensed that she needed to leave Hollywood, so returned east to star in a theatrical adaptation of ''Jane Eyre''. It had a successful tour, but feeling uncertain with the script and unwilling to risk failure after the disaster of ''The Lake'', Hepburn decided against taking the show to Broadway. Towards the end of 1936, Hepburn vied for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gone With The Wind''. Producer David O. Selznick refused to offer her the part because he felt she had no sex appeal. He reportedly told Hepburn, "I can't see Rhett Butler chasing you for twelve years."

For her next feature, ''Stage Door'' (1937) paired Hepburn with Ginger Rogers in a role that mirrored her own life—that of a wealthy society girl trying to make it as an actress. Hepburn was praised for her work at early previews, which gave her top-billing over Rogers, and the film was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. But it was not the box office hit RKO had hoped. Industry pundits blamed Hepburn for the small profit, but the studio continued its commitment to resurrecting the actress' popularity. She was cast in Howard Hawks' screwball comedy ''Bringing Up Baby'' (1938) alongside Cary Grant. Hepburn played the physical comedy of the film with confidence, and took tips on comedic timing from her co-star Walter Catlett. ''Bringing Up Baby'' was acclaimed by critics, but it was nevertheless unsuccessful at the box office. With the genre and Grant both hugely popular at the time, biographer A. Scott Berg believes the blame lay with Hepburn.

''Bringing Up Baby'' was the last picture Hepburn did at RKO. After its release, the Independent Theatre Owners of America included Hepburn on a list of actors considered "Box Office Poison". The next film offered to her was ''Mother Carey's Chickens'', a "B Movie" with poor prospects. Hepburn turned it down, and instead opted to buy herself out of her contract for $75,000. Many actors of the time were afraid to leave the stability of the studio system, but Hepburn's personal wealth meant she could afford to be independent. She signed on for the film version of ''Holiday'' (1938) with Columbia Pictures, pairing her for the third time with Grant. The comedy was well received by critics, but it was too late to compensate for the previous flops and overcome the negative publicity. ''Holiday'' failed to be a hit, and the next script offered to Hepburn came with a salary of $10,000—less than she had been receiving at the start of her film career. Reflecting on this change in fortunes, Andrew Britton writes of Hepburn: "No other star has emerged with greater rapidity or with more ecstatic acclaim. No other star, either, has become so unpopular so quickly for so long a time."

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Revival (1939–1942)

Following this decline in her career, Hepburn took action to create her own comeback vehicle. She left Hollywood to look for a stage project, and signed on to star in Philip Barry's new play, ''The Philadelphia Story''. It was tailored to showcase the actress, with the character of socialite Tracy Lord incorporating a mixture of humor, aggression, nervousness and vulnerability. Howard Hughes, Hepburn's beau at the time, sensed that the play could be her ticket back to Hollywood stardom, and bought her the film rights before it had opened. The pair also contributed a quarter of the play's production costs. ''The Philadelphia Story'' first toured the United States, to positive reviews, and then opened in New York at the Schubert Theatre on March 29, 1939. It was a big hit, critically and financially, running for 417 performances and then going on a second successful tour.

All the major film studios approached Hepburn to produce the movie version of Barry's play. She chose to sell the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hollywood's number one studio, on the condition that she be the star. As part of the deal she also received the director of her choice, George Cukor, but the co-stars she wanted, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, were both unavailable. Louis B. Mayer promised her James Stewart and $150,000 "for anyone else you want or can get." Hepburn chose her friend and previous co-star, Cary Grant—to whom she ceded top billing. Before filming began, Hepburn shrewdly noted, "I don't want to make a grand entrance in this picture. Moviegoers ... think I'm too la-di-da or something. A lot of people want to see me fall flat on my face." Thus the film began with the actress being knocked flat onto her backside by Cary Grant. The movie also came with the highest production values available, including gowns by top designer Adrian that made Hepburn look more glamorous than ever before. Berg claims the effect was to "recreate Katharine Hepburn" in the eyes of her audience. The resulting film was one of the biggest hits of 1940, breaking records at the Radio City Music Hall. In its review, ''Time'' wrote: "Come on back, Katie, all is forgiven." Herb Golden of ''Variety'' stated: "It's Katharine Hepburn's picture ... The perfect conception of all flighty but characterful Main Line socialite gals rolled into one, the story without her is almost inconceivable." Hepburn was nominated for her third Academy Award for Best Actress, and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.

Hepburn was also responsible for the development of her next project, the romantic comedy ''Woman of the Year''. The idea for the film was proposed to her by Garson Kanin in 1941. Hepburn passed the outline onto Joseph L. Mankiewicz at MGM, who expressed an interest in the picture. Kanin recalled how Hepburn contributed to the script: reading it, suggesting cuts and word changes, and generally providing helpful enthusiasm for the project. Hepburn presented the finished product to MGM and demanded $250,000—half for her, half for the authors, Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner, Jr. With her terms accepted, Hepburn was also given the director and co-star of her choice, George Stevens and Spencer Tracy. Released in 1942, ''Woman of the Year'' was another success. Critics praised the chemistry between the stars and, says Higham, noted Hepburn's "increasing maturity and polish". The ''World-Telegram'' commended two "brilliant performances", and Hepburn received a fourth Academy Award nomination for her role as independent career-woman Tess Harding. During the course of the movie, Hepburn signed a star contract with MGM.

Slowing in the 1940s (1942–1949)

In 1942, Hepburn returned to Broadway to appear in another Philip Barry play, ''Without Love'', which was also written with the actress in mind. Critics were unenthusiastic about the production but with Hepburn's popularity at a high it ran for 16 sold-out weeks. MGM were eager to reunite Tracy and Hepburn for a new picture, and settled on ''Keeper of the Flame'' (1942). A dark mystery with a propaganda message on the dangers of fascism, Hepburn saw it as an opportunity to make a worthy political statement. It received poor notices but was a financial success, confirming the popularity of the Tracy-Hepburn pairing.

Since ''Woman of the Year'' Hepburn had committed to a romantic relationship with Tracy and dedicated herself to helping the star—who suffered from alcoholism and insomnia. Her career slowed as a result, and she worked less for the remainder of the decade than she had done in the 1930s—notably by not appearing on-stage again until 1950. Her only appearance in 1943 was a cameo in the morale-building wartime film ''Stage Door Canteen'', playing herself. She took an atypical role in 1944, playing a Chinese peasant in the high-budget drama ''Dragon Seed''. Hepburn was enthusiastic about the film, but it met with a tepid response and she was described as miscast. She then reunited with Tracy for the film version of ''Without Love'' (1945), after which she turned down a role in ''The Razor's Edge'' to support Tracy through his return to Broadway. ''Without Love'' received poor reviews, but a new Tracy-Hepburn picture was a big event and it was popular on release, selling a record number of tickets over Easter weekend 1945.

Hepburn's next film was ''Undercurrent'' (1946), a film noir with Robert Taylor and Robert Mitchum that was poorly received. A fourth film with Tracy came in 1947: a drama set in the American Old West entitled ''The Sea of Grass''. Similarly to ''Keeper of the Flame'' and ''Without Love'', a lukewarm response from critics did not stop it from being a financial success both at home and abroad. The same year, Hepburn portrayed Clara Wieck Schumann in ''Song of Love''. She trained intensively with a pianist for the role. By the time of its release in October, Hepburn's career had been significantly affected by her public opposition to the anti-communist witch-hunt occurring in Hollywood. Viewed by the public as dangerously progressive, she was not offered work for nine months and people were reportedly throwing things at screen showings of ''Song of Love''. Her next film role came unintentionally, as she stepped in to replace Claudette Colbert only days before shooting began in Frank Capra's political drama ''State of the Union'' (1948). Tracy had long been signed to play the male lead, and so Hepburn was already familiar with the script and stepped up for the fifth Tracy-Hepburn picture. Critics responded positively to the film and it performed well at the box office.

Tracy and Hepburn appeared on screen together for a third consecutive year in the 1949 film ''Adam's Rib''. Like ''Woman of the Year'', it was a "battle of the sexes" comedy, and was written specifically for the duo by their friends Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon. A story of married lawyers who oppose each other in court, Hepburn described it as "perfect for [Tracy] and me". She was instrumental in getting Judy Holliday cast in the film, which kick-started the young actress's Hollywood career. Although Hepburn was still unpopular due to her political views, with scattered picketing at theatres around the country, ''Adam's Rib'' was a hit, favorably reviewed and the most profitable Tracy-Hepburn picture to date. Critic Bosley Crowther was full of praise for the film, and noted the duo's "perfect compatibility".

Professional expansion (1950–1952)

The 1950s saw Hepburn take on a series of professional challenges, and stretch herself further than at any other point in her life at an age when most actresses began to retreat. Berg describes the decade as "the heart of her vast legacy" and "the period in which she truly came into her own." In January 1950, Hepburn made her first venture into Shakespeare, playing Rosalind in ''As You Like It''. She hoped to prove she could play already established material, and said "It's better to try something difficult and flop than to play it safe all the time." It opened at the Cort Theatre in New York to a capacity audience, and continued to be virtually sold out for 148 shows. The production then went on tour. Reviews for Hepburn varied, but she was noted as the only leading-lady in Hollywood who was performing high-caliber material on the stage.

In 1951, Hepburn filmed ''The African Queen'', her first movie in Technicolor. She played Rose Sayer, a prim spinster missionary living in German East Africa at the outbreak of World War I. Co-starring Humphrey Bogart, ''The African Queen'' was shot mostly on location in the Belgian Congo—an opportunity Hepburn embraced. It proved a difficult experience, however, and Hepburn became ill with dysentery during filming. Later in life, she released a memoir about the experience. The movie was released at the end of 1951 to popular support and critical acclaim, and gave Hepburn her fifth Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards. It proved that she could be a hit without Spencer Tracy, being the first successful film she had made without him since ''The Philadelphia Story'' a decade earlier, and fully re-established her popularity.

Hepburn went on to make the sports comedy ''Pat and Mike'' (1952), a second film written specifically as a Tracy-Hepburn vehicle by Kanin and Gordon. Hepburn was a keen athlete, and Kanin later described this as his inspiration for the film: "As I watched Kate playing tennis one day ... it occurred to me that her audience was missing a treat." Hepburn was asked to gain weight for the role, and she was under pressure to perform several sports to a high standard, many of which did not end up in the film. ''Pat and Mike'' was one of the team's most popular and critically acclaimed films, and it was also Hepburn's personal favorite of the nine films she made with Tracy. The performance brought a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

In the summer of 1952, Hepburn appeared in London's West End for a ten-week run of George Bernard Shaw's ''The Millionairess''. Her parents had read Shaw to her when she was a child, which made the play a special experience for the actress. Two years of intense work had left her exhausted, however, and her friend Constance Collier wrote that Hepburn was "on the verge of a nervous breakdown". ''The Millionairess'' was widely acclaimed, and brought to Broadway. It opened at the Shubert Theatre in October 1952, where the response by critics was lukewarm but it sold out for the ten-week run. Hepburn subsequently tried to get the play adapted into a film: a script was written by Preston Sturges, Hepburn offered to work for nothing and pay the director herself, but the project was not picked up by any studio. She later referred to this as the biggest disappointment of her career.

Independent star

Spinsters and Shakespeare (1953–1962)

''Pat and Mike'' was the last film Hepburn completed on her MGM contract, making her free to select her own projects. She spent two years resting and traveling, before committing to David Lean's romantic drama ''Summertime'' (1955). The movie was filmed in Venice, with Hepburn playing a lonely spinster who has a passionate love affair. She described it as "a very emotional part" and found it fascinating to work with Lean. At her own insistence, Hepburn performed a fall into a canal and developed a chronic eye infection as a result. The role earned her another Academy Award nomination and has been cited as some of her finest work. Lean later said it was his personal favorite of the films he made, and Hepburn his favorite actress. The following year, Hepburn spent six months touring Australia with the Old Vic theatre company, playing Portia in ''The Merchant of Venice'', Kate in ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and Isabella in ''Measure for Measure''. The tour was successful and Hepburn earned significant plaudits for the effort.

Hepburn received an Academy Award nomination for the second year running for her work opposite Burt Lancaster in ''The Rainmaker'' (1956). Again she played a lonely women empowered by a love affair, and it seemed that Hepburn had found a niche in playing love-starved spinsters that critics, audiences and her peers clearly enjoyed. Hepburn said of playing such roles, "With Lizzie Curry [''The Rainmaker''] and Jane Hudson [''Summertime''] and Rosie Sayer [''The African Queen''] – I was playing me. It wasn't difficult for me to play those women, because I'm the maiden aunt." Less success that year came from ''The Iron Petticoat'' (1956), a reworking of the classic comedy ''Ninotchka'', with Bob Hope. Hepburn played a cold-hearted Soviet pilot, a performance which Bosley Crowther called "horrible". It was a critical and commercial failure, and Hepburn considered it the worst film on her resume.

Tracy and Hepburn reunited on screen for the first time in five years for the office-based comedy ''Desk Set'' (1957). Berg notes that it worked as a hybrid of their earlier romantic-comedy successes and Hepburn's spinster persona, but it performed poorly at the box office. That summer Hepburn returned to Shakespeare. Appearing in Stratford, Connecticut, at the American Shakespeare Theatre, she repeated her Portia in ''The Merchant of Venice'' and played Beatrice in ''Much Ado About Nothing''. The shows were positively received. After two years away from the screen, she starred in a film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' controversial play ''Suddenly, Last Summer'' (1959) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. The movie was shot in London, and was "a completely miserable experience" for Hepburn. She clashed with director Joseph L. Mankiewicz during filming, which culminated with her spitting at him in disgust. The picture was a financial success, and her work as creepy aunt Violet Venable gave Hepburn her eighth Oscar nomination. Williams was pleased with the performance, writing, "Kate is a playwright's dream actress. She makes dialogue sound better than it is by a matchless beauty and clarity of diction". He wrote ''The Night of the Iguana'' (1961) with Hepburn in mind, but the actress, although flattered, felt the play was wrong for her and declined the part, which went to Bette Davis.

Hepburn returned to Stratford in the summer of 1960 to play Viola in ''Twelfth Night'' and Cleopatra in ''Antony and Cleopatra''. The ''New York Post'' wrote of her Cleopatra: "Hepburn offers a highly versatile performance ... once or twice going in for her famous mannerisms and always being fascinating to watch." Hepburn herself was proud of the role. Her repertoire was further improved when she appeared in Sidney Lumet's film version of Eugene O'Neill's ''Long Day's Journey Into Night'' (1962). It was a low-budget production, and Hepburn appeared in the film for a tenth of her established salary. She called it "the greatest [play] this country has ever produced", the role of morphine-addicted Mary Tyrone "the most challenging female role in American drama" and felt her performance was the best screen work of her career. ''Long Day's Journey Into Night'' earned Hepburn an Oscar nomination and the Best Actress Award at that year's Cannes Film Festival. It remains one of her most praised performances.

Success in later years (1963–1970)

Following completion of ''Long Day's Journey Into Night'', Hepburn took a break in her career to care for the ailing Spencer Tracy. She did not work again until 1967's ''Guess Who's Coming To Dinner'', a ninth film with Tracy. The movie dealt with the subject of interracial marriage, with Hepburn's niece, Katharine Houghton, playing her daughter. Tracy was a dying man by this point, suffering the effects of heart disease, and Houghton later commented that her aunt was "extremely tense" during the production. Tracy died 17 days after filming his last scene. ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' was a triumphant return for Hepburn, her most commercially successful picture to date, and she won her second Best Actress Award at the Oscars, 34 years after winning her first. Hepburn felt the award was not just for her, but was also given to honor Tracy. She claimed that she had never watched the film as it would be too painful.

Hepburn quickly returned to acting after Tracy's death, chosing to preoccupy herself as a remedy against grief. She received numerous scripts and chose to play Eleanor of Aquitaine in ''The Lion In Winter'' (1968), a part she called "fascinating". She read extensively in preparation for the role, where she starred opposite Peter O'Toole. It was filmed in Montmajour Abbey in the south of France, an experience she loved despite being—according to director Anthony Harvey—"enormously vulnerable" throughout. John Russell Taylor of ''The Times'' suggested that Eleanor was "the performance of her (Hepburn's) career", and proved that she was "a growing, developing, still surprising actress". The movie was nominated in all the major categories at the Academy Awards, and for the second year running Hepburn won the Oscar for Best Actress. The role, combined with ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'', also won Hepburn a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Best Actress. Hepburn's next appearance was in ''The Madwoman of Chaillot'' (1969), which she filmed in Nice immediately after completing ''The Lion in Winter''. Unlike her previous hits the picture was a failure critically and financially, and reviews targeted Hepburn for giving a misguided performance.

From December 1969 to August 1970, Hepburn starred in the Broadway musical ''Coco'', about the life of Coco Chanel. Hepburn admitted that before the show, she had never sat through a theatrical musical. She was not a strong singer, but found the offer irresistible and, as said by Berg, "what she lacked in euphony she made up for in guts". The actress took vocal lessons six times a week in preparation for the show. She was nervous about every performance, and recalled "wondering what the hell I was doing there." Reviews for the production were mediocre, but Hepburn herself was praised and ''Coco'' was popular with the public. Hepburn would typically receive a standing ovation at the end of the night, and the show's run was twice extended. She later said ''Coco'' marked the first time she accepted that the public were not against her, but actually seemed to love her. The work earned Hepburn a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.

Film, television and theatre (1971–1983)

Hepburn stayed active throughout the 1970s, focusing on roles described by Andrew Britton as "either a devouring mother or a batty old lady living [alone]". First she traveled to Spain to film a version of Euripides' ''The Trojan Women'' (1971) alongside Vanessa Redgrave. When asked why she had taken the role, she responded that she wanted to broaden her range and try everything while she still had time. The movie was poorly received, but the Kansas City Film Critics named Hepburn's performance the best from an actress that year. In 1971 she signed on to star in an adaptation of Graham Greene's ''Travels With My Aunt'', but was unhappy with early versions of the script and took to rewriting it herself. The studio disliked her changes, so Hepburn abandoned the project and was replaced with Maggie Smith.

Hepburn's next film, an adaptation of Edward Albee's ''A Delicate Balance'' (1973) directed by Tony Richardson, had a small release and received generally unfavorable reviews. She then ventured into television for the first time, appearing in a television movie of Tennessee Williams' ''The Glass Menagerie''. Hepburn had been wary of entering into the medium but it proved to be one of the main television events of 1973, scoring high on the Nielsen ratings. Hepburn received an Emmy Award nomination for playing wistful Southern mother Amanda Wingfield, which opened her mind to future work in the medium. Her next project was the television movie ''Love Among the Ruins'' (1975), a London-based Edwardian drama with Laurence Olivier. It was a great success, with positive reviews and high ratings, and earned Hepburn her only Emmy Award.

Hepburn made her only appearance at the Academy Awards in 1974, to present the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to Lawrence Weingarten. She received a standing ovation, and joked with the audience, "I'm very happy I didn't hear anyone call out 'It's about time'." The following year, she was paired with John Wayne in the Western ''Rooster Cogburn'', a sequel to his Oscar-winning film ''True Grit''. Hepburn's role replicated Rose Sayer from ''The African Queen'', again playing a deeply religious spinster who teams up with a masculine loner to avenge a family member's death. The movie received mediocre reviews. Its casting was enough to draw some people to the box office, but not as many as anticipated and it was only moderately successful.

In 1976, Hepburn returned to Broadway for a three-month run of ''A Matter of Gravity''. The role of eccentric Mrs. Basil was deemed a perfect showcase for the actress, and the play was popular despite poor reviews. It later went on a successful nationwide tour. During the Los Angeles run of the production, Hepburn fractured her hip. She chose to continue the tour performing in a wheelchair. That year, she was voted "Favorite Motion Picture Actress" by the People's Choice Awards. After three years away from the screen, Hepburn starred in the 1978 film ''Olly Olly Oxen Free''. The adventure comedy was one of the biggest failures of her career, as it was quickly removed from theatres and did not receive an international release. She later said the main reason she had done the film was the opportunity to ride in a hot air balloon. The television movie ''The Corn Is Green'' (1979), which was filmed in Wales, followed. It was the last of ten films Hepburn made with George Cukor, and gained her a third Emmy nomination.

By the 1980s Hepburn had developed a noticeable tremor, giving her a permanently shaking head. She did not work for two years, saying in a television interview "I've had my day—let the kids scramble and sweat it out." During this period she saw the Broadway production of ''On Golden Pond'', and was impressed by its depiction of an elderly married couple coping with the difficulties of old age. Jane Fonda had purchased the screen rights for her father, the actor Henry Fonda, and Hepburn sought to play opposite him in the role of quirky Ethel Thayer. ''On Golden Pond'' was a successful outing, as it became the second-highest grossing film of 1981. 74-year-old Hepburn was noted for how energetic she still was, as she dived fully clothed into Squam Lake and gave a lively singing performance. The movie won Hepburn a second BAFTA and a record fourth Academy Award. Homer Dickens, in his book on Hepburn, notes that it was widely considered a sentimental win; a tribute to her enduring career.

1981 also saw Hepburn return to the stage, and she received a second Tony nomination for her work in ''The West Side Waltz''. Playing a septuagenarian widow with a zest for life, ''Variety'' observed that the role was "an obvious and entirely acceptable version of [Hepburn's] own public image." Walter Kerr of ''The New York Times'' wrote of Hepburn and her performance: "One mysterious thing she has learned to do is breathe unchallengeable life into lifeless lines." She hoped to make a film out of the production, but nobody purchased the rights. Hepburn's reputation as one of America's best loved actors was firmly established by this point, as she was named favorite movie actress in a survey by ''People'' magazine and again won the popularity award from People's Choice.

Focus on television (1984–1994)

In 1984, Hepburn starred in the dark comedy ''Grace Quigley'', the story of an elderly woman who enlists a hitman (Nick Nolte) to kill her. Hepburn found humor in the morbid theme, but reviews were negative and it received a small audience. In 1985, she presented a television documentary about the life and career of Spencer Tracy. The majority of Hepburn's roles from this point were in television movies, which did not receive the critical praise of her earlier work in the medium but remained popular with audiences. With each release, Hepburn would declare it her final screen appearance, but she continued to take on new roles. She received an Emmy nomination for 1986's ''Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry'', then two years later returned for the comedy ''Laura Lansing Slept Here'', which allowed Hepburn to act with her grandniece, Schuyler Grant. In 1991 she released her autobiography, ''Me: Stories of my Life''. It topped best-seller lists for over a year. She returned to television screens in 1992 for ''The Man Upstairs'', co-starring Ryan O'Neal, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. In 1994 she worked opposite Anthony Quinn in ''This Can't Be Love'', which was largely based on Hepburn's own life, with numerous references to her personality and career. These later roles have been described as "a fictional version of the typically feisty Kate Hepburn character" and critics have remarked that Hepburn was essentially playing herself.

Hepburn's final appearance in a theatrically released film, and her first since ''Grace Quigley'' ten years earlier, was ''Love Affair'' (1994). At 86 years old, she played a supporting role alongside Annette Bening and Warren Beatty. It was the only film of Hepburn's career, other than the cameo appearance in ''Stage Door Canteen'', in which she did not play a leading role. Roger Ebert noted that it was the first time Hepburn had looked frail, but that the "magnificent spirit" was still there and said her scenes "steal the show". ''The New York Times'' made similar observations as they reflected on the actress' final big-screen appearance, stating that "if she moved more slowly than before, in demeanor she was as game and modern as she had ever been". Hepburn filmed one final role in the television movie ''One Christmas'' (1994), for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination at 87 years old.

Personal life

Public image and character

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Known for being fiercely private, Hepburn would not give interviews or talk to fans for much of her career. Her life, she felt, was no-one else's business. She distanced herself from the celebrity lifestyle—being uninterested in a social scene she saw as tedious and superficial —and wore casual clothes that went strongly against convention in an era of glamour. She rarely appeared in public, even avoiding restaurants, and once wrestled a camera out of a photographer's hand when he took a picture without asking. Despite this she enjoyed the fame, and confessed that she would not have liked the press to ignore her completely. The protective attitude thawed as she aged; beginning with a two-hour long interview on ''The Dick Cavett Show'' in 1973, Hepburn became increasingly open with the public.

Hepburn led an active private life, reportedly swimming and playing tennis every morning. In her eighties she was still playing tennis regularly, as indicated in her 1993 documentary ''All About Me''. She also filled her time painting, which became a passion later in life. A small bust she sculpted of Spencer Tracy's head was featured in ''Guess Who's Coming To Dinner''. Hepburn's relentless energy and enthusiasm for life is often cited in biographies, while a headstrong independence became key to her celebrity status. This self-assuredness meant she could be controlling and difficult; her friend Garson Kanin likened her to a schoolmistress, and she was famously blunt and outspoken. Katharine Houghton commented that her aunt could be "maddeningly self-righteous and bossy". Hepburn confessed to being, especially early in life, "a ''me me me'' person". She saw herself as having a happy nature, reasoning "I like life and I've been so lucky, why shouldn't I be happy?" A. Scott Berg knew Hepburn well in her later years, and said that while she was demanding, there remained a sense of humility and humanity.

When questioned about politics, Hepburn told an interviewer: "I always just say be on the affirmative and liberal side. Don't be a 'no' person." The anti-communist hysteria in 1940s Hollywood provoked political activity from the actress, and she made a speech against censorship in May 1947. The speech shocked the public and she was targeted by right-wing activists as a communist sympathizer, being mentioned at the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee. She insisted that the claims made about her were untrue. Throughout her life, Hepburn openly promoted birth control and supported abortion. She refused to accept the Kennedy Center Honors, which are presented by the incumbent president, until Ronald and Nancy Reagan had left the White House.

Hepburn was an atheist, stating in her 1973 interview with Dick Cavett that although she agreed with Christian principles, and thought highly of Jesus Christ, she did not believe in religion or the afterlife. She practiced the "Reverence for Life" theory propounded by Albert Schweitzer, and told a journalist in October 1991, "I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people." Her public declarations of these beliefs led the American Humanist Association to award her the Humanist Arts Award in 1985.

===Relationships===

Hepburn's only husband was Ludlow Ogden Smith, a socialite businessman from Philadelphia whom she met while a student at Bryn Mawr. The couple married on December 12, 1928, when she was 21 and he was 29. Hepburn made Smith change his name to S. Ogden Ludlow so that she would not be known as "Kate Smith". It was too plain, she insisted, and disliked that it was the name of an overweight singer who was popular at the time. Hepburn never fully committed to the relationship and prioritized her career. The move to Hollywood in 1932 cemented their estrangement, and in 1934, she traveled to Mexico to get a quick divorce. Hepburn often expressed her gratitude toward Smith for his financial and moral support in the early days of her career, and in her autobiography called herself "a terrible pig" for exploiting his love for her. They remained friends until his death in 1979.

Soon after moving to California, Hepburn began a relationship with her agent Leland Hayward. Both were married. Hayward proposed to Hepburn after they had each divorced, but she did not wish to be married again. She "liked the idea of being my own single self." They were involved for four years. In 1936, while she was touring ''Jane Eyre'', Hepburn began a relationship with entrepreneur Howard Hughes. They first met while Hepburn was filming ''Sylvia Scarlett'', when they were introduced by their mutual friend Cary Grant. Hughes wished to marry her, and the tabloids reported their impending nuptials, but at that time Hepburn was too focused on resurrecting her failing career. They separated in 1938, when Hepburn left Hollywood after being named "box office poison". Hepburn stuck to her decision not to re-marry, and made a conscious choice not to have children. She felt that motherhood should be a full-time commitment, and it was not one she was willing to make. "I would have been a terrible mother," she told Berg, "because I'm basically a very selfish human being." She felt she had partially experienced parenthood through her much younger siblings, which fulfilled any need to have children of her own.

From as early as the 1930s, rumors have persisted that Hepburn was a lesbian or bisexual. In 2007, William J. Mann released a biography of the actress in which he argued this was the case. Katharine Houghton responded to this speculation about her aunt, saying: "I've never discovered any evidence whatsoever that she was a lesbian."

Spencer Tracy

The most significant relationship of Hepburn's life was with Spencer Tracy. In her autobiography she wrote, "It was a unique feeling that I had for [Tracy]. I would have done anything for him." Her friend Lauren Bacall later wrote of how "blindingly" in love Hepburn was with the actor. The relationship has subsequently received much publicity, often cited as one of Hollywood's legendary love affairs. Meeting when she was 34 and he was 41, Tracy was initially wary of Hepburn, being unimpressed that she had dirty fingernails and suspecting that she was a lesbian, but Hepburn said she "knew right away that I found him irresistible." Tracy remained married throughout their relationship; although he and his wife Louise had been living separate lives since the 1930s, there was never an official split and neither party pursued a divorce. Hepburn did not interfere, and never fought for marriage. With Tracy determined to conceal the relationship with Hepburn from his wife, it had to remain private. They were careful not to be seen in public together, and maintained separate residences. Tracy was a periodic alcoholic and troubled individual, whom Hepburn described as "tortured" by guilt and misery, and she devoted herself to making his life easier. Reports from people who saw them together describe how Hepburn's entire demeanor changed when around Tracy. She mothered and obeyed him, and Tracy became heavily dependent on her. They often spent stretches of time apart due to their work, particularly in the 1950s when Hepburn was largely abroad for career commitments. Tracy resented these absences, and while Hepburn was playing ''The Millionairess'' in London in 1952, he had an affair with his ''Plymouth Adventure'' co-star Gene Tierney.

Tracy's health declined significantly in the 1960s, and Hepburn took a five-year break in her career to care for him. She moved into Tracy's house for this period, and was with him when he died on June 10, 1967. Out of consideration for Tracy's family, she did not attend his funeral. It was only after Louise Tracy's death, in 1983, that Hepburn began to speak publicly about her feelings for her frequent co-star. In response to the question of why she stayed with Tracy for so long, despite the nature of their relationship, she said, "I honestly don't know. I can only say that I could never have left him." She claimed not to know how Tracy felt about her; that they "just passed twenty-seven years together in what was to me absolute bliss."

Performances: technique and analysis

According to reports Hepburn was not an instinctive actor, liking to carefully study the text and character beforehand, making sure she knew it thoroughly, and then to rehearse as much as possible and film multiple takes of a scene. With a genuine passion for the industry she committed heavily to each role, and insisted on learning any necessary skills and performing stunts herself. She was known to learn not only her own lines but also those of her co-stars. Stanley Kramer commented on her motivation, saying: "Work, work, work. She can work till everyone drops." With each film Hepburn would involve herself in its production, making suggestions for the script and stating her opinion on everything from costumes to lighting to camerawork.

The characters Hepburn played were, with very few exceptions, wealthy and intelligent, and often they were strong and independent. These tough characters tended to be humbled in some form and revealed to have a hidden softness or vulnerability. Garson Kanin described what he called "the formula for a Hepburn success: A high-class, or stuck-up ... girl is brought down to earth by an earthy type, or a lowbrow ... or a cataclysmic situation. It seems to have worked time and time again." Due to this repeated character arc, Britton sees Hepburn as embodying the "contradictions" of the "nature and status of women", as the strong females she depicts are eventually "restored to a safe position within the status quo". Film critic Molly Haskell has commented on the importance of this to Hepburn's career: with an intimidating presence, it was necessary that her characters "do some kind of self-abasement, to stay on the good side of the audience."

Hepburn was one of the most lauded American actresses of the twentieth century, but has also been criticized for a lack of versatility in her performances. Her on-screen persona closely matched her own real personality, something the actress admitted herself. In 1991 she told a journalist: "I think I'm always the same. I had a very definite personality and I liked material that showed that personality." Playwright and author David Macaray has said, "Picture Katharine Hepburn in every movie she ever starred in and ask yourself if she's not playing, essentially, the same part over and over ... Icon or no icon, let's not confuse a truly fascinating and unique woman with a superior actress." A further repeated criticism is that her presence was too cold.

Final years and death

Hepburn stated in her eighties, "I have no fear of death. Must be wonderful, like a long sleep." Her health began to deteriorate not long after her final screen appearance. In the winter of 1996 she was admitted to hospital with pneumonia, which almost killed her. By 1997 she had become very weak, was speaking and eating very little, and again nearly died. She showed signs of dementia in her final years. In May 2003, an aggressive tumor was found in Hepburn's neck. The decision was made not to medically intervene, and she died on June 29, 2003 at the Hepburn family home in Fenwick, Connecticut. She was 96 years old and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, in the family plot. Hepburn requested that there be no memorial service.

Hepburn's death received considerable public attention. Many tributes were held on television, and newspapers and magazines dedicated their issues to the actress. American president George W. Bush said Hepburn "will be remembered as one of the nation's artistic treasures." In honor of her extensive theatre work, the lights of Broadway were dimmed for the evening of July 1, 2003. In 2004, in accordance with Hepburn's wishes, her belongings were put up for auction with Sotheby's in New York. They included personal items, such as the bust of Spencer Tracy she sculpted herself (the highest selling item, at $316,000), and a large collection of material relating to her career. The auction garnered $5.8 million, which Hepburn willed mostly to her family.

Legacy

Hepburn is considered an important and influential cultural figure. Academics Ros Horton and Sally Simmons included her in their book ''Women Who Changed The World'', which honors 50 women who helped shape world history and culture. She is also among the ''Encyclopædia Britannica's'' selection of "300 Women Who Changed the World", ''Ladies Home Journal'''s book ''100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century'', ''Variety'' magazine's "100 Icons of the Century" and is number 84 on VH1's list of the "200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time".

The legacy of Hepburn lies both on screen and off. She has been credited with "breaking the mold" for women in Hollywood, where she brought a new breed of strong-willed females to the screen. Film academic Andrew Britton wrote a monograph studying Hepburn's "key presence within classical Hollywood, a consistent, potentially radical disturbance", and pinpoints her "central" influence in bringing feminist issues to the screen. Off screen, Hepburn lived in a manner ahead of her time. She thus came to symbolize the "modern woman" and played a part in changing attitudes towards the gender. Horton and Simmons write: "Confident, intelligent and witty, four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn defied convention throughout her professional and personal life ... Hepburn provided an image of an assertive woman whom [females] could watch and learn from." Film historian Jeanine Basinger stated after Hepburn died: "What she brought us was a new kind of heroine—modern and independent. She was beautiful, but she did not rely on that." Mary McNamara, an entertainment journalist and reviewer for the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote: "More than a movie star, Katharine Hepburn was the patron saint of the independent American female." She was not universally revered by feminists, however, who were angered by her public declarations that women "cannot have it all", meaning a family and a career.

Hepburn's legacy extends to fashion, where she was a pioneer for wearing trousers at a time when it was radical for a woman to do so. This contributed towards making trousers acceptable for women, as fans began to imitate her clothing. In 1986 she received a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in recognition of the influence she played in women's fashion.

A number of Hepburn's films have become classics of American cinema, with four of her pictures (''The African Queen'', ''The Philadelphia Story'', ''Bringing Up Baby'' and ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'') featuring on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Films of all time. ''Adam's Rib'' and ''Woman of the Year'' were included in their list of the Greatest American Comedies. Her clipped, patrician voice is considered one of the most distinctive in film history.

Memorials

Hepburn was honored by the Turtle Bay community in Manhattan, New York City, where she maintained a residence for over sixty years. A garden near her home was dedicated in her name in 1997. The garden contains 12 stepping stones, representing her 12 Oscar nominations, each inscribed with a quotation from the actress. After Hepburn's death in 2003, the intersection of East 49th Street and 2nd Avenue was renamed "Katharine Hepburn Place".

Bryn Mawr College, Hepburn's alma mater, launched the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center in 2006. It is dedicated to both the actress and her mother, and encourages women to address important issues affecting their gender. The center awards the annual Katharine Hepburn Medal, which "recognizes women whose lives, work and contributions embody the intelligence, drive and independence of the four-time-Oscar-winning actress". The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center was opened in 2009 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, the location of the Hepburn family beach home which she loved and later owned. It is a non-profit performing arts organization, including a theatre and a museum honoring Hepburn.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library and the New York Public Library hold collections of Hepburn's personal papers. The New York collection, which documents Hepburn's theatrical career, was presented in a five month exhibition, ''Katharine Hepburn: In Her Own Files'', in 2009. Two other exhibitions have been held to showcase Hepburn's career. ''One Life: Kate, A Centennial Celebration'' was held at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington from November 2007 to September 2008. Kent State University exhibited a selection of Hepburn's film and theatre costumes from October 2010 to September 2011 in ''Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen''. Hepburn has also been honored with her own postal stamp as part of the "Legends of Hollywood" stamp series.

Characterizations

Hepburn is the subject of a one-woman play, ''Tea at Five'', written by Matthew Lombardo. The first act features Hepburn in 1938, after being labeled "box office poison", and the second act in 1983, where she reflects on her life and career. It was first performed in 2002 at the Hartford Stage. Hepburn has been portrayed in ''Tea at Five'' by Kate Mulgrew, Tovah Feldshuh, Stephanie Zimbalist and Charles Busch.

Feldshuh also appeared as Hepburn in ''The Amazing Howard Hughes'', a 1977 television movie. Mearle Ann Taylor portrayed her in ''The Scarlett O'Hara War'' (1980). In Martin Scorsese's 2004 biopic of Howard Hughes, ''The Aviator'', Hepburn was portrayed by Cate Blanchett, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. This marked the first instance where the portrayal of an Academy Award–winning actress was turned into an Academy Award–winning role.

Filmography and theatre credits

Throughout her 66-year career, Hepburn appeared in 44 feature films, 8 television movies and 33 plays. Her movie career covered a range of genres, including screwball comedies, period dramas, and adaptations of works by America's top playwrights. She appeared on the stage in every decade from the 1920s to the 1980s, performing plays by Shakespeare, Shaw and a Broadway musical.

Select filmography:

''Morning Glory'' (1933)

''Little Women'' (1933)

''Alice Adams'' (1935)

''Stage Door'' (1937)

''Bringing Up Baby'' (1938)

''Holiday'' (1938)

''The Philadelphia Story'' (1940)

''Woman of the Year'' (1942)

''State of the Union'' (1948)

''Adam's Rib'' (1949)

''The African Queen'' (1951)

''Pat and Mike'' (1952)

''Summertime'' (1955)

''The Rainmaker'' (1956)

''Suddenly, Last Summer'' (1959)

''Long Day's Journey Into Night'' (1962)

''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' (1967)

''The Lion in Winter'' (1968)

''On Golden Pond'' (1981)Select theatre roles:

''The Philadelphia Story'' (1939–1941)

''As You Like It'' (1950)

''The Millionairess'' (1952)

''The Taming of the Shrew'' (1955)

''Measure for Measure'' (1955)

''The Merchant of Venice'' (1955 and 1957)

''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1957)

''Twelfth Night'' (1960)

''Antony and Cleopatra'' (1960)

''Coco'' (1969–1970)

''The West Side Waltz'' (1981)

Awards and nominations

Hepburn won four Academy Awards, the record number for a performer, and a total of twelve Oscar nominations for Best Actress—a number only surpassed by Meryl Streep. Hepburn also holds the record for the longest time span between first and last Oscar nominations, at 48 years. She received two awards and five nominations from the British Academy Film Awards, one award and six nominations from the Emmy Awards, eight Golden Globe nominations, two Tony Award nominations, and awards from the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, the People's Choice Awards and others. She won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1979 and received the Kennedy Center Honors, which recognize a lifetime of accomplishments in the arts, in 1990.

Hepburn received recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:

6th Academy Awards (1934): Best Actress, win, for ''Morning Glory''

8th Academy Awards (1936): Best Actress, nomination, for ''Alice Adams''

13th Academy Awards (1941): Best Actress, nomination, for ''The Philadelphia Story''

15th Academy Awards (1943): Best Actress, nomination, for ''Woman of the Year''

24th Academy Awards (1952): Best Actress, nomination, for ''The African Queen''

28th Academy Awards (1956): Best Actress, nomination, for ''Summertime''

29th Academy Awards (1957): Best Actress, nomination, for ''The Rainmaker''

32nd Academy Awards (1960): Best Actress, nomination, for ''Suddenly, Last Summer''

35th Academy Awards (1963): Best Actress, nomination, for ''Long Day's Journey Into Night''

40th Academy Awards (1968): Best Actress, win, for ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner''

41st Academy Awards (1969): Best Actress, win, for ''The Lion in Winter'' (shared with Barbra Streisand for ''Funny Girl'')

54th Academy Awards (1982): Best Actress, win, for ''On Golden Pond''

References

;Sources

Dickstein, Morris (2002). "''Bringing Up Baby'' (1938)", in ''The A List: The National Society of Film Critics' 100 Essential Films'', ed. Jay Carr. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo. ISBN 0306810964.

External links

"One Life: Kate, A Centennial Celebration". Online exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Katharine Hepburn Papers, circa 1854–1997 and undated, Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Category:1907 births Category:2003 deaths Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut Category:People from Middlesex County, Connecticut Category:American atheists Category:American film actors Category:American memoirists Category:20th-century actors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American radio actors Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Feminist artists Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Burials at Cedar Hill Cemetery (Hartford, Connecticut) Category:Actors from Connecticut

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Coordinates	43°01′″N44°39′″N
name	Cary Grant
birth name	Archibald Alexander Leach
birth date	January 18, 1904
birth place	Bristol, England, United Kingdom
death date	November 29, 1986
death place	Davenport, Iowa, United States
other names	Archie Leach
occupation	Actor
years active	1932–66
spouse	Virginia Cherrill (1934–1935)Barbara Hutton (1942–1945)Betsy Drake (1949–1962)Dyan Cannon (1965–1967)Barbara Harris (1981–1986)
partner	Maureen Donaldson (1973–1977)
children	Jennifer Grant, born on February 26, 1966
relations	Cary Benjamin Grant, born on August 12, 2008
Awards	Academy Honorary Award1970 For his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues. }}

Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship. Known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor and "dashing good looks", Grant is considered one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men.

He was named the second Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. Noted for his dramatic roles as well as screwball comedy, Grant's best-known films include ''Bringing Up Baby'' (1938), ''Gunga Din'' (1939), ''The Philadelphia Story'' (1940), ''Penny Serenade'' (1941), ''Arsenic and Old Lace'' (1944), ''None but the Lonely Heart'' (1944), ''Notorious'' (1946), ''To Catch A Thief'' (1955), ''An Affair to Remember'' (1957), and ''North by Northwest'' (1959).

Nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor and five times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, Grant was continually passed over, and in 1970 was given an Honorary Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards. Frank Sinatra presented Grant with the award, "for his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues".

Early life and career

Archibald Alexander Leach was born in Horfield, Bristol, to Elsie Maria Kingdon (1877–1973) and Elias James Leach (1873–1935). An only child, Leach had an unhappy upbringing, attending Bishop Road Primary School. His mother had suffered from depression since the death of a previous child. Her husband placed her in a mental institution, and told his nine-year-old son only that she had gone away on a "long holiday"; it was not until he was 31 that Grant discovered her alive, in an institutionalized care facility.

He was expelled from the Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol in 1918. After joining the "Bob Pender stage troupe", Leach performed as a stilt walker and travelled with the group to the United States in 1920 at the age of 16, on a two-year tour of the country. He was processed at Ellis Island on July 28, 1920. When the troupe returned to the UK, he decided to stay in the U.S. and continue his stage career. During this time, he became a part of the vaudeville world and toured with Parker, Rand and Leach. Still using his birth name, he performed on the stage at The Muny in St. Louis, Missouri, in such shows as ''Irene'' (1931); ''Music in May'' (1931); ''Nina Rosa'' (1931); ''Rio Rita'' (1931); ''Street Singer'' (1931); ''The Three Musketeers'' (1931); and ''Wonderful Night'' (1931). Leach's experience on stage as a stilt walker, acrobat, juggler, and mime taught him "phenomenal physical grace and exquisite comic timing" and the value of teamwork, skills which would benefit him in Hollywood.

Hollywood stardom

After the light Broadway comedies, Grant went to Hollywood in 1931. When told to change his name, he proposed "Cary Lockwood," his character's name in a recent play called ''Nikki'', based upon the recent film ''The Last Flight''. He signed with Paramount Pictures, but while studio bosses were impressed with him, they were less than impressed with his adopted stage name. They decided that the name Cary was acceptable, but Lockwood had to go due to a similarity with another actor's name. It was after browsing through a list of the studio's preferred surnames that "Cary Grant" was born. Grant chose the name because the initials C and G had already proved lucky for Clark Gable and Gary Cooper, two of Hollywood's biggest movie stars. Already having appeared as leading man opposite Marlene Dietrich in ''Blonde Venus'' (1932), his stardom was given a further boost by Mae West when she chose him for her leading man in two of her most successful films, ''She Done Him Wrong'' and ''I'm No Angel'' (both 1933). ''I'm No Angel'' was a tremendous financial success and, along with ''She Done Him Wrong'', which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, saved Paramount from bankruptcy. Paramount put Grant in a series of unsuccessful films until 1936, when he signed with Columbia Pictures. His first major comedy hit was when he was loaned to Hal Roach's studio for the 1937 ''Topper'' (which was distributed by MGM).

Under the tutelage of director Leo McCarey, his role in ''The Awful Truth'' (1937) with Irene Dunne was the pivotal film in the establishment of Grant's screen persona; as he later wrote, "I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point." Grant's sophisticated light comedy persona first evident in ''The Awful Truth'' was largely concocted by McCarey, with Grant also copying many of McCarey's mannerisms. Along with the similarity in their names, McCarey and Cary Grant shared a close physical resemblance, making mimicking McCarey's intonations and expressions even easier for Grant. As writer/director Peter Bogdanovich notes, "After ''The Awful Truth'', when it came to light comedy, there was Cary Grant and then everyone else was an also-ran."

''The Awful Truth'' began "what would be the most spectacular run ever for an actor in American pictures"; during the next four years, Grant made the screwball comedy ''Bringing Up Baby'' and the romantic comedy ''Holiday'' (1938) with Katharine Hepburn; the adventures ''Gunga Din'' and ''Only Angels Have Wings'' (1939); ''His Girl Friday'' (1940) with Rosalind Russell; ''The Philadelphia Story'' (1940), with Hepburn and James Stewart; ''My Favorite Wife'' (1940) and ''Penny Serenade'' (1941) with Irene Dunne; and ''Suspicion'' (1941), the first of four with Alfred Hitchcock.

Grant remained one of Hollywood's top box-office attractions for almost 30 years. Howard Hawks said that Grant was "so far the best that there isn't anybody to be compared to him". David Thomson called him "the best and most important actor in the history of the cinema".

Grant was a favorite of Hitchcock, who called him "the only actor I ever loved in my whole life". Besides ''Suspicion'', Grant appeared in the Hitchcock classics ''Notorious'' (1946), ''To Catch a Thief'' (1955) and ''North by Northwest'' (1959). Biographer Patrick McGilligan wrote that, in 1965, Hitchcock asked Grant to star in ''Torn Curtain'' (1966), only to learn that Grant had decided to retire after making one more film, ''Walk, Don't Run'' (1966); Paul Newman was cast instead, opposite Julie Andrews.

In the mid-1950s, Grant formed his own production company, Granart Productions, and produced a number of movies distributed by Universal, such as ''Operation Petticoat'' (1959), ''Indiscreet'' (1958), ''That Touch of Mink'' (co-starring with Doris Day, 1962), and ''Father Goose'' (1964). In 1963, he appeared opposite Audrey Hepburn in ''Charade'' (1963). His last feature film was ''Walk, Don't Run'' with Samantha Eggar and Jim Hutton.

Grant was the first actor to "go independent" by not renewing his studio contract, effectively leaving the studio system, which almost completely controlled what an actor could or could not do. In this way, Grant was able to control every aspect of his career, at the risk of not working because no particular studio had an interest in his career long term. He decided which movies he was going to appear in, he often had personal choice of the directors and his co-stars and at times even negotiated a share of the gross, something uncommon at the time.

Grant was nominated for two Academy Awards in the 1940s, and received a special Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1970. In 1981, he was accorded the Kennedy Center Honors. Never self-absorbed, Grant poked fun at himself with statements such as, "Everyone wants to be Cary Grant—even I want to be Cary Grant". After seeing a telegram from a magazine editor to his agent asking "HOW OLD CARY GRANT?", Grant reportedly responded with "OLD CARY GRANT FINE. HOW YOU?"

Retirement and death

Although Grant had retired from the screen, he remained active in other areas. In the late 1960s, he accepted a position on the board of directors at Fabergé. By all accounts this position was not honorary, as some had assumed, Grant regularly attended meetings and his mere appearance at a product launch would almost certainly guarantee its success. The position also permitted use of a private plane, which Grant could use to fly to see his daughter wherever her mother, Dyan Cannon, was working. He later joined the boards of Hollywood Park, The Academy of Magical Arts (The Magic Castle, Hollywood, CA) Western Airlines (now Delta Air Lines), and MGM.

In the last few years of his life, Grant undertook tours of the United States in a one-man show. It was called "A Conversation with Cary Grant", in which he would show clips from his films and answer audience questions. Grant was preparing for a performance at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Iowa on the afternoon of November 29, 1986 when he sustained a cerebral hemorrhage. He had previously suffered a stroke in October 1984. He died at 11:22 pm in St. Luke's Hospital at the age of 82.

In 2001 a statue of Grant was erected in Millennium Square, a regenerated area next to the harbour in his city of birth, Bristol, England.

In November 2005, Grant came in first in the "The 50 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time" list by ''Premiere Magazine''. Richard Schickel, the film critic, said about Grant: "He's the best star actor there ever was in the movies."

Personal life

Grant was married five times. He wed Virginia Cherrill on February 10, 1934. She divorced him on March 26, 1935, following charges that Grant had hit her. In 1942 he married Barbara Hutton, one of the wealthiest women in the world, and became a father figure to her son, Lance Reventlow. The couple was derisively nicknamed "Cash and Cary", although in an extensive prenuptial agreement Grant refused any financial settlement in the event of a divorce. After divorcing in 1945, they remained lifelong friends. Grant always bristled at the accusation that he married for money: "I may not have married for very sound reasons, but money was never one of them."

On December 25, 1949, Grant married Betsy Drake. He appeared with her in two films. This would prove to be his longest marriage, ending on August 14, 1962. Drake introduced Grant to LSD, and in the early 1960s he related how treatment with the hallucinogenic drug —legal at the time— at a prestigious California clinic had finally brought him inner peace after yoga, hypnotism, and mysticism had proved ineffective. (In 1932, Grant had also met the Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba.) Grant and Drake divorced in 1962.

He eloped with Dyan Cannon on July 22, 1965, in Las Vegas. Their daughter, Jennifer Grant, was born prematurely on February 26, 1966. He frequently called her his "best production" and regretted that he had not had children sooner. The marriage was troubled from the beginning, and Cannon left him in December 1966, claiming that Grant flew into frequent rages and spanked her when she "disobeyed" him. The divorce, finalized in 1968, was bitter and public, and custody fights over their daughter went on for nearly ten years.

On April 11, 1981, Grant married long-time companion Barbara Harris, a British hotel public relations agent, who was 47 years his junior. They renewed their vows on their fifth wedding anniversary. (Fifteen years after Grant's death, Harris married former Kansas Jayhawks All-American quarterback David Jaynes in 2001.)

Some, including Hedda Hopper and screenwriter Arthur Laurents have said, that Grant was bisexual, the latter writing that Grant "told me he threw pebbles at my window one night but was luckless". Grant allegedly was involved with costume designer Orry-Kelly when he first moved to Manhattan, and lived with Randolph Scott off and on for twelve years. Richard Blackwell wrote that Grant and Scott were "deeply, madly in love", and alleged eyewitness accounts of their physical affection have been published. However, Grant did admit in an interview that his first two wives had accused him of being homosexual. Betsy Drake commented: "Why would I believe that Cary was homosexual when we were busy fucking?"

Politics

Grant did not think movie stars should publicly make political declarations. Grant described his politics and his reticence about them this way:

Throughout his life, Grant maintained personal friendships with colleagues of varying political stripes, and his few political activities seemed to be shaped by personal friendships. Repulsed by the human costs to many in Hollywood, Grant publicly condemned McCarthyism in 1953, and when his friend Charlie Chaplin, was blacklisted, Grant insisted that the actor's artistic value outweighed political concerns. Grant was also a friend of the Kennedy brothers and Robert Kennedy's press secretary Frank Mankiewicz. He hosted one of Robert Kennedy's first political fundraisers at his home. He made one of his rare statements on public issues following the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, calling for gun control.

In 1976, after his retirement from movies, Grant made his one overtly partisan appearance, introducing his friend Betty Ford, the First Lady, at the Republican National Convention, but even in this he maintained some distance from partisanship, speaking of "your" party, rather than "ours" in his remarks.

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" |- ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | rowspan=8|1932 | ''This Is the Night'' | Stephen | With Lili Damita, Charles Ruggles, and Thelma Todd |- | ''Sinners in the Sun'' | Ridgeway | With Carole Lombard and Chester Morris |- | ''Singapore Sue'' | First Sailor | Musical Comedy short subject |- | ''Merrily We Go to Hell'' | Charlie Baxter | UK title: ''Merrily We Go to _____'' With Sylvia Sidney and Fredric March |- | ''Devil and the Deep'' | Lieutenant Jaeckel | With Tallulah Bankhead and Gary Cooper |- | ''Blonde Venus'' | Nick Townsend | With Marlene Dietrich |- | ''Hot Saturday'' | Romer Sheffield | With Nancy Carroll and Edward Woods |- | ''Madame Butterfly'' | Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton | With Sylvia Sidney and Charles Ruggles |- | rowspan=6|1933 | ''She Done Him Wrong'' | Capt. Cummings | With Mae West and Noah Beery, Sr. |- | ''The Woman Accused'' | Jeffrey Baxter | With Nancy Carroll |- | ''The Eagle and the Hawk'' | Henry Crocker | With Fredric March and Carole Lombard |- | ''Gambling Ship'' | Ace Corbin | With Jack La Rue and Glenda Farrell |- | ''I'm No Angel'' | Jack Clayton | With Mae West |- | ''Alice in Wonderland'' | The Mock Turtle | With W. C. Fields and Gary Cooper |- | rowspan=4|1934 | ''Thirty Day Princess'' | Porter Madison III | With Sylvia Sidney and Edward Arnold |- | ''Born to Be Bad'' | Malcolm Trevor | With Loretta Young (Heavily censored by the Hayes Office) |- | ''Kiss and Make-Up'' | Dr. Maurice Lamar | With Helen Mack and the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1934 |- | ''Ladies Should Listen'' | Julian De Lussac | With Francis Drake and Edward Everett Horton |- | rowspan=4|1935 | ''Enter Madame'' | Gerald Fitzgerald | With top-billed Elissa Landi |- | ''Wings in the Dark'' | Ken Gordon | With Myrna Loy |- | ''The Last Outpost'' | Michael Andrews | With Claude Rains |- | ''Sylvia Scarlett'' | Jimmy Monkley | Directed by George Cukor With Katharine Hepburn |- | rowspan=4|1936 | ''Big Brown Eyes'' | Det. Sgt. Danny Barr | With Joan Bennett and Walter Pidgeon |- | ''Suzy'' | Andre | With Jean Harlow and Franchot Tone |- | ''The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss'' | Ernest Bliss | US title: ''Romance and Riches'' Alt title: ''The Amazing Adventure'' |- | ''Wedding Present'' | Charlie | With Joan Bennett |- | rowspan=4|1937 | ''When You're in Love'' | Jimmy Hudson | UK title: ''For You Alone'' With Grace Moore |- | ''Topper'' | George Kerby | With Constance Bennett |- | ''The Toast of New York'' | Nicholas "Nick" Boyd | With Edward Arnold and Jack Oakie |- | ''The Awful Truth'' | Jerry Warriner | Directed by Leo McCareyWith Irene DunneIntroduced the "Cary Grant persona" |- | rowspan=2|1938 | ''Bringing up Baby'' | Dr. David Huxley | Directed by Howard HawksWith Katharine Hepburn and Charles Ruggles |- | ''Holiday'' | John "Johnny" Case | Directed by George CukorWith Katharine HepburnUK title: ''Free to Live'' |- | rowspan=3|1939 | ''Gunga Din'' | Sgt. Archibald Cutter | Directed by George StevensWith Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. |- | ''Only Angels Have Wings'' | Geoff Carter | Directed by Howard HawksWith Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell, and Rita Hayworth |- | ''In Name Only'' | Alec Walker | With Carole Lombard and Charles Coburn |- | rowspan=4|1940 | ''His Girl Friday'' | Walter Burns | Directed by Howard HawksRemake of ''The Front Page''With Rosalind Russell |- | ''My Favorite Wife'' | Nick | Co-written by Leo McCarey Directed by Garson KaninWith Irene Dunne and Gail Patrick |- | ''The Howards of Virginia'' | Matt Howard |UK title: ''The Tree of Liberty'' With Martha Scott |- | ''The Philadelphia Story'' | C.K. Dexter Haven | With Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart |- | rowspan=2|1941 | ''Penny Serenade'' | Roger Adams | Nominated – Academy Award for Best ActorDirected by George StevensWith Irene Dunne and Edgar Buchanan |- | ''Suspicion'' | Johnnie | Directed by Alfred HitchcockWith Joan Fontaine |- | rowspan=2|1942 | ''The Talk of the Town'' | Leopold Dilg ''aka'' Joseph | With Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur |- | ''Once Upon a Honeymoon'' | Patrick "Pat" O'Toole | Directed by Leo McCareyWith Ginger Rogers |- | rowspan=2|1943 | ''Mr. Lucky'' | Joe Adams/Joe Bascopolous | With Laraine Day and Charles Bickford |- | ''Destination Tokyo'' | Capt. Cassidy | With John Garfield and Dane Clark |- | rowspan=3|1944 | ''Once Upon a Time'' | Jerry Flynn | With Janet Blair |- | ''Arsenic and Old Lace'' | Mortimer Brewster | With Priscilla Lane and Peter Lorre |- | ''None But the Lonely Heart'' | Ernie Mott | Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor Written and directed by Clifford OdetsWith Ethel Barrymore |- | rowspan=3|1946 | ''Without Reservations'' | Himself (cameo) | With Claudette Colbert and John Wayne |- | ''Night and Day'' | Cole Porter | Directed by Michael Curtiz |- | ''Notorious'' | T.R. Devlin |Directed by Alfred HitchcockWith Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains |- | rowspan=2|1947 | ''The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer'' | Dick | UK title: ''Bachelor Knight'' With Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple |- | ''The Bishop's Wife'' | Dudley | With Loretta Young and David Niven |- | rowspan=2|1948 | ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'' | Jim Blandings | With Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas |- | ''Every Girl Should Be Married'' | Dr. Madison W. Brown | With Betsy Drake |- | 1949 | ''I Was a Male War Bride'' | Capt. Henri Rochard | UK title: ''You Can't Sleep Here''With Ann Sheridan |- | 1950 | ''Crisis'' | Dr. Eugene Norland Ferguson | With Jose Ferrer |- | 1951 | ''People Will Talk'' | Dr. Noah Praetorius | With Jeanne Crain |- | rowspan=2|1952 | ''Room for One More'' | George "Poppy" Rose | With Betsy Drake |- | ''Monkey Business'' | Dr. Barnaby Fulton | Directed by Howard HawksWith Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe |- | 1953 | ''Dream Wife'' | Clemson Reade | With Deborah Kerr and Walter Pidgeon |- | 1955 | ''To Catch a Thief'' | John Robie |Directed by Alfred HitchcockWith Grace Kelly |- | rowspan=3|1957 | ''The Pride and the Passion'' | Anthony | With Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren |- | ''An Affair to Remember'' | Nickie Ferrante |A same-script remake of ''Love Affair (1939 film)'', both directed by Leo McCarey With Deborah Kerr |- | ''Kiss Them for Me'' | Cmdr. Andy Crewson | Directed by Stanley DonenWith Jayne Mansfield and Suzy Parker |- | rowspan=2|1958 | ''Indiscreet'' | Philip Adams | Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyDirected by Stanley DonenWith Ingrid Bergman |- | ''Houseboat'' | Tom Winters | With Sophia Loren |- | rowspan=2|1959 | ''North by Northwest'' | Roger O. Thornhill |Directed by Alfred Hitchcock With Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, and Martin Landau |- | ''Operation Petticoat'' | Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman | Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyWith Dina Merrill and Arthur O'Connell |- | 1960 | ''The Grass Is Greener'' | Victor Rhyall, Earl | Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Directed by Stanley DonenWith Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Jean Simmons |- | 1962 | ''That Touch of Mink'' | Philip Shayne | Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyDirected by Delbert MannWith Doris Day and Gig Young |- | 1963 | ''Charade'' | Peter Joshua / Carson Dyle / Alexander Dyle / Adam Canfield / Brian Cruikshank | Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Foreign ActorNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyDirected by Stanley DonenWith Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, and James Coburn |- | 1964 | ''Father Goose'' | Walter Christopher Eckland | Directed by Ralph NelsonWith Leslie Caron and Trevor Howard |- | 1966 | ''Walk, Don't Run'' | Sir William Rutland | With Samantha Eggar Remake of ''The More the Merrier'' |}

References

Notes

Bibliography of cited references

Bogdanovich, Peter. ''Who the Hell's in It: Portraits and Conversations''. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-37540-010-9.

Eliot, Marc. ''Cary Grant: The Biography''. New York: Aurum Press, 2005. ISBN 1-84513-073-1.

Higham, Charles and Roy Moseley. ''Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart''. London: Thompson Learning, 1997. ISBN 0-15115-787-1.

Johannson, Warren and William A. Percy. ''Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence.''. Kirkwood, New York: Harrington Park Press, 1994, pp. 146–147.

Kael, Pauline. "The Man from Dream City – Cary Grant" – ''The New Yorker'' – July 14, 1975 – (reprinted in: Pauline Kael: ''For Keeps – 30 Years at the Movies''. New York: Dutton, 1994.)

Laurents, Arthur. ''Original Story by: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood''. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corp, 2001. ISBN 1-55783-467-9.

Mann, William J. ''Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910–1969''. New York: Viking, 2001. ISBN 0-67003-017-1.

McCann, Graham. ''Cary Grant: A Class Apart''. London: Fourth Estate, 1997. ISBN 1-85702-574-1.

McGilligan, Patrick. ''Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light''. New York: Regan Books, 2003. ISBN 0-06039-322-X.

Morecambe, Gary; Sterling, Martin. ''Cary Grant: In Name Alone''. London: Robson Books, 2001. ISBN 1-86105-466-1.

Nelson, Nancy and Cary Grant. ''Evenings With Cary Grant: Recollections In His Own Words and By Those Who Loved Him Best''. Thorndike, Maine: Thorndike Press, 1992. ISBN 1-56054-342-6.

Russo, Vito. ''The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies'' [revised edition]. New York: Harrow & Row, 1987. ISBN 0-06096-132-5.

Wansell, Geoffrey. ''Cary Grant: Dark Angel''. London: Arcade, 1997. ISBN 1-55970-369-5.

External links

Becoming Cary Grant (in Atlantic Magazine)

Category:1904 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:American film actors Category:American people of English descent Category:Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage Category:Deaths from stroke Category:English film actors Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Old Fairfieldians Category:People from Bristol Category:Stroke survivors Category:Vaudeville performers Category:20th-century actors Category:European families of English ancestry

ar:كاري غرانت an:Cary Grant bcl:Cary Grant bs:Cary Grant bg:Кари Грант ca:Cary Grant cs:Cary Grant co:Cary Grant da:Cary Grant de:Cary Grant et:Cary Grant el:Κάρι Γκραντ es:Cary Grant eo:Cary Grant eu:Cary Grant fa:کری گرانت fr:Cary Grant ga:Cary Grant gd:Cary Grant gl:Cary Grant ko:캐리 그랜트 hr:Cary Grant id:Cary Grant it:Cary Grant he:קרי גרנט sw:Cary Grant la:Cary Grant hu:Cary Grant mk:Кери Грант nl:Cary Grant ja:ケーリー・グラント no:Cary Grant pl:Cary Grant pt:Cary Grant ro:Cary Grant ru:Кэри Грант sq:Cary Grant simple:Cary Grant sr:Кери Грант sh:Cary Grant fi:Cary Grant sv:Cary Grant th:แครี แกรนต์ tr:Cary Grant uk:Кері Грант vi:Cary Grant zh:加里·格兰特

:''For the Canadian radio personality with the same name, see Billie Holiday (broadcaster)''

Coordinates	43°01′″N44°39′″N
name	Billie Holiday
background	solo_singer
birth name	Eleanora Fagan
alias	Lady Day
birth date	April 07, 1915
birth place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
death date	July 17, 1959
death place	New York City, New York, U.S.
origin	Harlem, New York, U.S.
instrument	Vocals
genre	Vocal jazz, jazz blues, torch songs, swing
occupation	Singer, songwriter
years active	1933–1959
label	Brunswick, Vocalion, Okeh, Bluebird, Commodore, Capitol, Decca, Aladdin, Verve, Columbia, MGM
associated acts	Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne
website	Billie Holiday Official Site }}

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan, April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing "Easy Living", "Good Morning Heartache", and "Strange Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording.

Early life and education

Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan (née Harris). Her father, Clarence Halliday (Holiday), a musician, did not marry or live with her mother. Her mother had moved to Philadelphia when thirteen, after being ejected from her parents' home in Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore for becoming pregnant. With no support from her own parents, Holiday's mother arranged for the young Holiday to stay with her older married half sister, Eva Miller, who lived in Baltimore. Billie Holiday had a difficult childhood, her mother often took what were then known as "transportation jobs", serving on the passenger railroads. Holiday was left to be raised largely by Eva Miller's mother-in-law, Martha Miller, and suffered from her mother's absences and leaving her in others' care for much of the first ten years of her life. (Holiday's autobiography, ''Lady Sings the Blues'', first published in 1956, was sketchy about details of her early life, but much was confirmed by Stuart Nicholson in his 1995 biography of the singer.)

Some historians have disputed Holiday's paternity, as a copy of her birth certificate in the Baltimore archives lists the father as "Frank DeViese". Other historians consider this an anomaly, probably inserted by a hospital or government worker. Frank DeViese lived in Philadelphia and Sadie Harris may have known him through her work.

Sadie Harris, then known as Sadie Fagan, married Philip Gough, but the marriage was over in two years. Holiday was left with Martha Miller again while her mother took further transportation jobs. Holiday frequently skipped school and her truancy resulted in her being brought before the juvenile court on January 5, 1925 when she was not yet 10. She was sent to The House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic reform school. She was baptized there on March 19, 1925 and after nine months in care, was "paroled" on October 3, 1925 to her mother, who had opened a restaurant called the East Side Grill, where she and Holiday worked long hours. By the age of 11, the girl had dropped out of school.

Holiday's mother returned to their home on December 24, 1926, to discover a neighbor, Wilbur Rich, raping Holiday. Rich was arrested. Officials placed the girl at the House of the Good Shepherd in protective custody as a state witness in the rape case. Holiday was released in February 1927, nearly 12. Holiday and her mother wound up living with and working for a madam. During this time, Holiday first heard the records of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. By the end of 1928, Holiday's mother decided to try her luck in Harlem, New York and left Holiday again with Martha Miller.

Early singing career

During her final period of separation from her mother, Holiday began to perform the songs she learned while working in the brothel. By early 1929, Holiday joined her mother in Harlem. Their landlady was a sharply dressed woman named Florence Williams, who ran a whorehouse at 151 West 140th Street. In order to live, Holiday's mother became a prostitute and, within a matter of days of arriving in New York, Holiday, who had not yet turned fourteen, also became a prostitute for $5 a time. On May 2, 1929, the house was raided, and Holiday and her mother were sent to prison. After spending some time in a workhouse, her mother was released in July, followed by Holiday in October, at the age of 14.

Holiday took her professional pseudonym from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and the musician Clarence Holiday, her probable father. At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name ''Halliday'', the birth-surname of her father, but eventually changed it to ''Holiday'', his performing name. The young singer teamed up with a neighbor, tenor sax player Kenneth Hollan. From 1929 to 1931, they were a team, performing at clubs such as the Grey Dawn, Pod's and Jerry's, and the Brooklyn Elks' Club. Benny Goodman recalled hearing Holiday in 1931 at The Bright Spot. As her reputation grew, Holiday played at many clubs, including Mexico's and The Alhambra Bar and Grill where Charles Linton, a vocalist who later worked with Chick Webb, first met her. It was also during this period that she connected with her father, who was playing with Fletcher Henderson's band.

By the end of 1932 at the age of 17, Billie Holiday replaced the singer Monette Moore at a club called Covan's on West 132nd Street. The producer John Hammond, who loved Monette Moore's singing and had come to hear her, first heard Holiday in early 1933. Hammond arranged for Holiday to make her recording debut, at age 18, in November 1933 with Benny Goodman, singing two songs: "Your Mother's Son-In-Law" and "Riffin' the Scotch", the latter being her first major hit. "Son-in-Law" sold 300 copies, but "Riffin' the Scotch," released on November 11, sold 5,000 copies.

Holiday returned to the studio in 1935 with Goodman and a group led by pianist Teddy Wilson. Their first collaboration included "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," and "Miss Brown To You." The record label did not favor the recording session, because producers wanted Holiday to sound more like Cleo Brown, an established jazz singer. After "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" garnered success, however, the company began considering Holiday an artist in her own right. She began recording under her own name a year later (on the 35 cent Vocalion label), producing a series of extraordinary performances with groups comprising the swing era's finest musicians. In 1935, Billie Holiday had a small role as a woman being abused by her lover in Duke Ellington's short ''Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life''. In her scene, she sang the song "Saddest Tale."

Holiday was signed to Brunswick Records by John Hammond to record current pop tunes with Teddy Wilson in the new "swing" style for the growing jukebox trade. They were given free rein to improvise the material. Holiday's improvisation of the melody line to fit the emotion was revolutionary. With their arrangements, Wilson and Holiday took pedestrian pop tunes, such as "Twenty-Four Hours a Day" (#6 Pop) or "Yankee Doodle Never Went To Town", and turned them into jazz classics. Most of Holiday's recordings with Wilson or under her own name during the 1930s and early 1940s are regarded as important parts of the jazz vocal library. She was then in her early to late 20s.

Another frequent accompanist was the tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who had been a boarder at her mother's house in 1934 and with whom Holiday had a special rapport. He said,

"Well, I think you can hear that on some of the old records, you know. Some time I'd sit down and listen to 'em myself, and it sound like two of the same voices, if you don't be careful, you know, or the same mind, or something like that."

Young nicknamed her "Lady Day", and she, in turn, dubbed him "Prez". She did a three-month residency at Clark Monroe's Uptown House in New York in 1937. In the late 1930s, Holiday had brief stints as a big band vocalist with Count Basie (1937) and Artie Shaw (1938). The latter association placed her among the first black women to work with a white orchestra, an unusual arrangement for the times.

By the late 1930s, Billie Holiday had toured with Count Basie and Artie Shaw, scored a string of radio and retail hits with Teddy Wilson, and became an established artist in the recording industry. Her songs "What A Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Easy Living" were being imitated by singers across America and were quickly becoming jazz standards. In 1938, Holiday's single "I'm Gonna Lock My Heart" ranked 6th as the most-played song for September of that year. Her record label Vocalion listed the single as its fourth best seller for the same month. "I'm Gonna Lock My Heart" peaked at number 2 on the pop charts according to Joel Whitburn's "Pop Memories: 1890-1954" book.

Commodore recordings and mainstream success (1939)

Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to "Strange Fruit", a song based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allan" for the poem, which was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings. It was eventually heard by Barney Josephson, proprietor of Café Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday. She performed it at the club in 1939, with some trepidation, fearing possible retaliation. Holiday later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death and that this played a role in her resistance to performing it.

When Holiday's producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive, Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his Commodore Records. That was done on April 20, 1939, and "Strange Fruit" remained in her repertoire for twenty years. She later recorded it again for Verve. While the Commodore release did not get any airplay, the controversial song sold well, though Gabler attributed that mostly to the record's other side, "Fine and Mellow", which was a jukebox hit. "The version I did for Commodore," Holiday said of "Strange Fruit", "became my biggest selling record." "Strange Fruit" was the equivalent of a top twenty hit in the 1930s.

For her performance of "Strange Fruit" at the Café Society, she had waiters silence the crowd when the song began. During the song's long introduction, the lights dimmed and all movement had to cease. As Holiday began singing, only a small spotlight of light illuminated her face. On the final note, all lights in the club went out and when they came back on, Holiday was gone.

Holiday said her father Clarence Holiday was denied treatment for a fatal lung disorder because of prejudice and that singing "Strange Fruit" reminded her of the incident. "It reminds me of how pop died, but I have to keep singing it, not only because people ask for it, but because twenty years after Pop died the things that killed him are still happening in the south," she said in her autobiography.

Holiday's popularity increased after recording "Strange Fruit". She received a mention in ''Time'' magazine. "I open Café Society as an unknown," Holiday said. "I left two years later as a star. I needed the prestige and publicity all right, but you can't pay rent with it." Holiday demanded her manager Joe Glaser give her a raise shortly after.

Holiday soon returned Commodore in 1944, recording songs she made with Teddy Wilson in the 1930s like "I Cover The Waterfront", "I'll Get By", and "He's Funny That Way". She also recorded new songs that were popular at the time, including, "My Old Flame", "How Am I To Know?", "I'm Yours", and "I'll Be Seeing You", a Bing Crosby number one hit. She also recorded her version of "Embraceable You", which would later be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005.

During her time at Commodore, Billie Holiday also babysat the young Billy Crystal; his father being Jack Crystal and uncle being Milt Gabler, the co-founders of Commodore Records.

Successes (1940–1947)

Holiday's mother Sadie Fagan, nicknamed "The Duchess," started her own restaurant called Mom Holiday's. Fagan used the money her daughter earned while shooting dice with members of the Count Basie band, whom she was on tour with in the late 1930s. "It kept mom busy and happy and stopped her from worrying and watching over me," Holiday said. Soon, Fagan began borrowing large amounts of money from Holiday because the restaurant wasn't turning a profit. Holiday obliged, but soon fell upon hard times herself. "I needed some money one night and I knew Mom was sure to have some," Holiday said. "So I walked in the restaurant like a stockholder and asked. Mom turned me down flat. She wouldn't give me a cent." The two argued and then, Holiday, in a rage, hollered "God bless the child that's got his own," and stormed out of the restaurant. With help from Arthur Herzog, Jr., a pianist, the two wrote a song based on the line "God Bless the Child" and added music.

"God Bless the Child" became Holiday's most popular and covered record. It reached number 25 on the record charts in 1941 and ranked third in Billboard's top songs of the year, selling over a million records. In 1976, the song was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. Herzog later claimed that Holiday contributed little to the lyrics of her music, adding only a few lines. He also stated that Holiday came up with the line "God Bless the Child" from a dinner conversation the two had.

On June 24, 1942, Holiday recorded "Trav'lin Light" with Paul Whiteman. Because she was still under contract with Columbia records, she couldn't release the song under her own name and instead used the pseudonym "Lady Day." The song was a minor success on the pop charts, reaching number 23, but hit number one on the R&B; charts, which were called the Harlem Hit Parade at the time.

In September 1943, ''Life'' magazine complimented Holiday on her work. They wrote, "she has the most distinct style of any popular vocalist and is imitated by other vocalists."

Milt Gabler eventually became an A&R; man for Decca Records, in addition to owning Commodore Records, and he signed Holiday to the label on August 7, 1944, when Holiday was 29. Her first recording for Decca was "Lover Man" (#16 Pop, #5 R&B;), one of her biggest hits. The success and wide distribution of the song made Holiday a staple in the pop community, allowing her to have her own solo concerts, a rarity for jazz singers in the late 40s. Gabler commented on the song's success, saying, "I made Billie a real pop singer. That was right in her. Billie loved those songs." Jimmy Davis and Roger "Ram" Ramirez, "Lover Man"'s songwriters, tried to get Holiday interested in recording the song in 1941, but she didn't take interest. In 1943, a flamboyant male torch singer by the name of Willie Dukes began singing "Lover Man" on 52nd Street. Because of Duke's success with the song, Holiday decided to add it to her live shows. The song's B-side is "No More", a song Holiday considered one of her favorites.

When it came time to record the song, Holiday begged Gabler for strings, which were associated with big name acts like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, to accompany her in the background. "I went on my knees to him," Holiday said. "I didn't want to do it with the ordinary six pieces. I begged Milt and told him I had to have strings behind me." On October 4, 1944, Holiday walked into the recording studio to record "Lover Man" and saw the string ensemble and walked out. The musical director for the session, Toots Camarata said she was overwhelmed with joy. Another reason for Holiday wanting to use strings may have been to dodge the comparisons made between her commercially successful early work with Teddy Wilson and everything produced afterward. Her 1930s sides with Wilson used a small jazz combo. Her recordings with Decca often involved string ensembles and presented her voice in a new light.

A month later, in November, Billie Holiday returned to the Decca studio to record three songs, "That Ole Devil Called Love", "Big Stuff", and "Don't Explain". Holiday wrote "Don't Explain" after she caught her husband, Jimmy Monroe, with lipstick on his collar.

After the recording session, Holiday did not return to the studio until August 1945. She recorded "Don't Explain", "Big Stuff", "What Is This Thing Called Love?", and "You Better Go Now". Ella Fitzgerald declared "You Better Go Now" as her favorite Billie Holiday recording. "Big Stuff" and "Don't Explain" were recorded again but with additional strings and a viola.

In 1946, Holiday recorded one of her most covered and critically acclaimed songs, "Good Morning Heartache". Although the song failed to chart, it remained a staple in her live shows with three known live recordings of the song.

In September 1946, Holiday began work on what would be her only major film ''New Orleans''. She starred opposite Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman. Plagued by racism and McCarthyism, producer Jules Levey and script writer Herbert Biberman were pressured to lessen Holiday and Armstrong's role in the film as to not give the impression that black people created jazz. Their attempts failed because in 1947 Biberman was listed as one of the Hollywood Ten and sent to jail.

Holiday was not pleased that her role was reduced to that of a maid: "I thought I was going to play myself in it," she said. "I thought I was going to be Billie Holiday doing a couple of songs in a nightclub setting and that would be that. I should have known better. When I saw the script, I did." Before filming, Holiday was assigned a dramatic coach who coached her on how to properly say "Miss Marylee", the lead character's name. "So this coach was trying to get the right kind of tom feeling into this thing," Holiday said. At one point, after feeling cornered and unable to walk off the set, she burst out into tears. Louis Armstrong tried comforting her. "Better look out," he said. "I know Lady, and when she starts crying, the next thing she's going to do is start fighting." Several scenes were deleted from the film. "They had taken miles of footage of music and scenes," Holiday said, "[and] none of it was left in the picture. And very damn little of me. I know I wore a white dress for a number I did... and that was cut out of the picture." She recorded the track "The Blues Are Brewin'", for the film's soundtrack. Other songs included in the movie are "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" and "Farewell to Storyville".

Holiday's drug addictions were a growing problem on the set. She earned more than a thousand dollars a week from her club ventures at the time, but spent most of it on heroin. Her lover Joe Guy traveled to Hollywood while Holiday was filming and supplied her with drugs. When discovered by Joe Glaser, Holiday's manager, Guy was banned from the set.

By the late 1940s, Holiday had begun recording a number of slow, sentimental ballads. The magazine ''Metronome'' expressed its concerns in 1946 about "Good Morning Heartache," saying "there's a danger that Billie's present formula will wear thin, but up to now it's wearing well."

Legal troubles, Carnegie Hall Concert (1947–1952)

On May 16, 1947, Holiday was arrested for the possession of narcotics in her New York apartment. On May 27, 1947, she was in court. "It was called 'The United States of America versus Billie Holiday'. And that's just the way it felt," Holiday recalled. During the trial, Holiday received notice that her lawyer was not interested in coming down to the trial and representing her. "In plain English that meant no one in the world was interested in looking out for me," Holiday said. Dehydrated and unable to hold down any food, she pled guilty and asked to be sent to the hospital. The D.A. spoke up in her defense, saying, "If your honor please, this is a case of a drug addict, but more serious, however, than most of our cases, Miss Holiday is a professional entertainer and among the higher rank as far as income was concerned." By 1947, Holiday was at her commercial peak, having made a quarter of a million dollars in the three years prior. Holiday placed second in the ''Down Beat'' poll for 1946 and 1947, her highest ranking in the poll. In ''Billboard'''s July 6 issue on 1947, Holiday ranked 5 on its annual college poll of "girl singers". Jo Stafford topped the poll. In 1946, Holiday won the ''Metronome Magazine'' popularity poll.

At the end of the trial, Holiday was sentenced to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, more popularly known as "Camp Cupcake". Other notable celebrities to serve time at Alderson are Martha Stewart, Sara Jane Moore (who tried to assassinate President Ford), and Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme of the Charles Manson family of murderers.

Luckily for Holiday, she was released early (March 16, 1948) because of good behavior. When she arrived at Newark, her pianist Bobby Tucker and her dog Mister were waiting for her. The dog leaped at Holiday, knocking off her hat, and tackled her to the ground. "He began lapping me and loving me like crazy," she said. A woman overheard the commotion and thought the dog was attacking Holiday. She started screaming and soon a crowd gathered and then the press showed up. "I might just as well have wheeled into Penn Station and had a quiet little get-together with the Associated Press, United Press, and International News Service," Holiday said.

Ed Fishman (who fought with Joe Glaser to be Holiday's manager) thought of the idea to throw a comeback concert at Carnegie Hall. Holiday hesitated, unsure whether audiences were ready to accept her after the arrest. She eventually gave in, and agreed to the concert.

On March 27, 1948, Holiday played Carnegie Hall to a sold-out crowd. There were 2,700 tickets sold in advance, a record at the time for the venue. Her popularity at the time was unusual in that she didn't have a current hit record. Holiday's last song to chart was "Lover Man" in 1945, which would be her final placement on the record charts during her lifetime. Holiday did 32 songs at the Carnegie concert by her count, some of which included Cole Porter's "Night and Day" and her 30s hit "Strange Fruit". During the show, someone sent Holiday a box of gardenias. "My old trademark," Holiday said. "I took them out of box and fastened them smack to the side of my head without even looking twice." There was a hatpin in the gardenias and Holiday, unknowingly, stuck the needle deep into the side of her head. "I didn't feel anything until the blood started rushing down in my eyes and ears," she said. After the third curtain call, Holiday passed out.

On April 27, 1948, Bob Sylvester and her promoter Al Wilde arranged for Billie Holiday to do a Broadway show. Titled ''Holiday on Broadway'', it sold out and was a success for a while. "The regular music critics and drama critics came and treated us like we were legit," Holiday said. Despite the success, the show closed after three weeks.

Holiday was arrested again on January 22, 1949, inside her room at San Francisco's Hotel Mark Twain.

Holiday stated that she began using hard drugs in the early 1940s. She married trombonist Jimmy Monroe on August 25, 1941. While still married to Monroe, she became romantically involved with trumpeter Joe Guy, who was also her drug dealer, and eventually became his common-law wife. She finally divorced Monroe in 1947 and also split with Guy.

In October 1949, Holiday recorded "Crazy He Calls Me", which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2010. Gabler said the song was a hit, likely making it her most successful recording for Decca after "Lover Man". The record charts of the 1940s did not list songs outside the top 30, making it impossible to recognize minor pop hits. Also, by the late 1940s, despite her popularity and concert drawing power, Holiday's singles received little radio airplay. This may have been because of the bad reputation she had up to that point.

Because of her 1947 conviction, Holiday's New York City Cabaret Card was revoked, which kept her from working anywhere that sold alcohol for the remaining 12 years of her life.

The Cabaret system started in 1940 and was designed to prevent people of "bad character" from working on licensed premises. A performer had to renew his or her license every two years. This system lasted until 1967. Clubs that sold alcohol in New York were among the highest paying venues in the country. Club owners knew blacklisted performers had limited work options, so they would offer them a smaller salary. This greatly reduced Holiday's earning power. She hadn't been receiving proper royalties for her work until she signed with Decca, so her main source of revenue were her club concerts. The problem worsened when Holiday's records went out of print in the 1950s. She seldom received any money from royalties in her latter years. For instance, in 1958 Holiday received a royalty check of only 11 dollars. Also, Holiday's lawyer during the late 1950s, Earle Warren Zaidins, failed to register with BMI on all but two songs she had written or co-written, costing her potential revenue.

In 1948, Holiday played at the Ebony Club, which, because she lost her cabaret card, was against the law. Her manager at the time, John Levy, was convinced he could get her card back and allowed her to open without one. "I opened scared," Holiday said, "[I was] expecting the cops to come in any chorus and carry me off. But nothing happened. I was a huge success."

Also in 1948, Holiday recorded Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy". The single was heard by up and coming act Nina Simone. Simone covered the tune 1958, and it ended up becoming her sole top 40 hit in America.

In 1950, Holiday appeared in the Universal-International short film '''Sugar Chile' Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet'', where she sang "God Bless the Child" and "Now, Baby or Never".

''Lady Sings The Blues'' (1952–1959)

By the 1950s, Holiday's drug abuse, drinking, and relationships with abusive men caused her health to deteriorate. She appeared on the ABC reality series ''The Comeback Story'' to discuss attempts to overcome her misfortunes. Her later recordings showed the effects of declining health on her voice, as it grew coarse and no longer projected its former vibrancy.

On March 28, 1957, Holiday married Louis McKay, a Mafia enforcer, who like most of the men in her life was abusive, but he did try to get her off drugs. They were separated at the time of her death, but McKay had plans to start a chain of Billie Holiday vocal studios, à la Arthur Murray dance schools.

Holiday's late recordings on Verve constitute about a third of her commercial recorded legacy and are as popular as her earlier work for the Columbia, Commodore and Decca labels. In later years, her voice became more fragile, but it never lost the edge that had always made it so distinctive.

Holiday's autobiography, ''Lady Sings the Blues'', was ghostwritten by William Dufty and published in 1956. Dufty, a ''New York Post'' writer and editor then married to Holiday's close friend Maely Dufty, wrote the book quickly from a series of conversations with the singer in the Duftys' 93rd Street apartment. He drew on the work of earlier interviewers as well and intended to let Holiday tell her story in her own way.

To accompany her autobiography, Holiday released an LP in June 1956 titled ''Lady Sings the Blues''. The album did not have any new material other than the title track, "Too Marvelous For Words", "Willow Weep for Me", and "I Thought About You", but had new recordings of Holiday's biggest hits. These included "Trav'lin' Light" "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child". On December 22, 1956, ''Billboard'' magazine reviewed ''Lady Sings the Blues'', calling it a worthy musical complement to her autobiography. "Holiday is in good voice now," said the reviewer, "and these new readings will be much appreciated by her following." "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child" were called classics, and "Good Morning Heartache", another reissued track in the LP, was also noted positively.

On November 10, 1956, Holiday performed two concerts before packed audiences at Carnegie Hall, a major accomplishment for any artist, especially a black artist of the segregated period of American history. Live recordings of the second Carnegie Hall concert were released on a Verve/HMV album in the UK in late 1961 called ''The Essential Billie Holiday''. The thirteen tracks included on this album featured her own songs, "I Love My Man", "Don't Explain" and "Fine And Mellow", together with other songs closely associated with her, including "Body and Soul", "My Man", and "Lady Sings the Blues" (her lyrics accompanied a tune by pianist Herbie Nichols).

The liner notes on this album were written partly by Gilbert Millstein of ''The New York Times'', who, according to these notes, served as narrator in the Carnegie Hall concerts. Interspersed among Holiday's songs, Millstein read aloud four lengthy passages from her autobiography ''Lady Sings The Blues''. He later wrote:

Millstein continued:

The critic Nat Hentoff of ''Down Beat'' magazine, who attended the Carnegie Hall concert, wrote the remainder of the sleeve notes on the 1961 album. He wrote of Holiday's performance:

Hentoff continued:

Her performance of "Fine and Mellow" on CBS's ''The Sound of Jazz'' program is memorable for her interplay with her long-time friend Lester Young. Both were less than two years from death.

Holiday first toured Europe in 1954 as part of a Leonard Feather package that also included Buddy DeFranco and Red Norvo. When she returned almost five years later, she made one of her last television appearances for Granada's ''Chelsea at Nine'' in London. Her final studio recordings were made for MGM in 1959, with lush backing from Ray Ellis and his Orchestra, who had also accompanied her on Columbia's ''Lady in Satin'' album the previous year—see below. The MGM sessions were released posthumously on a self-titled album, later re-titled and re-released as ''Last Recordings''.

Although childless, Billie Holiday had two godchildren: singer Billie Lorraine Feather, daughter of Leonard Feather, and Bevan Dufty, son of William Dufty.

Death

On May 31, 1959, Holiday was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in New York suffering from liver and heart disease. Police officers were stationed at the door to her room. She was arrested for drug possession as she lay dying, and her hospital room was raided by authorities. Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died from cirrhosis of the liver on July 17, 1959. In the final years of her life, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank and $750 (a tabloid fee) on her person. Her funeral mass was held at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in New York City.

Gilbert Millstein of ''The New York Times'', who had been the narrator at Billie Holiday's 1956 Carnegie Hall concerts and had partly written the sleeve notes for the album ''The Essential Billie Holiday'' (see above), described her death in these same 1961-dated sleeve notes:

Voice

Her distinctive delivery made Billie Holiday's performances instantly recognizable throughout her career. A master of improvisation, Billie's well-trained ear more than compensated for her lack of music education. Her voice lacked range and was somewhat thin, plus years of excessive drug use eventually altered its texture and gave it a prepossessing fragility. The emotion with which she imbued each song remained not only intact but also profound. Her last major recording, a 1958 album entitled ''Lady in Satin'', features the backing of a 40-piece orchestra conducted and arranged by Ray Ellis, who said of the album in 1997:

Frank Sinatra admired Holiday, having been influenced by her performances on 52nd Street as a young man. He told ''Ebony'' magazine in 1958 about her impact:

Hit records

In 1986, Joel Whitburn's Record Research, Inc. company compiled information on the popularity of record releases from the pre-rock and roll era and created pop charts dating all the way back to the beginning of the commercial recording industry. The company's findings were published in the book ''Pop Memories 1890–1954''. Several of Holiday's records are listed on the pop charts Whitburn created.

Billie Holiday began her recording career on a high note with her first major release "Riffin' the Scotch" selling 5,000 copies. The song was released under the band name "Benny Goodman & his Orchestra." accompanied Holiday more than any other musician. He and Holiday have 95 recordings together.

In July 1936, Holiday began releasing sides under her own name. These songs were released under the band name "Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra." Most noteworthy, the popular jazz standard "Summertime," sold well and was listed on the available pop charts at the time at number 12, the first time the jazz standard charted under any artist. Only Billy Stewart's R&B; version of "Summertime" reached a higher chart placement than Holiday's, charting at number 10 thirty years later in 1966.

Holiday had 16 best selling songs in 1937, making the year her most commercially successful. It was in this year that Holiday scored her sole number one hit as a featured vocalist on the available pop charts of the 1930s, "Carelessly". The hit "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm", was also recorded by Ray Noble, Glen Gray and Fred Astaire whose rendering was a best seller for weeks. Holiday's version ranked 6 on the year-end single chart available for 1937.

In 1939, Holiday recorded her biggest selling record, "Strange Fruit" for Commodore, charting at number 16 on the available pop charts for the 1930s.

In 1940, ''Billboard'' began publishing its modern pop charts, which included the Best Selling Retail Records chart, the precursor to the Hot 100. None of Holiday's songs placed on the modern pop charts, partly because ''Billboard'' only published the first ten slots of the charts in some issues. Minor hits and independent releases had no way of being spotlighted.

"God Bless the Child", which went on to sell over a million copies, ranked number 3 on Billboard's year-end top songs of 1941.

On October 24, 1942, Billboard began issuing its R&B; charts. Two of Holiday's songs placed on the chart, "Trav'lin' Light" with Paul Whiteman, which topped the chart, and "Lover Man", which reached number 5.

"Trav'lin' Light" also reached 18 on Billboard's year-end chart.

Discography

Billie Holiday recorded extensively for four labels: Columbia Records, issued on its subsidiary labels Brunswick Records, Vocalion Records, and OKeh Records, from 1933 through 1942; Commodore Records in 1939 and 1944; Decca Records from 1944 through 1950; briefly for Aladdin Records in 1951; Verve Records and on its earlier imprint Clef Records; from 1952 through 1957, then again for Columbia Records from 1957 to 1958 and finally for MGM Records in 1959. Many of Holiday's recordings appeared on 78 rpm records prior to the long-playing vinyl record era, and only Clef, Verve, and Columbia issued Holiday albums during her lifetime that were not compilations of previously released material. Many compilations have been issued since her death; as well as comprehensive box sets and live recordings.

Albums

{|class=wikitable |- ! Year ! Title ! Label and Number |- | 1946 | ''Billie Holiday'' (four 78rpm records) | Commodore CR-2 |- | 1947 | ''Billie Holiday – Teddy Wilson'' (four 78rpm records) | Columbia C-61 |- | 1947 | ''A Hot Jazz Classic Set, Vol.1'' (four 78rpm records) | Columbia-135 |- | 1947 | ''Distinctive Song Stylings'' (four 78rpm records) | Decca A-652 |- | 1949 | ''Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra Featuring Billie Holiday'' (10") | Columbia CL-6040 |- | 1950 | ''An Evening With Eddie Heywood and Billie Holiday'' (10") | Commodore FL 30001 |- | 1950 | ''Ella, Lena and Billie'' (10") | Columbia CL 2531 |- | 1950 | ''Billie Holiday Sings'' (10") | Columbia CL 6129 |- | 1950 | ''Billie Holiday Volume One'' (10") | Commodore 20005 |- | 1950 | ''Billie Holiday Volume Two'' (10") | Commodore 20006 |- | 1951 | ''Favorites'' (10") | Columbia CL 6163 |- | 1951 | ''Lover Man'' (10") | Decca DL 5345 |- | 1951 (released 1964) | ''A Rare Live Recording Of Billie Holiday'' (Storyville) | M2001 |- | 1952 | ''Billie Holiday Sings'' | Clef MGC 118 (10" version) Mercury 89002 (four 78rpm records version) |- | 1953 | ''An Evening with Billie Holiday'' | Clef MGC 144 (10" version) Mercury 89028 (four 78rpm records version) |- | 1954 | ''Billie Holiday'' | Clef MGC 161 (10" version) Mercury 89045 (four 78rpm records version) |- | 1954 | ''Billie Holiday at JATP'' | Clef MGC 169 (10" version) Mercury 89053 (four 78rpm records version) |- | 1954 | ''Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson Orchestras'' | Columbia 33 S 1034 |- | 1954 | ''Lady Day'' | Columbia CL 637 |- | 1954 | ''Billie Holiday Volume One'' | Jolly Roger 5020 |- | 1954 | ''Billie Holiday Volume Two'' | Jolly Roger 5021 |- | 1954 | ''Billie Holiday Volume Three'' | Jolly Roger 5022 |- | 1955 | ''A Collection Of Classic Jazz Interpretations By Billie Holiday'' (10") | Columbia B-1949 |- | 1955 (released in 1958) | ''Stay with Me'' | Verve MGV 8302 |- | 1955 | ''Music For Torching'' | Clef MGC 669 / Verve MV 2595 |- | 1956 | ''Recital By Billie Holiday'' | Clef MGC 686 |- | 1956 | ''Solitude'' | Clef MGC 690 / Verve V6-8074 |- | 1956 | ''Hall Of Fame Series'' (7") | Columbia B-2534 |- | 1956 | ''Velvet Mood'' | Clef MGC 713 |- | 1956 | ''Billie Holiday at JATP'' | Verve MGC 718 |- | 1956 | ''The Lady Sings'' | Decca DL 8215 |- | 1956 | ''Lady Sings the Blues'' | Clef MGC 721 / Verve MV 2047 |- | 1956 (released in 1959) | ''All or Nothing at All'' | Verve MGV 8329 |- | 1956 (released 1961) | ''Carnegie Hall Concert'' | Verve V6-8410 |- | 1957 (released 1958) | ''Songs for Distingué Lovers'' | Verve MGV 8257 / Verve 2352 085 |- | 1957 (released 1960) | ''Body and Soul'' | Verve MGV 8197 |- | 1957 | ''Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport'' | Verve MGV 8234 |- | 1957 (released 1999) | ''A Midsummer Night's Jazz at Stratford '57'' | Baldwin Street 308 |- | 1957 | ''Sound of Jazz'' | Columbia CL 1098 |- | 1958 | ''Lady in Satin'' | Columbia CL 1157 |- | 1958 | ''The Blues Are Brewin`'' | Decca DL 8701 |- | 1958 | ''Lover Man'' | Decca DL 8702 |- | 1958 | ''Billie Holiday'' | Commodore 30008 |- | 1958 (released 1986) | ''At Monterey'' | Blackhawk 50701 |- | 1959 | ''Seven Ages of Jazz'' | Metrojazz 1009 |- | 1959 | ''Billie Holiday'' | MGM 3764 |}

Singles

Year	Single	Chart positions
		! style="width:40px;"	! style="width:40px;"
1934		6
		12
	6
	12
		18
	5
	17
	9
	12
	9
	18
	3
	4
	20
	5
		3
	4
	13
	8
	1
	12
	11
	12
	7
	15
	16
	11
	10
	10
	18
	14
		12
	20
	2
1939		16
1941		25
1942		23	1
1945		16	5

Compositions

1936: "Billie's Blues aka I Love My Man"

1939: "Our Love Is Different"

1939: "Long Gone Blues"

1939: "Fine and Mellow"

1939: "Everything Happens For The Best"

1940: "Tell Me More and More and Then Some"

1941: "God Bless the Child"

1944: "Don't Explain"

1949: "Somebody's On My Mind"

1949: "Now or Never"

1954: "Stormy Blues"

1956: "Lady Sings the Blues"

Never Recorded:

1939: "Lost At the Crossroads of Love"

1940: "Say I'm Yours Again"

1949: "Close Dem Eyes My Darlin'"

1952: "Please Don't Do It In Here"

1952: "You'd Do It Anyway"

1955: "Preacher Boy"

1957: "I'm Left Alone"

1957: "Who Needs You (Baby)"

Awards and honors

Grammy Hall of Fame

Billie Holiday was posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan="6" style="text-align:center;"| Billie Holiday: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards |- ! Year Recorded ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Year Inducted ! Notes |- align=center | 1949 | "Crazy He Calls Me" | Jazz (single) | Decca | 2010 | |- align=center | 1944 | "Embraceable You" | Jazz (single) | Commodore | 2005 | |- align=center | 1958 | ''Lady in Satin'' | Jazz (album) | Columbia | 2000 | |- align=center | 1945 | "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" | Jazz (single) | Decca | 1989 | |- align=center | 1939 | "Strange Fruit" | Jazz (single) | Commodore | 1978 | Listed also in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2002 |- align=center | 1941 | "God Bless the Child" | Jazz (single) | Okeh | 1976 | |}

Grammy Best Historical Album

The Grammy Award for Best Historical Album has been presented since 1979.

{| class=wikitable |- ! Year ! Title ! Label ! Result |- align=center | 2002 | ''Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday'' | Columbia 1933–1944 | Winner |- align=center | 1994 | ''The Complete Billie Holiday'' | Verve 1945–1959 | Winner |- align=center | 1992 | ''Billie Holiday — The Complete Decca Recordings'' | Verve 1944–1950 | Winner |- align=center | 1980 | ''Billie Holiday — Giants of Jazz'' | Time-Life | Winner |}

Other honors

{| class=wikitable |- ! Year ! Award ! Honors ! Notes |- align=center | 2004 | Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame | Inducted | Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York |- align=center | 2000 | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | Inducted | Category: "Early Influence" |- align=center | 1997 | ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame |Inducted | |- align=center | 1947 | Esquire Magazine Gold Award | Best Leading Female Vocalist | Jazz award |- align=center | 1946 | Esquire Magazine Silver Award | Best Leading Female Vocalist | Jazz award |- align=center | 1945 | Esquire Magazine Silver Award | Best Leading Female Vocalist | Jazz award |- align=center | 1944 | Esquire Magazine Gold Award | Best Leading Female Vocalist | Jazz award |}

Tributes

1972, Diana Ross portrayed Holiday in the film ''Lady Sings the Blues'', which is loosely based on the 1956 autobiography of the same name. The film earned Ross a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

She was portrayed by Ernestine Jackson in the play ''Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill'' by Lanie Robertson.

Paula Jai Parker portrayed Holiday in a Season 7 episode of the TV series ''Touched by an Angel'', entitled "God Bless the Child," the title derived from a song which Holiday had written and performed.

Jazz pianist Mal Waldron performed as Holiday's accompanist and released several tribute albums including:

* ''Left Alone'' (Bethlehem, 1959)

* ''Blues for Lady Day'' (Black Lion, 1972)

* ''Left Alone '86'' with Jackie McLean (Paddle Wheel, 1986)

* ''No More Tears (For Lady Day)'' (Timeless, 1989)

Honors

1987, Billie Holiday was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

1993, R&B; singer Miki Howard released an album dedicated to Holiday titled ''Miki Sings Billie''.

1994, the United States Postal Service introduced a Billie Holiday postage stamp.

1999, Holiday ranked #6 on VH1's ''100 Greatest Women in Rock n' Roll''.

2000, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Over the years, there have been many tributes to Billie Holiday, including "The Day Lady Died," a 1959 poem by Frank O'Hara.

In 1988 the group U2 released "Angel of Harlem" in her honor.

Arthur Phillips features Holiday's 1953 concert in New York in his novel ''The Song is You'' (2009).

"My Only Friend" by The Magnetic Fields is a tribute to Billie Holiday.

Filmography

1959: ''Chelsea at Nine''

1957: ''The Sound of Jazz'', CBS Television, December 8, 1957

1950: '''Sugar Chile' Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet''

1947: ''New Orleans''

1935: "Symphony in Black", short (with Duke Ellington)

1933: ''The Emperor Jones'', appeared as an extra

Television appearances

{|class=wikitable |- ! Year ! Program ! Host ! Songs |- | 1949 | Adventures in Jazz | Fred Robbins | Unknown Songs |- | 8/27/1949 | Arlene Francis Show, NY (1) | Arlene Francis | The Man I Love, All of Me, Lover Man |- | 8/27/1949 | Eddie Condon's Floor Show, NY (1) | Eddie Condon | I Love My Man, Keeps on Rainin', Lover Man |- | 9/3/1949 | Eddie Condon's Floor Show, NY (1) | Eddie Condon | Fine & Mellow, Porgy, Them There Eyes, I Love My Man |- | 9/10/1949 | Art Ford Show, NY (1) | Art Ford | Lover Man, I Cover the Waterfront, Two Minute Interview, All of Me |- | 10/15/1949 | Art Ford Show, NY (1) | Art Ford | Them There Eyes, Detour Ahead, Now or Never |- | 1/7/1950 | Eddie Condon's Floor Show, NY | Eddie Condon | Unknown |- | 5/24/1950 | Apollo Theatre Show, NY (1) | - | You're My Thrill |- | 7/25/1951 | Apollo Theatre Show, NY (1) | - | My Man |- | 12/10/1952 | Apollo Theatre Show, NY (1) | Count Basie | Tenderly |- | 10/16/1953 | The Comeback Story, NY (1) | George Jessel | Twenty Minute Interview, God Bless the Child |- | 2/8/1955 | The Tonight Show, NY (1) | Steve Allen | My Man, Them There Eyes, Lover Man |- | 2/10/1956 | The Tonight Show, NY (1) | Steve Allen | Please Don't Talk About Me, Two Minute Interview, Ghost of a Chance |- | 8/19/1956 | Star's of Jazz, LA, CA (2) | Bobby Troup | Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone, Billie's Blues, My Man |- | 10/29/1956 | Bandstand USA, NY (1) | Bert Parks | Willow Weep for Me, I Only Have Eyes for You, My Man, Please Don't Talk About Me |- | 11/7/1956 | Night Beat, NY (1) | Mike Wallace | Fifteen Minute Interview |- | 11/8/1956 | Peacock Alley, NY (1) | Tex McCleary | Twenty Minute Interview |- | 11/8/1956 | The Tonight Show, NY (1) | Steve Allen | Porgy |- | 3/11/1957 | Live Broadcast from Mr. Kelly's, Chicago (1) | - | Good Morning Heartache, You Better Go Now |- | 12/8/1957 | The Seven Lively Arts: The Sound of Jazz, LA (2) | - | Fine & Mellow |- | 4/12/1958 | Club Oasis, NY (1) | Martha Raye | You've Changed, My Man |- | 5/26/1958 | Telethon, NY | Dean Martin | Unknown Songs |- | 5/29/1958 | Art Ford's Jazz Party, NY (2) | Art Ford | You've Changed, I Love My Man, When Your Lover Has Gone |- | 6/5/1958 | Art Ford's Jazz Party, NY | Art Ford | All of Me, Good Morning Heartache, Travelin’ Light |- | 7/10/1958 | Art Ford's Jazz Party, NY (2) | Art Ford | What a Little Moonlight Can Do, Foolin' Myself, It's Easy to Remember |- | 7/17/1958 | Art Ford's Jazz Party, NY (2) | Art Ford | Moanin' Low, Don't Explain, When Your Lover Has Gone |- | 9/25/1958 | Today Show | Dave Garroway | My Funny Valentine |- | 11/18/1958 | Mars Club, Music Hall Parade Voyons Un Peu, Paris France (2) | - | I Only Have Eyes for You, Travelin’ Light |- | 11/20/1958 | Gilles Margaritis Programme, Paris France | Gilles Margaritis | I Only Have Eyes For You, Trav'lin' Light |- | 1/7/1959 | Timex All-Star Jazz Show IV, NY | Jackie Gleason | Unknown |- | 2/23/1959 | Chelsea at Nine, London, England (2) | Robert Beatty | Porgy, Please Don't Talk About Me, Strange Fruit |}

(1) = Available on Audio (2) = Available on DVD

Notes

References

External links

Official Billie Holiday at Sony BMG

Billie Holiday discography

Biography and song samples at PBS

"Twelve Essential Billie Holiday Recordings" by Stuart Nicholson, Jazz.com

Photograph of Holiday's gravestone

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1915 births Category:1959 deaths Category:African American female singers Category:African American singer-songwriters Category:Alcohol-related deaths in New York Category:American buskers Category:American jazz singers Category:Blues Hall of Fame inductees Category:Classic female blues singers Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Deaths from cirrhosis Category:Decca Records artists Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Musicians from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Musicians from Baltimore, Maryland Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Swing singers Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:Women in jazz

ar:بيلي هوليدي an:Billie Holiday bs:Billie Holiday bg:Били Холидей ca:Billie Holiday cs:Billie Holiday da:Billie Holiday de:Billie Holiday et:Billie Holiday el:Μπίλι Χόλιντεϊ es:Billie Holiday eo:Billie Holiday fa:بیلی هالیدی fr:Billie Holiday fy:Billie Holiday gl:Billie Holiday ko:빌리 홀리데이 hr:Billie Holiday io:Billie Holiday id:Billie Holiday it:Billie Holiday he:בילי הולידיי ka:ბილი ჰოლიდეი sw:Billie Holiday la:Gulielma Holiday lt:Billie Holiday hu:Billie Holiday nl:Billie Holiday ja:ビリー・ホリデイ no:Billie Holiday oc:Billie Holiday nds:Billie Holiday pl:Billie Holiday pt:Billie Holiday ro:Billie Holiday ru:Билли Холидей sc:Billie Holiday scn:Billie Holiday simple:Billie Holiday sr:Били Холидеј fi:Billie Holiday sv:Billie Holiday tl:Billie Holiday th:บิลลี ฮอลิเดย์ tr:Billie Holiday uk:Біллі Холідей yo:Billie Holiday zh-yue:Billie Holiday zh:比莉·霍利戴

Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900 – April 3, 1950) was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht, he developed productions such as his most well known work ''The Threepenny Opera'', a Marxist critique of capitalism, which included the ballad "Mack the Knife". Weill was a socialist who held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful purpose. He also wrote a number of works for the concert hall, as well as several Judaism themed pieces.

Personal life

Kurt Julian Weill was born on March 2, 1900, the third of four children to Albert Weill (1867–1950) and Emma Weill née Ackermann (1872–1955). He grew up in a religious Jewish family in the "Sandvorstadt", the Jewish quarter in Dessau, Germany, where his father was a cantor. At the age of twelve, Kurt Weill started taking piano lessons and made his first attempts at writing music; his earliest preserved composition was written in 1913 and is titled ''Mi Addir. Jewish Wedding Song''.

In 1915, Weill started taking private lessons with Albert Bing, Kapellmeister at the "Herzogliches Hoftheater zu Dessau", who taught him piano, composition, music theory, and conducting. Weill performed publicly on piano for the first time in 1915, both as an accompanist and soloist. The following years he composed numerous Lieder to the lyrics of poets such as Joseph von Eichendorff, Arno Holz, and Anna Ritter, as well as a cycle of five songs titled ''Ofrahs Lieder'' to a German translation of a text by Yehuda Halevi.

Weill graduated with an Abitur from the ''Oberrealschule'' of Dessau in 1918, and enrolled at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik at the age of 18, where he studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck, conducting with Rudolf Krasselt, and counterpoint with Friedrich E. Koch, and also attended philosophy lectures by Max Dessoir and Ernst Cassirer. The same year, he wrote his first string quartet (in B minor).

Early work and compositions

Weill's family experienced financial hardship in the aftermath of World War I, and in July 1919, Weill abandoned his studies and returned to Dessau, where he was employed as a répétiteur at the Friedrich-Theater under the direction of the new Kapellmeister, Hans Knappertsbusch. During this time, he composed an orchestral suite in E-flat major, a symphonic poem of Rainer Maria Rilke's ''The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke'' as well as ''Schilflieder'', a cycle of five songs to poems by Nikolaus Lenau. In December 1919, through the help of Humperdinck, Weill was appointed as Kapellmeister at the newly founded Stadttheater in Lüdenscheid, where he directed opera, operetta, and singspiel for five months, and also composed a cello sonata and ''Ninon de Lenclos'', a now lost one-act operatic adaptation of a play by Ernst Hardt. From May to September 1920, Weill spent a couple of months in Leipzig, where his father had become the new director of a Jewish orphanage. Before he returned to Berlin, in September 1920, he composed ''Sulamith'', a choral fantasy for soprano, female choir, and orchestra.

Studies with Busoni

Back in Berlin, Weill had an interview with Ferruccio Busoni in December 1920. After examining some of Weill's compositions, Busoni accepted him as one of five master students in composition at the Preußische Akademie der Künste in Berlin. From January 1921 to December 1923, Weill studied music composition with him and also counterpoint with Philipp Jarnach in Berlin. During his first year he composed his first symphony, ''Sinfonie in einem Satz'', as well as the lieder ''Die Bekehrte'' (Goethe) and two ''Rilkelieder'' for voice and piano. In order to support his family in Leipzig, he also worked as a pianist in a Bierkeller tavern. In spring of 1922, Weill joined the November Group's music faction. That year he composed a psalm, a divertimento for orchestra, and ''Sinfonia Sacra: Fantasia, Passacaglia, and Hymnus for Orchestra''. On November 18, 1922, his children's pantomime ''Die Zaubernacht'' (''The Magic Night'') premiered at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm; it was the first public performance of any of Weill's works in the field of musical theatre.

Out of financial need, Weill taught music theory and composition to private students from 1923 to 1925. Among his students were Claudio Arrau, Maurice Abravanel, Henry (then known as Heinz) Jolles, and Nikos Skalkottas. Arrau, Abravenel, and Jolles, at least, would remain members of Weill's circle of friends thereafter, and Jolles's sole surviving composition predating the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933 is a fragment of a work for four pianos he and Weill wrote jointly. Weill's compositions during his last year of studies included ''Quodlibet'', an orchestral suite version of ''Die Zaubernacht'', ''Frauentanz'', seven medieval poems for soprano, flute, viola, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon, and ''Recordare'' for choir and children's choir to words from the Book of Lamentations. Further premieres that year included a performance of his ''Divertimento for Orchestra'' by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Heinz Unger on April 10, 1923, and the Hindemith-Amar Quartet's rendering of Weill's ''String Quartet'', Op. 8, on June 24, 1923. In December 1923, Weill finished his studies with Busoni.

Success in the 1920s and early-1930s

In 1922 he joined the ‘Novembergruppe’, a group of leftist Berlin artists that included Hanns Eisler and Stefan Wolpe. In February 1924 the conductor Fritz Busch introduced him to the dramatist Georg Kaiser, with whom Weill would have a long-lasting creative partnership resulting in several one-act operas. At Kaiser's house in Grünheide, Weill also first met the actress and future wife Lotte Lenya in summer 1924. The couple got married twice: In 1926 and again in 1937 (following their divorce in 1933). Lenya took great care to support Weill's work, and after his death she took it upon herself to increase awareness of his music, forming the Kurt Weill Foundation.

From November 1924 to May 1929, Weill wrote hundreds of reviews for the influential and comprehensive radio program guide ''Der deutsche Rundfunk''. Hans Siebert von Heister had already worked with Weill in the November Group, and offered Weill the job shortly after becoming editor-in-chief.

Although he had some success with his first mature non-stage works (such as the String Quartet, Op. 8 or the Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, Op. 12), which were influenced by Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, Weill tended more and more to vocal music and musical theatre. His musical theatre work and his songs were extremely popular with the wider public in Germany at the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s. Weill's music was admired by composers such as Alban Berg, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Darius Milhaud and Stravinsky, but it was also criticised by others: by Schoenberg, who later revised his opinion, and by Anton Webern.

His best-known work is ''The Threepenny Opera'' (1928), a reworking of John Gay's ''The Beggar's Opera'' written in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht. Engel directed the original production of ''The Threepenny Opera'' in 1928. It contains Weill's most famous song, "Mack the Knife" (''"Die Moritat von Mackie Messer"''). The stage success was filmed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst in two language versions: ''Die 3-Groschen-Oper'' and ''L'opéra de quat' sous''. Weill and Brecht tried to stop the film adaptation through a well publicised lawsuit that Weill won and Brecht lost. Weill's working association with Brecht, although successful, came to an end over politics in 1930. Although Weill associated with socialism, after Brecht tried to push the play even further into a left wing direction, Weill commented, according to his wife Lenya, that he was unable to "set the communist party manifesto to music."

Paris, London and New York

Weill fled Nazi Germany in March 1933. A prominent and popular Jewish composer, Weill was officially denounced for his socialist views and populist sympathies, and became a target of the Nazi authorities, who criticized and interfered with performances of his later stage works, such as ''Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny'' (''Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny'', 1930), ''Die Bürgschaft'' (1932), and ''Der Silbersee'' (1933). With no option but to leave Germany, he went first to Paris, where he worked once more with Brecht (after a project with Jean Cocteau failed) on the ballet ''The Seven Deadly Sins''.

On April 13, 1933 his musical ''The Threepenny Opera'' was given its premiere on Broadway, but closed after 13 performances to mixed reviews. In 1934 he completed his ''Symphony No.2'', his last purely orchestral work, conducted in Amsterdam and New York by Bruno Walter, and also the music for Jacques Deval's play, ''Marie Galante''.

A production of his operetta ''Der Kuhhandel'' (''A Kingdom for a Cow'') took him to London in 1935, and later that year he went to the United States in connection with ''The Eternal Road'', a "Biblical Drama" by Franz Werfel that had been commissioned by members of New York's Jewish community and was premiered in 1937 at the Manhattan Opera House, running for 153 performances.

Weill and his wife rented a house during the summer near Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut, the summer home of the Group Theatre, while working on Johnny Johnson (musical). Some of the other artists who summered there were; Elia Kazan, Harry Morgan, John Garfield, Lee J. Cobb, Will Geer, Clifford Odets, Howard Da Silva and Irwin Shaw

He and his wife moved to New York City on September 10, 1935, living first at the St. Moritz Hotel before moving on to an apartment at 231 East 62nd Street between Third and Second Avenues. Weill believed that most of his work had been destroyed. He seldom (and reluctantly) spoke or wrote German again, with rare exception (for example, letters to his parents who had escaped to Palestine).

Rather than continue to write in the same style that had characterized his European compositions, Weill made a study of American popular and stage music, and his American output, though held by some to be inferior, nonetheless contains individual songs and entire shows that not only became highly respected and admired, but have been seen as seminal works in the development of the American musical. Unique among Broadway composers of the time, Weill insisted on writing his own orchestrations (with some very few exceptions, such as the dance music in ''Street Scene''). He worked with writers such as Maxwell Anderson and Ira Gershwin, and wrote a film score for Fritz Lang (''You and Me'', 1938). Weill himself strove to find a new way of creating an American opera that would be both commercially and artistically successful. The most interesting attempt in this direction is ''Street Scene'', based on a play by Elmer Rice, with lyrics by Langston Hughes. For his work on ''Street Scene'' Weill was awarded the inaugural Tony Award for Best Original Score.

In the 1940s Weill lived in Downstate New York near the New Jersey border and made frequent trips both to New York City and to Hollywood for his work for theatre and film. Weill was active in political movements encouraging American entry into World War II, and after America joined the war in 1941, Weill enthusiastically collaborated in numerous artistic projects supporting the war effort both abroad and on the home front. He and Maxwell Anderson also joined the volunteer civil service by working as air raid wardens on High Tor Mountain between their homes in New City, New York and Haverstraw, New York in Rockland County. Weill became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1943.

Weill had ideals of writing music that served a socially useful purpose. In the US, he wrote ''Down in the Valley'', an opera including the song of the same name and other American folk songs. He also wrote a number of songs in support of the American war effort, including the satirical "Schickelgruber" (with lyrics by Howard Dietz), ''"Buddy on the Nightshift"'' (with Oscar Hammerstein) and – with Brecht again as in his earlier career – the ''"Ballad of the Nazi Soldier's Wife"'' ("Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib?"). Intended for broadcast to Germany, the song chronicled the progress of the Nazi war machine through the gifts sent to the proud wife at home by her man at the front: furs from Oslo, a silk dress from Paris etc., until finally, from Russia, she receives her widow's veil.

Apart from "Mack the Knife" and "Pirate Jenny" from ''The Threepenny Opera'', his most famous songs include "Alabama Song" (from ''Mahagonny''), "Surabaya Johnny" (from ''Happy End''), "Speak Low" (from ''One Touch of Venus''), "Lost in the Stars" (from the musical of that name), "My Ship" (from ''Lady in the Dark''), and "September Song" (from ''Knickerbocker Holiday'').

Death

Weill suffered a heart attack shortly after his 50th birthday and died on April 3, 1950 in New York City. He was buried in Mount Repose Cemetery in Haverstraw, New York. The text and music on his gravestone come from the song "A Bird of Passage" from ''Lost in the Stars'', itself adapted from a quotation from the Venerable Bede: ::''This is the life of men on earth:'' ::''Out of darkness we come at birth'' ::''Into a lamplit room, and then – '' ::''Go forward into dark again.''

:::(lyric: Maxwell Anderson)

An excerpt from Maxwell Anderson's eulogy for Weill read:

"I wish, of course, that he had been lucky enough to have had a little more time for his work. I could wish the times in which he lived had been less troubled. But these things were as they were – and Kurt managed to make thousands of beautiful things during the short and troubled time he had…"

Influence

Sixty years after his death, Weill's music continues to be performed both in popular and classical contexts. In Weill's lifetime, his work was most associated with the voice of his wife, Lotte Lenya, but shortly after his death "Mack the Knife" was established by Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin as a jazz standard. His music has since been recorded by many performers, ranging from The Doors, Judy Collins, Lou Reed, Todd Rundgren, John Zorn, Dagmar Krause, and PJ Harvey to New York's Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Singers as varied as Teresa Stratas, Ute Lemper, Gisela May, Anne Sofie von Otter, Max Raabe, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Marianne Faithfull have recorded entire albums of his music.

Amanda Palmer, singer/pianist of the 'Brechtian Punk Cabaret' duo The Dresden Dolls, has Kurt Weill's name on the front of her keyboard (a pun with the name of the instrument maker Kurzweil) as a tribute to the composer. In 1991, seminal Swiss Industrial music band The Young Gods released their album of Kurt Weill songs, The Young Gods Play Kurt Weill. In 2008, Weill's songs were performed by Canadian musicians (including Sarah Slean and Mary Margaret O'Hara) in a tribute concert as part of the first annual Canwest Cabaret Festival in Toronto. In 2009 Duke Special released an EP, entitled Huckleberry Finn, of five songs from an unfinished musical by Kurt Weill based on the novel by Mark Twain.

Compositions

Stage works

See List of works for the stage by Weill

Concert works

Cantatas

1920 : ''Sulamith'', choral fantasy for soprano, female chorus and orchestra (lost)

1927 : ''Der neue Orpheus'', cantata for soprano, solo violin and orchestra, op.16 (text: Yvan Goll)

1927 : ''Der Tod im Wald'', cantata for bass and band (originally belonged to ''Das Berliner Requiem'')

1928 : ''Das Berliner Requiem'', cantata for tenor, baritone, male chorus (or three male voices) and wind orchestra (text: Bertolt Brecht)

1929 : ''Der Lindberghflug'', cantata for tenor, baritone and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra (text: Bertolt Brecht, first version with music by Paul Hindemith and Weill, second version, also 1929, with music exclusively by Weill)

1940 : ''The Ballad of Magna Carta'', cantata for tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra (text: Maxwell Anderson)

Chamber music

1918 : ''String Quartet in B minor'' (without opus number)

1923 : ''String Quartet'' op. 8

1919–1921 : ''Sonata for Cello and Piano''

Piano music

1917 : ''Intermezzo''

1937 : ''Albumblatt for Erika'' (transcription of the pastorale from ''Der Weg der Verheissung'')

Orchestral works

1919 : ''Suite for orchestra''

1919 : ''Die Weise von Liebe and Tod'', symphonic poem for orchestra after Rainer Maria Rilke (lost)

1921 : ''Symphony No.1 in one movement for orchestra''

1922 : ''Divertimento for orchestra'', op.5 (unfinished, reconstructed by David Drew)

1922 : ''Sinfonia Sacra, Fantasia, Passacaglia and Hymnus for orchestra'', op. 6 (unfinished)

1923 : ''Quodlibet'', suite for orchestra from the pantomime ''Zaubernacht'', op. 9

1925 : ''Concerto for violin and wind orchestra'', op. 12

1927 : ''Bastille Musik'', suite for wind orchestra (arranged by David Drew, 1975) from the stage music to ''Gustav III'', by August Strindberg

1929 : ''Kleine Dreigroschenmusik'', suite from ''Die Dreigroschenoper'' for wind orchestra, piano and percussion, (premiere conducted by Otto Klemperer)

1934 : ''Suite panaméenne for chamber orchestra'', (from ''Marie Galante'')

1934 : ''Symphony No. 2 in three movements for orchestra'', (premiere by Royal Concertgebouw orchestra under Bruno Walter)

1947 : ''Hatikvah'', arrangement of the Israeli National Anthem for orchestra

''Lieder'', ''Lieder'' cycles, songs and ''chansons''

1919 : ''Die stille Stadt'', for voice and piano, text: Richard Dehmel

1923 : ''Frauentanz'' op.10, Lieder cycle for soprano, flute, viola, clarinet, horn and bassoon (after medieval poems)

1923 : ''Stundenbuch'', Lieder cycle for baritone and orchestra, text: Rainer Maria Rilke

1925 : ''Klopslied'', for high voice, two piccolos and bassoon ('Ick sitze da un' esse Klops'/Berliner Lied)

1927 : ''Vom Tod im Wald'' (''Death in the Forest''), Op. 23, ballad for bass solo and ten wind instruments, text: Bertolt Brecht

1928 : ''Berlin im Licht-Song'', slow-fox, text: Kurt Weill; composed for the exhibition ''Berlin im Licht'', first performance in Wittenbergplatz (with orchestra) on October 13, and on October 16 in the Kroll Opera (with voice and piano)

1928 : ''Die Muschel von Margate: Petroleum Song'', slow-fox, text: Felix Gasbarra for the play by Leo Lania, ''Konjunktur''

1928 : ''Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen'' (''In Potsdam under the Oak Trees''), song for voice and piano, alternatively male chorus a cappella, text: Bertolt Brecht

1928 : ''Das Lied von den braunen Inseln'', text: Lion Feuchtwanger, from the play by same author, ''Petroleum Inseln''

1933 : ''Der Abschiedsbrief'', text: Erich Kästner, intended for Marlene Dietrich

1933 : ''La complainte de Fantômas'', text: Robert Desnos; for a broadcast of ''Fantômas'' in November 1933 (the music was lost, and later reconstructed by Jacques Loussier for Catherine Sauvage)

1933 : ''Es regnet'', text: Jean Cocteau (direct into German)

1934 : ''Je ne t'aime pas'', text: Maurice Magre for the soprano Lys Gauty

1934 : ''J'attends un navire'', text: Jacques Deval, from ''Marie Galante'' ; as an independent song for Lys Gauty; used for the ''Hymne der Resistance'' during the Second World War

1934 : ''Youkali'' (originally the ''Tango habanera'', instrumental movement in ''Marie Galante''), Text: Roger Fernay

1934 : ''Complainte de la Seine'', text: Maurice Magre

1939 : ''Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'', song for voice and piano, text: Robert Frost (unfinished)

1942 : ''Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory'', patriotic song arrangements for narrator, male chorus, and orchestra, of the ''Battle Hymn of the Republic'' (text: Julia Ward Howe), ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' (text: Francis Scott Key), ''America'' (text: Samuel Francis Smith) and ''Beat! Beat! Drums!'' (text: Walt Whitman)

1942–44 : ''Propaganda Songs'', for voice and piano; written for the ''Lunch Hours Follies'' performed for the workers of a shipbuilding workshop in New York, then broadcast:

*1942 : ''Buddy on the Nightshift'', text: Oscar Hammerstein

*1942 : ''Schickelgruber'', text: Howard Dietz

1942 : ''Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib?'' (''And what was sent to the soldier's wife?''), ballad for voice and piano, text: Bertolt Brecht

1942–47 : ''Three Walt Whitman Songs'', later ''Four Walt Whitman Songs'' for voice and piano (or orchestra), text: Walt Whitman

1944 : ''Wie lange noch?'', text: Walter Mehring; premiere: Lotte Lenya

Film music

1938 : ''You and Me''

1945 : ''Where Do We Go From Here?'' text: Ira Gershwin

Select discography

Orchestral, chamber, choral and other works

''Berliner Requiem'' / ''Violin Concerto op.12'' / ''Vom Tod im Walde''. Ensemble Musique Oblique/ Philippe Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi, 1997)

''Kleine Dreigroschenmusik'' / ''Mahagonny Songspiel'' / ''Happy End'' / ''Berliner Requiem'' / Violin Concerto op.12. /''Ballade vom Tod im Walde'' op.23 /''Pantomime I'' (from ''Der Protagonist'' op.14) London Sinfonietta, David Atherton, Nona Liddell (violin), Meriel Dickinson (mezzo-soprano), Mary Thomas (mezzo-soprano), Philip Langridge (tenor), Ian Partridge (tenor), Benjamin Luxon (baritone), Michael Rippon (bass), (Deutsche Grammophon 4594422, 1999)

''Kurt Weill à Paris, Marie Galante and other works''. Loes Luca, Ensemble Dreigroschen, directed by Giorgio Bernasconi, assai, 2000

''Melodie Kurta Weill'a i coś ponadto'' Kazik Staszewski (SP Records, 2001)

''Complete String Quartets''. Leipziger Streichquartett (MDG 307 1071-2)

Symphonies 1 & 2. BBC Symphony Orchestra, Gary Bertini (EMI, 1968)

Song collections

''Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins & Berlin Theatre Songs'' (Sony 1997)

''Speak Low – Songs by Kurt Weill'' – Anne Sofie von Otter, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (Deutsche Grammophon 1995)

''Youkali: Art Songs by Satie, Poulenc and Weill''. Patricia O'Callaghan (Marquis, 2003)

''The Unknown Kurt Weill'' (Nonesuch LP D-79019, 1981) – Teresa Stratas, soprano, Richard Woitach, piano. Track list: "Nanna's Lied" (1939), "Complainte de la Seine" (1934), "Klops-Lied" (1925), "Berlin im Licht-song" (1928), "Und was Bekam des Soldaten Weib?" (1943), "Die Muschel von Margate: Petroleum Song" (1928), "Wie Lange Noch?" (1944), "Youkali: Tango Habanera" (1935?), "Der Abschiedsbrief" (1933?), "Es Regnet" (1933), "Buddy on the Nightshift" (1942), "Schickelgruber" (1942), "Je ne t'aime pas" (1934), "Das Lied von den Braunen Inseln" (1928)

Tributes

Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill – Produced by Hal Wilner, with performances by various pop (Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Sting, Marianne Faithfull) and jazz (Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, John Zorn) artists. (A&M; Records, 1987)

''September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill'' (performed by Elvis Costello, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, and author William S. Burroughs, among others) (Sony Music, 1997)

Gianluigi Trovesi/Gianni Coscia: ''Round About Weill'' (ECM, 2005)

''The Young Gods Play Kurt Weill'' (Pias, April 1991), Studio recording of the songs performed live in 1989.

Ben Bagley's ''Kurt Weill Revisited'' and ''Kurt Weill Revisited, Vol. 2'' on the Painted Smiles label boasts rare titles of his, sung by all-star casts, including Chita Rivera, Ann Miller, Estelle Parsons, John Reardon, Tammy Grimes, Nell Carter, Arthur Siegel, and Jo Sullivan, among others.

See also

Paul Hindemith

A Kurt Weill Cabaret

LoveMusik

Bertolt Brecht

Bibliography

David Drew. ''Kurt Weill: A Handbook'' (Berkeley, Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1987). ISBN 0-520-05839-9.

Kim H. Kowalke. ''A New Orpheus: Essays on Kurt Weill'' (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1986). ISBN 0-300-03514-4.

Ronald Sanders. ''The Days Grow Short: The Life and Music of Kurt Weill'' (New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980). ISBN 0-03-019411-3.

Donald Spoto. ''Lenya A Life'' (Little, Brown and Company 1989)

Lys Symonette & Kim H. Kowalke (ed. & trans.) ''Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya'' (University of California Press 1996)

David Drew (Editor), ''Über Kurt Weill'' (Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 1975) ''Excellent collection of texts, including an introduction by David Drew and including texts by Theodor W. Adorno'' Jürgen Schebera, ''Kurt Weill'' (Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2000)

References

External links

Kurt Weill Foundation, including a detailed list of works

Schott Music

The OREL Foundation- Kurt Weill's biography and links to bibliography, discography and media.

Program note to Kurt Weill's Symphony No. 2 from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

Yale University's Gilmore Music Library has an important collection of Kurt Weill's Papers and Music, especially from his years in America

Finding aid to Universal Edition-Kurt Weill Archives – Manuscripts on deposit at the Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections Department, Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester

Category:1900 births Category:1950 deaths Category:People from Dessau-Roßlau Category:German Jews Category:German composers Category:American composers Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Opera composers Category:Modernist composers Category:American musical theatre composers Category:German musical theatre composers Category:Jewish classical musicians Category:Jewish composers and songwriters Category:People from Anhalt Category:German Jews who emigrated to the United States to escape Nazism Category:American musicians of German descent Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Tony Award winners Category:People from Rockland County, New York

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Coordinates	43°01′″N44°39′″N
name	Walter Huston
birth name	Walter Thomas Huston
birth date	April 05, 1883
birth place	York County, Ontario,Canada
death date	April 07, 1950
death place	Hollywood, California,United States
spouse	Rhea Gore(1904-1912)Bayonne Whipple(1915-1924)Ninetta Sunderland(1931-1950)
children	John Huston (1906-1987)
years active	1924–50
occupation	Actor }}

Walter Thomas Huston (; April 5, 1883 – April 7, 1950) was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.

Life and career

Huston was born in York County, Ontario, the son of Elizabeth (née McGibbon) and Robert Moore Huston, a provincial farmer who founded a construction company. He was of Scottish and Irish descent. Huston began his Broadway career in 1924. Once talkies began in Hollywood, he achieved fame in character roles. His first major role was in 1929's ''The Virginian'' with Gary Cooper. He appeared in the Broadway theatrical adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's novel ''Dodsworth'' in 1934 and the play's film version two years later.

Huston stayed busy throughout the 1930s and 1940s, both on stage and screen (becoming one of America's most distinguished actors); he performed "September Song" in the original Broadway production of ''Knickerbocker Holiday'' in 1938. Among his films are ''Rain'' (1932), ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' (1941) and ''Mission to Moscow'' (1943), a pro-Soviet World War II propaganda film as Ambassador Joseph E. Davies. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1948 for his role in ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'', which was directed by his son, John Huston. His last film was ''The Furies'' in 1950 with Barbara Stanwyck.

Along with Anthony Veiller, he narrated the ''Why We Fight'' series of World War II documentaries directed by Frank Capra.

He died in Hollywood from an aortic aneurysm, two days after his 66th birthday.

Huston has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6626 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography (with co-stars)

''The Lady Lies'' (1929) with Claudette Colbert

''The Virginian'' (1929) with Gary Cooper

''The Virtuous Sin'' (1930) with Kay Francis

''The Bad Man'' (1930)

''Abraham Lincoln'' (1930)

''The Beast of the City'' (1932) with Jean Harlow and Jean Hersholt

''Night Court'' (1932) with Lewis Stone and W S Van Dyke

''American Madness'' (1932) with Pat O'Brien

''Rain'' (1932) with Joan Crawford

''Kongo'' (1932) with Lupe Velez and Virginia Bruce

"Gabriel Over the White House" (1933) with Franchot Tone, C. Henry Gordon, and David Landau

''Ann Vickers'' (1933) with Irene Dunne''

''Dodsworth'' (1936) with Ruth Chatterton, Mary Astor, and David Niven

''Rhodes of Africa'' (1936)

''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' (1941) with James Craig, Edward Arnold, and Anne Shirley

''Swamp Water'' (1941) with Walter Brennan and Anne Baxter

''The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet

''The Shanghai Gesture'' (1942) with Gene Tierney

''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' (1942) with James Cagney

''The Outlaw'' (1943) with Thomas Mitchell and Jane Russell

''Edge of Darkness'' (1943) with Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan

''Mission to Moscow'' (1943)

''And Then There Were None'' (1945) with Barry Fitzgerald and June Duprez

''Dragonwyck'' (1946) with Gene Tierney and Vincent Price

''Duel in the Sun'' (1946) with Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, and Jennifer Jones

''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'' (1948) with Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt

''The Furies'' (1950) with Wendell Corey and Barbara Stanwyck

Academy Awards and nominations

1937 - Nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role - ''Dodsworth''

1942 - Nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role - ''The Devil and Daniel Webster''

1943 - Nominated Best Actor in a Supporting Role - ''Yankee Doodle Dandy''

1949 - Won Best Actor in a Supporting Role - ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre''

In popular culture

Huston was mentioned in the 1994 western-comedy ''City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold'' and the "Walter Huston dance" after finding the buried gold.

See also

Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

Further reading

John Weld. September Song. An intimate biography of Walter Huston. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1998.

References

External links

, with an incorrect year of birth on the plaque.

Category:1883 births Category:1950 deaths Category:American film actors Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Canadian expatriate actors in the United States Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian people of Irish descent Category:Canadian people of Scottish descent Category:Canadian stage actors Category:Deaths from aortic aneurysm Category:People from Toronto Category:Vaudeville performers

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