Question 1

True or false: Katharine Hepburn had a long-term romantic relationship with Spencer Tracy that was kept secret from the public.

Accepted Answer

True. Hepburn and Tracy had a 26-year off-screen romance, but Tracy remained married to another woman, and they hid the affair.

Question 2

True or false: Katharine Hepburn famously wore pants in public long before it was socially acceptable for women.

Accepted Answer

True. Hepburn defied norms by wearing trousers in the 1930s and 1940s, sparking scandal but paving the way for women's fashion freedom.

Question 3

True or false: Katharine Hepburn was born in New York City.

Accepted Answer

False. Katharine Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Connecticut. She was raised in an affluent family and attended Bryn Mawr College.

Question 4

True or false: Katharine Hepburn was a trained ballet dancer before becoming an actress.

Accepted Answer

False. Katharine Hepburn was an athlete—she swam competitively and played tennis and golf—but she had no formal ballet training. Her physicality in films came from sports, not dance.

Question 5

True or false: Katharine Hepburn was the first actress to be paid over $1 million for a single film.

Accepted Answer

False. Elizabeth Taylor was the first to earn $1 million for a film ('Cleopatra'), not Hepburn, who earned high but lesser sums.

Question 6

True or false: Katharine Hepburn is the only actor to have won four Academy Awards for acting.

Accepted Answer

True. Katharine Hepburn won four Best Actress Oscars for 'Morning Glory', 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner', 'The Lion in Winter', and 'On Golden Pond'. No other actor has won four competitive acting Oscars.

Question 7

True or false: Katharine Hepburn was married to Spencer Tracy.

Accepted Answer

False. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy had a long romantic relationship, but they never married. Tracy was still legally married to his wife, Louise Treadwell, throughout their relationship.

Question 8

True or false: Katharine Hepburn never attended the Academy Awards ceremony to accept any of her Oscars.

Accepted Answer

True. Katharine Hepburn notoriously shunned awards ceremonies. She never attended the Oscars to accept her four Best Actress trophies; her awards were received by others, and her sole ceremony appearance was as a presenter in 1974.

Question 9

True or false: Katharine Hepburn won her first Academy Award for the film 'The Philadelphia Story'.

Accepted Answer

False. Katharine Hepburn won her first Oscar for 'Morning Glory' (1933). She was nominated for 'The Philadelphia Story' (1940) but lost to Ginger Rogers for 'Kitty Foyle'.

Question 10

True or false: Katharine Hepburn was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, a record for any actor.

Accepted Answer

True. She received 12 Oscar nominations for acting, which was a record until Meryl Streep surpassed it in 2003. Hepburn won four Best Actress awards.

Question 11

True or false: Katharine Hepburn won her first Oscar for her debut film role in 'A Bill of Divorcement'.

Accepted Answer

False. Her first Oscar win was for 'Morning Glory' (1933), not her debut. 'A Bill of Divorcement' was her first film, but she didn't win for it.

Question 12

True or false: Katharine Hepburn was banned from MGM for refusing to wear makeup in a film.

Accepted Answer

False. Hepburn often refused makeup, but she was never banned. She clashed with studios but remained in demand, winning Oscars for MGM films.

Question 13

True or false: Katharine Hepburn was the daughter of a prominent suffragist and birth control advocate.

Accepted Answer

True. Katharine Hepburn's mother, Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn, was a leading suffragist and founded the Connecticut Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood.

Question 14

True or false: Hepburn was an avid tennis player and once competed in a Wimbledon doubles match.

Accepted Answer

False. No records show Hepburn played at Wimbledon. She enjoyed tennis recreationally and in exhibitions but never competed in the tournament.

Question 15

True or false: Katharine Hepburn never won an Emmy or a Tony award.

Accepted Answer

False. Hepburn won a Primetime Emmy in 1975 for 'Love Among the Ruins' and was nominated for a Tony, but never won one.

Question 16

True or false: Katharine Hepburn was expelled from a boarding school for smoking cigarettes.

Accepted Answer

True. As a teenager, Katharine Hepburn was expelled from the Kingswood School for smoking. She later attended Bryn Mawr College, where she graduated with a degree in history.

Katharine Hepburn Trivia Questions