Katharine Hepburn

Hepburn's niece is actress Katharine Houghton, whom appeared with her in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), and Hepburn's grand-niece is actress, Schuyler Grant. In 2001, a tribute documentary entitled The Unforgettable Yootha Joyce was aired by ITV. Hepburn's professional legacy is today carried on within her family. In 1986, a photograph of Yootha Joyce adorned the sleeve of Ask, a single released by British band The Smiths. A more lighthearted (though oddly accurate) portrayal of the older Hepburn was performed by comedian Martin Short on SCTV and Saturday Night Live. Yootha Joyce married once, to the actor Glynn Edwards, best known for playing Dave the landlord in Minder, but the marriage ended in divorce. Most recently she has been portrayed by Cate Blanchett in a 2004 movie about the life of Howard Hughes — The Aviator, directed by Martin Scorsese. The actor Brian Murphy, who played her screen husband George Roper, was at her bedside.

She was 96. For many years she battled alcoholism and ultimately succumbed, in hospital, to hepatitis four days after her 53rd birthday in 1980. She died on June 29, 2003 at 2:50 p.m., at Fenwick, the Hepburn family home, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. A feature film was made of George And Mildred in 1980, but this was to be Joyce's last work. Her autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, was published in 1991. Much of the new series centred on Mildred's desire to better herself in her new surroundings, but always being thwarted, usually unwittingly, by her lifeskill-lacking husband's desire for a quiet life. Hepburn had previously married and divorced Ludlow Ogden Smith and also had relationships with Leland Hayward and Howard Hughes. The couple were seen moving from the London house which they'd owned in the previous programme and into a suburban semi-detached property.

Though they were together until Tracy's death in 1967, the couple never married - reportedly because Tracy, a devout Catholic, would not divorce his wife. When the series reached a natural end, a spin-off was written for the Ropers, and George and Mildred first aired in 1976. She and Tracy made a total of nine films together including Adam's Rib and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. This series ran until 1976 and told the story of two young women and a young man sharing the Ropers' upstairs flat, and the sexual tension and misunderstandings such living arrangements provide. In Woman of the Year (1942), she made her first appearance opposite Spencer Tracy, launching one of Hollywood's most famous romances. In the 1960s and 1970s, she became a familiar face in many one-off sitcom roles and supporting parts in films, but it wasn't until 1973 that she acquired a starring role, when she was cast as man-hungry Mildred Roper, wife of landlord George, in the innovative sitcom Man About The House, which was to prove a massive hit with viewers. In 1932 her screen-test for RKO gained her a role in the George Cukor film A Bill of Divorcement (1932), opposite John Barrymore. First coming to prominence in the renowned Joan Littlewood Theatre Group, she made her film debut in 1962 in Sparrows Can't Sing.

Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut and was educated at Bryn Mawr College; she received her degree in 1928 and debuted on Broadway that same year in Night Hostess. Yootha Joyce (20th August 1927 - 24th August 1980) was a British actress. She was nominated for twelve Best Actress Academy Awards, more than any other actress, and was awarded a record four. Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003) was a notable American film and stage actress. An Uncommon Woman: Katharine Hepburn (http://home.nyc.rr.com/alweisel/premierekatharinehepburn.htm).

IMDb filmography (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000031/). The Making of the African Queen Katharine Hepburn, Knopf, 1987. Me, Stories of My Life, Katharine Hepburn, Knopf, 1991. The West Side Waltz - 1981.

A Matter of Gravity - 1976. Coco - 1969. Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night - 1960, Stratford, Connecticut Shakespeare Theatre. The Merchant of Venice; Much Ado About Nothing - 1957, Stratford, Connecticut Shakespeare Theatre.

The Merchant of Venice; Measure for Measure; The Taming of the Shrew - 1955, On tour in Australia with the Old Vic. The Millionairess - 1952. As You Like It - 1950. Without Love - 1942.

The Philadelphia Story - 1939. Jane Eyre - 1937. The Lake - 1933. The Warrior's Husband - 1932.

Art and Mrs. Bottle - 1930. These Days - 1928.