page_title: Katharine Hepburn
hierarchical_section_title: Katharine Hepburn
caption_attribution_description: Studio publicity photograph of Katharine Hepburn. The full image, seen here, includes a stock number, the name of the studio, and the name of the subject - confirming that this was a promotional image. Such images were taken by a studio photographer, and then disseminated to the media and the public for the purpose of promoting their contract stars. Public domain explanation If the photograph was copyrighted, under the terms of the 1909 Copyright Act this copyright would have had to be renewed 28 years after publication. A search for copyright renewal records of 1968 ([1], [2]) 1969 ([3], [4]) and 1970 ([5],[6]) reveal no trace that this occurred. This was a common occurrence for studio publicity images, as explained by Eve Light Honthaner, in The Complete Film Production Handbook (Focal Press, 2001), p. 211: "Publicity photos (star headshots) have traditionally not been copyrighted. Since they are disseminated to the public, they are generally considered public domain, and therefore clearance by the studio that produced them is not necessary."
context_page_description: Katharine Hepburn was an American actress. Her career lasted 66 years. She is thought of as one of the top screen actresses in movie history. She was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning four.
  Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut and went to Bryn Mawr College. She got her degree in 1928 and started on Broadway that same year.
  In 1932 she got a role in the George Cukor movie A Bill of Divorcement, with John Barrymore. She was very successful in the early 1930s, but then she became unpopular. She became popular again with the movie The Philadelphia Story. In 1942 she starred in Woman of the Year with Spencer Tracy. They made eight more movies together, including Adam's Rib and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. They also had an off-screen romance that lasted until Tracy's death in 1967, but they never married because Tracy did not want to divorce his wife. Before this, Hepburn was married to Ludlow Ogden Smith from 1928-1934, and also had relationships with Leland Hayward and Howard Hughes.
  Her autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, came out in 1991. She died on June 29, 2003 at 2:50 p.m., at Fenwick, the Hepburn family home, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. She was 96.
context_section_description: Katharine Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003) was an American actress. Her career lasted 66 years. She is thought of as one of the top screen actresses in movie history. She was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning four.
  Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut and went to Bryn Mawr College. She got her degree in 1928 and started on Broadway that same year.
  In 1932 she got a role in the George Cukor movie A Bill of Divorcement, with John Barrymore. She was very successful in the early 1930s, but then she became unpopular. She became popular again with the movie The Philadelphia Story. In 1942 she starred in Woman of the Year with Spencer Tracy. They made eight more movies together, including Adam's Rib and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. They also had an off-screen romance that lasted until Tracy's death in 1967, but they never married because Tracy did not want to divorce his wife. Before this, Hepburn was married to Ludlow Ogden Smith from 1928-1934, and also had relationships with Leland Hayward and Howard Hughes.
  Her autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, came out in 1991. She died on June 29, 2003 at 2:50 p.m., at Fenwick, the Hepburn family home, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.  She was 96.
caption: Studio publicity photograph, c. 1941
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