title: Peyton Manning

text: After much speculation, Manning announced in the offseason that he would return for his 18th season in the NFL, this time under his fifth head coach, Gary Kubiak. In the season opener against the Baltimore Ravens, Manning's play seemed to have deteriorated, going 24–40 for 175 yards and one interception, but a pick-six by cornerback Aqib Talib and late interception by Darian Stewart aided the Broncos in their 19–13 victory. On November 1, against the Green Bay Packers, he finished with a season-high 340 passing yards and an interception in the dominant 29–10 victory. The Broncos got off to a dominant 7–0 start to the season; however, the streak ended in a loss at Indianapolis, losing 27–24. During that winning streak and the loss in Indianapolis, Manning played better, throwing over 250 yards and nine touchdowns in six of the seven games. However, he never had a game without an interception, bringing his 8-game TD–INT ratio to 9–13, and the Broncos needed a hardworking defense for victories.


title: Peyton Manning

text: In Week 10, in the second divisional game against Kansas City, the game's biggest highlight was Manning breaking Brett Favre's record for career passing yards with a four-yard pass to running back Ronnie Hillman in the first quarter. Despite the accomplishment, however, Manning went 5-for-20 for 35 yards and four interceptions with a 0.0 passer rating before Kubiak benched him during the third quarter. Brock Osweiler filled in for Manning for the rest of the game as the Broncos lost 29–13. Manning's record lasted until the 2018 season when Drew Brees broke it in Week 5 against the Washington Redskins. A day later, sources said that Manning suffered a bout of plantar fasciitis. It was later announced that the injury would keep him out of Week 11, making it the first time he missed a game in a season he played. Osweiler replaced Manning and performed well in a 17–15 win over the Chicago Bears, leading to questions about whether Manning would keep his role when healthy in a Week 12 showdown against the New England Patriots. The next day, Kubiak, citing Manning's injuries, announced that Osweiler would start against New England. On December 15, it was announced that Osweiler would make his fifth consecutive start, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, even though Manning returned to practice and the Broncos went seven straight quarters without scoring a touchdown on offense. The Broncos were 4–2 in six games without Manning, giving them an 11–4 record heading into the final week of the regular season.


title: Peyton Manning

text: On December 27, 2015, Al Jazeera America released conducted by the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit investigating professional athletes' use of Performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) which named Manning, among other prominent athletes, as having received illegal drugs from Charles Sly, a pharmacist who worked at the Guyer Anti-Aging Clinic in Indianapolis during the fall of 2011. In July 2016, the NFL cleared Manning of the allegations after it found no evidence to support the claims.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning was listed as active for the Week 17 regular season finale against the San Diego Chargers, but for the first time since his freshman year at college, he was listed as a backup. In the third quarter, with the Broncos down 13–7, Manning entered the game in relief of Osweiler, who was intercepted twice and fumbled once. He and the Broncos went on to beat the Chargers, 27–20, to secure the AFC West and top seed in the AFC. Despite the Broncos' 12–4 record (and Manning's 8–2 record in games that he played in), Manning had the worst season statistically of his career, as he threw a career-low nine touchdown passes and 17 interceptions in just 10 games, and posted a quarterback rating of 67.9, which was the lowest rating of his career, and the first time he had a rating below 84 since his rookie season. Manning's 59.8 completion percentage was the second lowest of his career, only behind his rookie season. Manning's 17 interceptions were second to Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, who threw 18 interceptions but started all 16 games.


title: Peyton Manning

text: The Broncos, by virtue of having the AFC's #1 seed, earned home-field advantage throughout the NFL playoffs. The Broncos defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the by a score of 23–16 to advance to the game to host the defending Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. Manning was 21-of-37 for 222 with no touchdowns or interceptions in the win over the Steelers. The AFC Championship game was the 17th, and ultimately final, meeting between Manning and his longtime rival Tom Brady. Despite a late comeback attempt from the Patriots, the Broncos won 20–18 to advance to Super Bowl 50. Manning had 176 passing yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions in the win.


title: Peyton Manning

text: On February 7, 2016, the Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers 24–10 in Super Bowl 50 as the Broncos' defense shut down the favored Panthers' top-ranked offense and regular season MVP Cam Newton. Manning finished the game 13-of-23 for 141 yards and one interception while being sacked five times, scoring his only passing points with 3:08 left in the fourth quarter when he connected with wide receiver Bennie Fowler for a two-point conversion, which ended up being the final pass of his career. Manning became the oldest starting quarterback to both play in and win a Super Bowl at age 39 until Tom Brady surpassed the record at age 41 in Super Bowl LIII and again at age 43 in Super Bowl LV. Manning also became the first quarterback to start in two Super Bowls each with multiple franchises under different head coaches each time (Dungy, Caldwell, Fox, and Kubiak) and the first quarterback to lead two franchises to a Super Bowl victory. The victory gave Manning his 200th overall win including regular season and playoffs, making him the starting quarterback with the most combined regular season and postseason wins in NFL history. Tom Brady has since surpassed Manning's record in 2016.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Peyton and Eli Manning played against each other three times in the regular season during their professional careers. These encounters were colloquially dubbed "The Manning Bowl", and Peyton's teams (twice with the Colts, once with the Broncos) held a 3–0 record over Eli's teams (three games with the New York Giants). The first Manning Bowl was held on September 10, 2006, and Peyton's Colts defeated Eli's Giants by a score of 26–21. The second Manning Bowl was held on September 19, 2010, with Peyton and the Colts beating Eli's team again by a score of 38–14. The third and final Manning Bowl was held on September 15, 2013, and Peyton and the Broncos beat Eli's Giants 41–23. They faced each other in two Pro Bowls, in 2009 and 2013, both won by the NFC. However, they never faced each other in the playoffs as both have always played in separate conferences and never made the Super Bowl at the same time.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning announced his retirement, after 18 seasons, on March 7, 2016. The last words of his retirement speech were, "I've fought a good fight. I've finished my football race and after 18 years, it's time. God bless all of you and God bless football." After 18 seasons in the NFL, Manning received the 2016 ESPY Icon Award. He won a total of nine ESPY Awards during his career.


title: Peyton Manning

text: On October 7, 2017, in a ceremony attended by hundreds of fans, the Colts unveiled a bronze statue of Manning outside its Lucas Oil Stadium. Manning was inducted into the Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor and was the first player to have his jersey retired by the Colts since they moved to Indianapolis. In 2019, Manning was named to the NFL 100 All-Time Team.


title: Peyton Manning

text: On February 6, 2021, Manning was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, with the committee taking only 13 seconds to debate his selection. On June 9, 2021, Manning was unanimously elected to the Denver Broncos Ring of Fame. Manning was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on August 8, 2021, and the Broncos Ring of Fame on October 31, 2021. Peyton, along with Eli, were named to the 2022 SEC Football Legends Class.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Olivia (née Williams) and former NFL quarterback Archie Manning. He is the brother of two-time Super Bowl Champion Eli Manning. Some have described the Mannings as football's "royal family."


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning married his wife, Ashley, in Memphis on St. Patrick's Day, 2001. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Ashley was introduced to him by her parents' next-door neighbor the summer before Manning's freshman year in college. The couple has twins, a son, Marshall Williams, and a daughter, Mosley Thompson, who were born on March 31, 2011. They live in Denver, Colorado. Upon his arrival in Denver, Manning temporarily lived in a house owned by Mike Shanahan until purchasing his own home for $4.575 million.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning is a Christian. At age 13, he said, "I committed my life to Christ, and that faith has been most important to me ever since." Manning said his priorities ranked in order are "...faith, family, friends, and football." Manning said he prays every night and before games and added, "I hope (and pray) I don't do too many things that displease Him before I get to Heaven myself. I believe, too, that life is much better and freer when you're committed to God in that way."


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning reportedly memorized the Colts' playbook within a week after being drafted, and in 2012, he was able to precisely recall the details and timing of a specific play that he used at Tennessee 16 years earlier.


title: Peyton Manning

text: During the summer, Archie, Peyton, Eli, and oldest sibling Cooper run the Manning Passing Academy, a five-day camp that aims to improve the offensive skills of quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs. In addition to the Mannings, the camp has included many prominent football players as coaches, such as Colts wide receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning, along with his father Archie, co-authored a book titled "Manning: A Father, His Sons, and a Football Legacy", which was released in 2000. The book covers Archie's and Cooper's lives and careers, and Manning's life and career up to the time that the book was released, and examines football from both Archie's and Manning's points-of-view. Manning wrote about Jamie Ann Naughright, who accused him of sexual harassment, stating that she had a "vulgar mouth." He described his conduct toward her as "crude, maybe, but harmless." Naughright sued for defamation, resulting in an undisclosed settlement in 2003 and a court order imposed on both Manning and Naughright from ever talking about the settlement or each other again.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Mark Kiszla, a sports columnist for the "Denver Post", in a column about Manning's future plans, said that Manning's net worth "is estimated to be in excess of $150 million" and "That's not enough money to buy an NFL franchise by himself, although an ownership group that included Manning as president with a financial stake in the team would be led by a brilliant football mind." He has donated over $8,000 to Republican politicians, among them Fred Thompson, Bob Corker, and former President George W. Bush. During the 2016 presidential race, Manning contributed to the campaign of Jeb Bush. On October 26, 2012, Manning bought 21 Papa John's Pizza stores, all in Colorado. He sold his shares of the stores in February 2018.


title: Peyton Manning

text: In honor of Manning, the University of Tennessee offers a Peyton Manning Scholarship to incoming freshmen.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning has been credited with helping to improve the city of Indianapolis. A curator at the Indiana State Museum stated that "There is no Super Bowl held here without Peyton. There is no Lucas Oil Stadium without Peyton. Without Peyton, the Colts would probably be in L.A. right now." He became one of the NFL's most marketable players, appearing in several television and printed advertisements for some of the NFL's biggest sponsors.


title: Peyton Manning

text: On March 24, 2007, his 31st birthday, Manning hosted NBC's "Saturday Night Live" (season 32, episode 16). His brother Eli also hosted the show five years later. The episode earned the show's highest household rating in more than 10 months in the metered markets. He appeared on "SNL" again in 2008, the "Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special" in 2015, and on Weekend Update on the January 29, 2022, episode hosted by Willem Dafoe.


title: Peyton Manning

text: On May 27, 2007, Manning waved the green flag to begin the 91st Indianapolis 500. On February 18, 2018, he drove the pace car during the 2018 Daytona 500. Before the latter, he made a guest appearance on "Fox NASCAR" pre-race show alongside race pole-sitter and fellow Nationwide Insurance spokesman Alex Bowman.


title: Peyton Manning

text: In 2009, Manning guest voiced (with his brothers Eli and Cooper) on an episode of "The Simpsons" called "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?" in which Bart dreams of having a baby brother and sees famous brothers like The Marx Brothers, The Blues Brothers, The Wright Brothers, The Mario Brothers, and The Manning Brothers. He also voiced Guapo in the 2017 movie "Ferdinand".


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning is the host of "Peyton's Places", a documentary series about football on ESPN+, in which Manning interviews players, coaches, and celebrities. The series was renewed for a third season in December 2020.


title: Peyton Manning

text: In 2021, Peyton hosted a revival of the quiz show "College Bowl", with his brother Cooper as his "sidekick". The series was renewed in 2022 for a second season.


title: Peyton Manning

text: In 2021, Peyton and Eli began hosting an alternative broadcast of "Monday Night Football" called the "Manningcast" on ESPN2 and ESPN+.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Shortly after beginning his NFL career, Manning started his own charity called the Peyback Foundation. The Peyback Foundation's mission is to help disadvantaged kids, and focuses its efforts in Louisiana, Tennessee, Indiana, and Colorado. For his work with the foundation, Manning received the Samuel S. Beard Award for Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under, which is given out annually by Jefferson Awards.


title: Peyton Manning

text: Manning, along with his brother Eli, volunteered their assistance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Among the tasks performed, the Mannings assisted in the delivery of 30,000 pounds of water, Gatorade, baby formula, diapers, and pillows to the people of New Orleans.


title: Peyton Manning

text: In September 2007, St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis renamed its children's hospital to Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St. Vincent. Manning and his wife made a donation of an undisclosed amount to St. Vincent's and have a relationship with the hospital since he came to Indianapolis.


title: Peyton Manning

text: In 2022, the Peyback foundation teamed up with Georgia Tech to launch a scholarship in honor of Manning's former Broncos teammate Demaryius Thomas. The foundation also launched scholarships at six historically black colleges and universities.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. Her work was in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn began to act while at Bryn Mawr College. Favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Her early years in film brought her international fame, including an Academy Award for Best Actress for her third film, "Morning Glory" (1933), but this was followed by a series of commercial failures culminating in the critically lauded box office failure "Bringing Up Baby" (1938). Hepburn masterminded her own comeback, buying out 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. That comedy film was a box office success and landed her a third Academy Award nomination. In the 1940s, she was contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where her career focused on an alliance with Spencer Tracy. The screen partnership spanned 26 years and produced nine films.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn challenged herself in the latter half of her life as she tackled Shakespearean stage productions and a range of literary roles. She found a niche playing middle-aged spinsters, such as in "The African Queen" (1951), a persona the public embraced. Hepburn received three more Academy Awards for her performances in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967), "The Lion in Winter" (1968), and "On Golden Pond" (1981). In the 1970s, she began appearing in television films, which later became her focus. She made her final screen appearance at the age of 87. After a period of inactivity and ill health, Hepburn died in 2003 at the age of 96.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn shunned the Hollywood publicity machine and refused to conform to society's expectations of women, famously wearing trousers before they were fashionable for women. She was briefly married as a young woman but thereafter lived independently. With her unconventional lifestyle and the independent characters she brought to the screen, Hepburn epitomized the "modern woman" in the 20th-century United States and is remembered as an important cultural figure.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Connecticut, the second of six children. Her parents were Thomas Norval Hepburn (1879–1962), a urologist at Hartford Hospital, and Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn (1878–1951), a feminist campaigner. Both parents fought for social change in the US: Thomas Hepburn helped establish the New England Social Hygiene Association, which educated the public about venereal disease, while the elder Katharine headed the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association and later campaigned for birth control with Margaret Sanger. As a child, Hepburn joined her mother on several "Votes For Women" demonstrations. 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 stimulated Hepburn to fight against barriers she encountered. Hepburn said she realized from a young age that she was the product of "two very remarkable parents", and credited her "enormously lucky" upbringing with providing the foundation for her success. She remained close to her family throughout her life.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: The young Hepburn was a tomboy who liked to call herself Jimmy and cut her hair short. 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 of Hepburn's; she took daily lessons and became very adept, 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 in the belief 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. She would put on plays and perform for her neighbors with friends and siblings for 50 cents a ticket to raise money for the Navajo people.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: In March 1921, Hepburn, 13, and her 15-year-old brother Tom were visiting New York, staying with a friend of their mother's in Greenwich Village over the Easter break. On March 30, Hepburn discovered the body of her adored older brother dead from an apparent suicide. He had tied a curtain tie 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 was tutored privately. 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: In 1924 Hepburn was admitted to Bryn Mawr College. She initially agreed to attend the institution to satisfy her mother, who had studied there, but ultimately found the experience to be fulfilling. 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 once was 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. She performed 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn left university determined to become an actress. The day after graduating, she traveled to Baltimore to meet Edwin H. Knopf, who ran a successful stock theatre company. Impressed by her eagerness, Knopf cast Hepburn in his current production, "The Czarina". She received good reviews for her small role, and the "Printed Word" described her performance as "arresting". She was given a part in the following week's show, but her second performance was less well received. She was criticized for her shrill voice, and so left Baltimore to study with a voice tutor in New York City.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Knopf decided to produce "The Big Pond" in New York, and appointed Hepburn the understudy to the leading lady. A week before opening, the lead was fired and replaced with Hepburn, which gave her a starring role only four weeks into her theatre career. On opening night, she turned up late, mixed her lines, tripped over her feet, and spoke too quickly to be understood. She was immediately fired, and the original leading lady rehired. Undeterred, Hepburn joined forces with the 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, a college acquaintance. 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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. She 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 the Berkshire Playhouse theater company in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She left halfway 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 Hepburn was re-hired when no other actress could be found. It went on to be a small success.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 the role would make her a star, but Howard disliked the actress and again she was fired. When she asked Barry why she had been let go, 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 was asked to read for the lead in the Greek fable "The Warrior's Husband".


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: "The Warrior's Husband" proved to be Hepburn's breakout performance. Biographer Charles Higham states that the role was ideal for the actress, requiring an aggressive energy and athleticism, and she enthusiastically involved herself with its production. The play opened March 11, 1932, at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway. Hepburn's first 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."


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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". 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." 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn arrived in California in July 1932, at 25 years old. She starred in "A Bill of Divorcement" opposite John Barrymore, but showed 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 positive reviews. Mordaunt Hall of "The New York Times" called her performance "exceptionally fine ... Miss Hepburn's characterization is one of the finest seen on the screen". The "Variety" review declared, "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 her to a long-term contract. George Cukor became a lifetime friend and colleague—he and Hepburn made ten films together.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn's second film was "Christopher Strong" (1933), the story of an aviator and her affair with a married man. The picture was not commercially successful, but Hepburn's 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." Hepburn's third picture confirmed her as a major actress in Hollywood. For playing aspiring actress Eva Lovelace—a role intended for Constance Bennett—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—as she would not for the duration of her career—but was thrilled with the win. Her success continued with the role of Jo in the film "Little Women" (1933). The picture 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 Jo] as I was".


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: By the end of 1933, Hepburn was a respected film actress, but she yearned to prove herself on Broadway. Jed Harris, one of the most successful theatre producers of the 1920s, was going through a career slump. 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. Though it did well at the box office, "Spitfire" is widely considered one of Hepburn's worst films, and she received poor reviews for the effort. Hepburn kept a photo of herself as Hicks in her bedroom throughout her life to "[keep] me humble".


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: "The Lake" previewed in Washington, D.C., 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, 1933, and Hepburn was roundly panned by the critics. Dorothy Parker quipped, "She runs the gamut of emotions all the way from A to B." Already tied to a ten-week contract, she 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 did not want to continue in a failing show, so she paid Harris $14,000, most of her life savings, 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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". There was no such recurrence, and the picture was a commercial failure. The romantic drama "Break of Hearts" (1935) with Charles Boyer was poorly reviewed and also lost money. After three forgettable films, 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 film was a hit, one of Hepburn's personal favorites, and gave the actress her second Oscar nomination. She received the second most votes, after winner Bette Davis.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Given the choice of her next feature, Hepburn decided to star in 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. She next played Mary Stuart in John Ford's "Mary of Scotland" (1936), which met with a similarly poor reception. "A Woman Rebels" (1936) followed, a Victorian-era drama where Hepburn's character defied convention by having a child out of wedlock. "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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 was 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 she returned east to star in a theatrical adaptation of "Jane Eyre". It had a successful tour, but, uncertain about 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."


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn's next feature, "Stage Door" (1937), paired her 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. The film was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but it was not the box-office hit RKO had hoped for. Industry pundits blamed Hepburn for the small profit, but the studio continued its commitment to resurrecting her popularity. She was cast in Howard Hawks' screwball comedy "Bringing Up Baby" (1938), where she played a flighty heiress who loses a leopard while trying to woo a palaeontologist (Cary Grant). She approached 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 moviegoers' rejection of Hepburn.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: After the release of "Bringing Up Baby", the Independent Theatre Owners of America included Hepburn on a list of actors considered "box office poison". Her reputation at a low, the next film RKO offered her was "Mother Carey's Chickens", a B movie with poor prospects. Hepburn turned it down, and instead opted to buy out her contract for $75,000. Many actors were afraid to leave the stability of the studio system at the time, 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, to play a stifled society girl who finds joy with her sister's fiancé. The comedy was positively reviewed, but it failed to draw much of an audience, and the next script offered to Hepburn came with a salary of $10,000—less than she had received 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."


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 partner at the time, sensed that the play could be her ticket back to Hollywood stardom and bought her the film rights before it even debuted on stage. "The Philadelphia Story" first toured the United States, to positive reviews, and then opened in New York at the Shubert Theatre on March 28, 1939. It was a big hit, critically and financially, running for 417 performances and then going on a second successful tour.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Several of 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, and picked James Stewart and Cary Grant (to whom she ceded top-billing) as co-stars. 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 Grant knocking the actress flat on her backside. Berg describes how the character was crafted to have audiences "laugh at her enough that they would ultimately sympathize with her", which Hepburn felt was crucial in "recreating" her public image. "The Philadelphia Story" was one of the biggest hits of 1940, breaking records at Radio City Music Hall. The review in "Time" declared, "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 while Stewart won his only Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn was also responsible for the development of her next project, the romantic comedy "Woman of the Year" about a political columnist and a sports reporter whose relationship is threatened by her self-centered independence. The idea for the film was proposed to her in 1941 by Garson Kanin, who recalled how Hepburn contributed to the script. She presented the finished product to MGM and demanded $250,000—half for her, half for the authors. Her terms accepted, Hepburn was also given the director and co-star of her choice, George Stevens and Spencer Tracy. On Hepburn and Tracy's first day on set together, she allegedly told Tracy "I'm afraid I'm too tall for you" to which Tracy replied, "Don't worry Miss Hepburn, I'll soon cut you down to my size." It started a relationship on screen and off that lasted until Tracy's death in 1967 with them appearing in another eight films together. 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. During the course of the movie, Hepburn signed a star contract with MGM.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 was 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, the film was seen by Hepburn 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 the Easter weekend in 1945.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 growing anti-communist movement in Hollywood. Viewed by some as dangerously progressive, she was not offered work for nine months and people reportedly threw things at screenings of "Song of Love". Her next film role came unexpectedly, as she agreed to replace Claudette Colbert only days before shooting began on 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Tracy and Hepburn appeared onscreen 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". Although her political views still prompted scattered picketing at theatres around the country, "Adam's Rib" was a hit, favorably reviewed and the most profitable Tracy–Hepburn picture to date. "The New York Times" critic Bosley Crowther was full of praise for the film and hailed the duo's "perfect compatibility".


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 other 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 ventured into Shakespeare, playing Rosalind on stage in "As You Like It". She hoped to prove that 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 was 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 onstage.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 while garnering Bogart his only Academy Award for Best Actor. The first successful film she had made without Tracy since "The Philadelphia Story" a decade earlier, it proved that she could be a hit without him and fully reestablished her popularity.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn went on to make the sports comedy "Pat and Mike" (1952), the second film written specifically as a Tracy–Hepburn vehicle by Kanin and Gordon. She 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 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 her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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". Widely acclaimed, "The Millionairess" was taken to Broadway. In October 1952 it opened at the Shubert Theatre, where despite a lukewarm critical response it sold out its ten-week run. Hepburn subsequently tried to get the play adapted into a film: a script was written by Preston Sturges, and she offered to work for nothing and pay the director herself, but no studio picked up the project. She later referred to this as the biggest disappointment of her career.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: "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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 woman empowered by a love affair, and it became apparent that Hepburn had found a niche in playing "love-starved spinsters" that critics and audiences 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 Bosley Crowther called "horrible". It was a critical and commercial failure, and Hepburn considered it the worst film on her resume.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: After two years away from the screen, Hepburn 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 she appeared in the film for a tenth of her established salary. She called it "the greatest [play] this country has ever produced" and 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 the Cannes Film Festival. It remains one of her most praised performances.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Following the completion of "Long Day's Journey Into Night", Hepburn took a break in her career to care for ailing Spencer Tracy. She did not work again until 1967's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", her ninth film with Tracy. The movie dealt with the subject of interracial marriage, with Hepburn's niece, Katharine Houghton, playing her daughter. Tracy was dying 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 and her most commercially successful picture to that point. 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn quickly returned to acting after Tracy's death, choosing to occupy 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, in which she starred opposite Peter O'Toole. Filming took place 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 ... 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 (shared with Barbra Streisand for "Funny Girl"). The role, combined with her performance in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", also received 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". The picture was a failure critically and financially, and reviews targeted Hepburn for giving a misguided performance.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: From December 1969 to August 1970, Hepburn starred in the Broadway musical "Coco", about the life of Coco Chanel. She 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 Berg puts it, "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—with its run twice extended. She later said "Coco" marked the first time she accepted that the public was not against her, but actually seemed to love her. Her work earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 Circle 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. Her 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: In 1973, Hepburn ventured into television for the first time, starring in a production of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie". She had been wary of the medium, but it proved to be one of the main television events of the year, scoring high in the Nielsen ratings. Hepburn received an Emmy Award nomination for playing wistful Southern mother Amanda Wingfield, which opened her mind to future work on the small screen. Her next project was the television movie "Love Among the Ruins" (1975), a London-based Edwardian drama with her friend Laurence Olivier. It received positive reviews and high ratings and earned Hepburn her only Emmy Award.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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". Echoing her "African Queen" character, Hepburn again played 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 it did not meet studio expectations and was only moderately successful.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: In 1976, Hepburn returned to Broadway for a three-month run of Enid Bagnold's play "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 its Los Angeles run, Hepburn fractured her hip, but 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: During the summer of 1976, Hepburn starred in the low-budget family film "Olly Olly Oxen Free". The feature failed to find a major-studio distributor and was finally released independently in 1978. Because of its poor distribution, it played in relatively few theaters, resulting in one of the biggest misfires of Hepburn's career. The screenwriter James Prideaux, who worked with Hepburn, later wrote that it "died at the moment of release" and referred to it as her "lost film". Hepburn claimed the main reason she had done it 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 "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, actor Henry Fonda, and Hepburn sought to play opposite him in the role of quirky Ethel Thayer. "On Golden Pond" was a success, the second-highest-grossing film of 1981. It demonstrated how energetic the 74-year-old Hepburn was, as she dived fully clothed into Squam Lake and gave a lively singing performance. The film won her a second BAFTA and a record fourth Academy Award. Henry Fonda won his only Academy Award for his role in the movie, the third male screen legend (after James Stewart and Humphrey Bogart) who won his only Academy Award acting alongside Hepburn. Homer Dickens, in his book on Hepburn, notes that it was widely considered a sentimental win, "a tribute to her enduring career".


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn also returned to the stage in 1981. She received a second Tony nomination for her portrayal in "The West Side Waltz" of 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 the box-office was poor. 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 her to act with her grandniece, Schuyler Grant.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: In 1991, Hepburn released her autobiography, "Me: Stories of My Life", which 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn's final appearance in a theatrically released film, and her first since "Grace Quigley" nine years earlier, was "Love Affair" (1994). At 87 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 she had looked frail, but that the "magnificent spirit" was still there, and said her scenes "steal the show". A writer for "The New York Times" reflected on the actress's final big-screen appearance: "If she moved more slowly than before, in demeanor, she was as game and modern as she had ever been." Hepburn played her final role in the television film "One Christmas" (1994), for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination at 87 years old.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn was known for being fiercely private, and would not give interviews or talk to fans for much of her career. She distanced herself from the celebrity lifestyle, uninterested in a social scene she saw as tedious and superficial, and she 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 her zeal for privacy, she enjoyed her fame, and later confessed that she would not have liked the press to ignore her completely. The protective attitude toward her private life thawed as she aged; beginning with a two-hour-long interview on "The Dick Cavett Show" in 1973, Hepburn became more open with the public.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn's relentless energy and enthusiasm for life are 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, she retained a sense of humility and humanity.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: The actress led an active 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 enjoyed painting, which became a passion later in life. 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 attitude in 1940s Hollywood prompted her to political activity, as she joined the Committee for the First Amendment. Her name was mentioned at the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee, but Hepburn denied being a Communist sympathizer. Later in life, she openly promoted birth control and supported the legal right to abortion. She described herself as a "dedicated Democrat". She practiced Albert Schweitzer's theory of "Reverence for Life", but did not believe in religion or the afterlife. In 1991, Hepburn told a journalist, "I'm an atheist, and that's it. 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn liked to go barefoot, and for her first acting role in the play "The Woman in the Moon" she insisted that her character Pandora should not wear shoes. Offscreen, she usually dressed in slacks and sandals, even for formal occasions like TV interviews. In her own words, "the thing that drove me out of skirts was the stocking situation ... That's why I've always worn pants ... that way you can always go barefoot".


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn's only marriage was to Ludlow Ogden Smith, a socialite-businessman from Philadelphia whom she met while a student at Bryn Mawr. The couple wed on December 12, 1928, when she was 21 and he was 29. Smith changed his name to S. Ogden Ludlow at her behest so that she would not be "Kate Smith", which she considered too plain. She never fully committed to the marriage and prioritized her career. The move to Hollywood in 1932 cemented the couple's estrangement. Hepburn filed for divorce in Yucatán on April 30, 1934, and it was finalized on May 8. Hepburn often expressed her gratitude toward Smith for his financial and moral support in the early days of her career, and in her autobiography she called herself "a terrible pig" for exploiting his love. The pair remained friends until his death in 1979.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Soon after moving to California, Hepburn began a relationship with her agent, Leland Hayward, although they were both married. Hayward proposed to the actress after they had both divorced, but she declined, later explaining, "I liked the idea of being my own single self." The affair lasted four years. In 1936, while she was touring "Jane Eyre," Hepburn began a relationship with entrepreneur Howard Hughes. She had been introduced to him a year earlier by their mutual friend Cary Grant. Hughes wished to marry her, and the tabloids reported their impending nuptials, but Hepburn stayed focused on resurrecting her failing career. They separated in 1938, when Hepburn left Hollywood after being labeled "box office poison."


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn stuck to her decision not to remarry and made a conscious choice not to have children. She believed that motherhood required a full-time commitment, and said 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Rumors have existed since the 1930s that Hepburn was a lesbian or bisexual, which she often joked about. In 2007, William J. Mann released a biography of the actress in which he argued this was the case. In response to this speculation about her aunt, Katharine Houghton said, "I've never discovered any evidence whatsoever that she was a lesbian." However, in a 2017 documentary, columnist Liz Smith, who was a close friend, attested that she was.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: The most significant relationship of Hepburn's life was with Spencer Tracy, her co-star in nine films. In her autobiography, she wrote, "It was a unique feeling that I had for [Tracy]. I would have done anything for him." Lauren Bacall, a close friend, later wrote of how "blindingly" in love Hepburn was with the actor. The relationship has subsequently been publicized as one of Hollywood's legendary love affairs. Meeting in 1941, when she was 34 and he was 41, Tracy was initially wary of Hepburn, unimpressed by her dirty fingernails and suspecting that she was a lesbian, but Hepburn said she "knew right away that [she] 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 an alcoholic and was frequently depressed; Hepburn described him as "tortured", 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 frequently abroad for career commitments.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Tracy's health declined 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 to not know how he felt about her, and that they "just passed twenty-seven years together in what was to me absolute bliss".


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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, and she was hospitalized in March 1993 for exhaustion. In the winter of 1996, she was hospitalized with pneumonia. By 1997, she had become very weak and was speaking and eating very little, and it was feared she would die. 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 from cardiac arrest on June 29, 2003, a month after her 96th birthday at the Hepburn family home in Fenwick, Connecticut. She was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford. Hepburn requested that there be no memorial service.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn's death received considerable public attention. Many tributes were held on television, and newspapers and magazines dedicated 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 City. The event garnered $5.8 million, which Hepburn willed to her family.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: According to reports, Hepburn was not an instinctive actor. She liked to study the text and character carefully beforehand, making sure she knew them thoroughly, and then to rehearse as much as possible and film multiple takes of a scene. With a genuine passion for acting 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. Commenting on her motivation, Stanley Kramer said, "Work, work, work. She can work till everyone drops." Hepburn involved herself in the production of each of her films, making suggestions for the script and stating her opinion on everything from costumes to lighting to camerawork.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: The characters Hepburn played were, with very few exceptions, wealthy and intelligent, and often strong and independent. These tough characters tended to be humbled in some form and revealed to have a hidden 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, Hepburn embodied the "contradictions" of the "nature and status of women", and 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".


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn is one of the most celebrated American actresses, but she has also been criticized for a lack of versatility. Her on-screen persona closely matched her own real personality, something Hepburn 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." Another repeated criticism is that her demeanor was too cold.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn is considered an important and influential cultural figure. 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 named in "Encyclopædia Britannica" list 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 she is number 84 on VH1's list of the "200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time". In 1999, the American Film Institute named Hepburn the "greatest American screen legend" among females.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Regarding Hepburn's film legacy, one of her biographers, Sheridan Morley, said she "broke 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Off screen, Hepburn's lifestyle was ahead of her time, coming to symbolize the "modern woman" and playing a part in changing gender attitudes. 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." After Hepburn's death, film historian Jeanine Basinger stated, "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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn's legacy extends to fashion, where she pioneered wearing trousers at a time when it was a radical move for a woman. She helped make trousers acceptable for women, and 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 her influence on women's fashion.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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") featured 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 the AFI's list of the Greatest American Comedies. Her clipped, patrician voice is considered one of the most distinctive in film history. []


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn has been honored with several memorials. The Turtle Bay community in New York City, where she maintained a residence for over 60 years, dedicated a garden in her name in 1997. After Hepburn's death in 2003, the intersection of East 49th Street and 2nd Avenue was renamed "Katharine Hepburn Place". Three years later Bryn Mawr College, Hepburn's alma mater, launched the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center. 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" and whose award recipients "are chosen on the basis of their commitment and contributions to the Hepburn women's greatest passions—civic engagement and the arts". 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. The building includes a performance space and a Katharine Hepburn museum.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library and the New York Public Library hold collections of Hepburn's personal papers. Selections from the New York collection, which documents Hepburn's theatrical career, were presented in a five-month exhibition, "Katharine Hepburn: In Her Own Files", in 2009. 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 her 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. In 2015, the British Film Institute held a two-month retrospective of Hepburn's work.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: 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 premiered in 2002 at the Hartford Stage. Hepburn has been portrayed in "Tea at Five" by Kate Mulgrew, Tovah Feldshuh, Stephanie Zimbalist, and Charles Busch. A revised version of the play, eliminating the first act and expanding the second, premiered on June 28, 2019, at Boston's Huntington Theater with Faye Dunaway playing Hepburn. Feldshuh also appeared as Hepburn in "The Amazing Howard Hughes", a 1977 television movie, while Mearle Ann Taylor later portrayed her in "The Scarlett O'Hara War" (1980). In Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biographical film "The Aviator", Hepburn was portrayed by Cate Blanchett, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. This marked the first instance where the portrayal of an Academy Award-winning actress itself won an Academy Award.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: During 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 top American playwrights. She appeared on the stage in every decade from the 1920s to the 1980s, performing plays by Shakespeare and Shaw, and a Broadway musical.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn won four Academy Awards, the record number for a performer, and received a total of 12 Oscar nominations for Best Actress—a number surpassed only 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. Hepburn was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979. She also 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.


title: Katharine Hepburn

text: Hepburn was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The Tsar Bomba () (code name: "Ivan" or "Vanya"), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a thermonuclear aerial bomb, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. Overall, the Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov oversaw the project at Arzamas-16, while the main work of design was by Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babayev, Yuri Smirnov, and Yuri Trutnev. The project was ordered by Nikita Khrushchev in July 1961 as part of the Soviet resumption of nuclear testing after the Test Ban Moratorium, with the detonation timed to coincide with the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Tested on 30 October 1961, the test verified new design principles for high-yield thermonuclear charges, allowing, as its final report put it, the design of a nuclear device "of practically unlimited power". The bomb was dropped by parachute from a Tu-95V aircraft, and detonated autonomously above the cape Sukhoy Nos of Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya, from Mityushikha Bay, north of the Matochkin Strait. The detonation was monitored by United States intelligence agencies, via a KC-135A aircraft (Operation "SpeedLight") in the area at the time. A secret U.S. reconnaissance aircraft named "Speed Light Alpha" monitored the blast, coming close enough to have its antiradiation paint scorched.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The bhangmeter results and other data suggested the bomb yielded around , which was the accepted yield in technical literature until 1991, when Soviet scientists revealed that their instruments indicated a yield of . As they had the instrumental data and access to the test site, their yield figure has been accepted as more accurate. In theory, the bomb would have had a yield in excess of if it had included the uranium-238 fusion tamper which figured in the design but which was omitted in the test to reduce radioactive fallout. As only one bomb was built to completion, that capability has never been demonstrated. The remaining bomb casings are located at the Russian Atomic Weapon Museum in Sarov and the Museum of Nuclear Weapons, All-Russian Scientific Research Institute Of Technical Physics, in Snezhinsk.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Tsar Bomba was a modification of an earlier project, RN202, which used a ballistic case of the same size but a very different internal mechanism. A number of published books, even some authored by those involved in product development 602, contain inaccuracies that are replicated elsewhere, including wrongly identifying Tsar Bomba as RDS-202 or RN202.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: In the mid-1950s, the United States had an unconditional superiority over the USSR in nuclear weapons, although thermonuclear charges had already been created in the USSR at this time. Also, there were no effective means of delivering nuclear warheads to the US, both in the 1950s and in 1961. The USSR was not therefore able to muster a possible realistic retaliatory nuclear strike against the US.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Given the Soviet Union's actual strategic disadvantage in relation to America's nuclear weapons possessions, foreign policy and propaganda considerations during the leaderships of Georgy Malenkov and Nikita Khrushchev made a response to the perceived US nuclear blackmail imperative. The creation of the Tsar Bomba represented a necessitated bluff in order to maintain the concept of nuclear deterrence.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Also on June 23, 1960, the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued on the creation of a super-heavy ballistic missile N-1 (GRAU index – 11A52) with a warhead weighing . For a comparative assessment, the weight of the warhead tested in 1964 by the UR-500 ICBM was .


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The development of new designs of nuclear and thermonuclear ammunition requires testing. The operability of the device, its safety in emergency situations, and the calculated energy release during an explosion must be confirmed.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The bomb was officially known as "product 602" () or "AN602", and codenamed "Ivan". The usage of different names can be a source of confusion. The Tsar Bomba, being a modification of the RN202, is sometimes mistakenly labelled as RDS-37, RDS-202 or PH202 (product 202).


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Unofficially, the bomb would later become known as "Tsar Bomba" and "Kuzka's mother" (, ). The name Tsar Bomba (loosely translated as "Emperor of Bombs") comes from an allusion to two other Russian historical artifacts, the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell, both of which were created as showpieces but whose large size made them impractical for actual use. The name "Tsar Bomba" does not seem to have been used for the weapon prior to the 1990s. The name "Kuzka's Mother" was inspired by the statement of Khrushchev to then US Vice President Richard Nixon: "We have funds at our disposal that will have dire consequences for you. We will show you Kuzka's mother!"


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) designated the test as "JOE 111", using their "JOE" counting scheme begun with RDS-1 in 1949.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The development of a super-powerful bomb began in 1956 and was carried out in two stages. At the first stage, from 1956 to 1958, it was "product 202", which was developed in the recently-created NII-1011. The modern name of NII-1011 is the "Russian Federal Nuclear Center or the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics" (RFNC-VNIITF). According to the official history of the institute, the order on the creation of a research institute in the system of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building was signed on April 5, 1955; work at the NII-1011 began a little later.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: At the second stage of development, from 1960 to a successful test in 1961, the bomb was called "item 602" and was developed at KB-11 (VNIIEF), V. B. Adamsky was developing, and besides him, the physical scheme was developed by Andrei Sakharov, Yu. N. Babaev, Yu. N. Smirnov, Yu. A. Trutnev.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: After the successful test of the RDS-37, KB-11 employees (Sakharov, Zeldovich, and Dovidenko) performed a preliminary calculation and, on February 2, 1956, they handed over to N. I. Pavlov, a note with the parameters for charges of and the possibility of increasing the power to .


title: Tsar Bomba

text: After the creation in 1955 of the second nuclear center – NII-1011, in 1956, by a resolution of the Council of Ministers, the center was assigned the task of developing an ultra-high-power charge, which was called "Project 202".


title: Tsar Bomba

text: On March 12, 1956, a draft Joint Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU Central Committee) and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union on the preparation and testing of the 202 product was adopted. The project planned to develop a version of the RDS-37 with a capacity of .


title: Tsar Bomba

text: RDS-202 was designed with a maximum calculated power release of , with a diameter of , a length of , weighing with a parachute system and structurally coordinated with the Tu-95-202 carrier aircraft specially converted for its use. On June 6, 1956, the NII-1011 report described the RDS-202 thermonuclear device with a design power of up to with the required task of . In reality, this device was developed with an estimated power of , after testing the products "40GN", "245" and "205" its tests were deemed inappropriate and canceled.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The Tsar Bomba differs from its parent design – the RN202 – in several places. The Tsar Bomba was a three-stage bomb with a Trutnev-Babaev second- and third-stage design, with a yield of 50 Mt. This is equivalent to about 1,570 times the combined energy of the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 10 times the combined energy of all the conventional explosives used in World War II, one quarter of the estimated yield of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, and 10% of the combined yield of all other nuclear tests to date. A three-stage hydrogen bomb uses a fission bomb primary to compress a thermonuclear secondary, as in most hydrogen bombs, and then uses energy from the resulting explosion to compress a much larger additional thermonuclear stage. There is evidence that the Tsar Bomba had several third stages rather than a single very large one. RDS-202 was assembled on the principle of radiation implosion, which was previously tested during the creation of RDS-37. Since it used a much-heavier secondary module than in the RDS-37, not one, but two primary modules (charges), located on two opposite sides of the secondary module, were used to compress it. This physical charging scheme was later used in the design of the AN-602, but the AN-602 thermonuclear charge itself (secondary module) was new. The RDS-202 thermonuclear charge was manufactured in 1956, and was planned for testing in 1957, but was not tested and put into storage. Two years after the manufacture of the RDS-202, in July 1958, it was decided to remove it from storage, dismantle and use automation units and charge parts for experimental work (Order No. 277 of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building dated May 23, 1957).


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a draft Joint Resolution on 12 March, 1956, on the preparation and testing of "izdeliye 202", which read:


title: Tsar Bomba

text: In 1960, KB-11 began developing a thermonuclear device with a design capacity of . In February 1961, the leaders of KB-11 sent a letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU with the subject line "Some questions of the development of nuclear weapons and methods of their use", which, among other things, raised the question of the expediency of developing such a 100 Mt device. On July 10, 1961, a discussion took place in the Central Committee of the CPSU, at which First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev supported the development and testing of this super-powerful bomb.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: To speed up the work on Tsar Bomba, it was based on the 202 Project, but was a new project, developed by a different group. In particular, in KB-11, six casings for the Project 202 bomb already manufactured at NII-1011 and a set of equipment developed for the 202 Project testing were used.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Tsar Bomba had a "three-stage" design: the first stage is the necessary fission trigger. The second stage was two relatively small thermonuclear charges with a calculated contribution to the explosion of , which were used for radiation implosion of the third stage, the main thermonuclear module located between them, and starting a thermonuclear reaction in it, contributing 50 Mt of explosion energy. As a result of the thermonuclear reaction, huge numbers of high-energy fast neutrons were formed in the main thermonuclear module, which, in turn, initiated the fast fission nuclear reaction in the nuclei of the surrounding uranium-238, which would have added another 50 Mt of energy to the explosion, so that the estimated energy release of Tsar Bomba was around 100 Mt.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The test of such a complete three-stage 100 Mt bomb was rejected due to the extremely high level of radioactive contamination that would be caused by the fission reaction of large quantities of uranium-238 fission. During the test, the bomb was used in a two-stage version. A. D. Sakharov suggested using nuclear passive material instead of the uranium-238 in the secondary bomb module, which reduced the bomb's energy to 50 Mt, and, in addition to reducing the amount of radioactive fission products, avoided the fireball's contact with the Earth's surface, thus eliminating radioactive contamination of the soil and the distribution of large amounts of fallout into the atmosphere.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Many technical innovations were applied in the design of Tsar Bomba. The thermonuclear charge was made according to the "bifilar" scheme – the radiation implosion of the main thermonuclear stage was carried out from two opposite sides. These secondary charges produced X-ray compression of the main thermonuclear charge. For this, the second stage was separated into two fusion charges which were placed in the front and rear parts of the bomb, for which a synchronous detonation was required with a difference in initiation of no more than 100 nanoseconds. To ensure synchronous detonation of charges with the required accuracy, the sequencing unit of the detonation electronics was modified at KB-25 (now "Federal State Unitary Enterprise "NL Dukhov All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Automation")(VNIIA).


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The initial three-stage design of Tsar Bomba was capable of yielding approximately 100 Mt through fast fission (3,000 times the power of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs); however, it was thought that this would have resulted in too much nuclear fallout, and the aircraft delivering the bomb would not have had enough time to escape the explosion. To limit the amount of fallout, the third stage and possibly the second stage had a lead tamper instead of a uranium-238 fusion tamper (which greatly amplifies the fusion reaction by fissioning uranium atoms with fast neutrons from the fusion reaction). This eliminated fast fission by the fusion-stage neutrons so that approximately 97% of the total yield resulted from thermonuclear fusion alone (as such, it was one of the "cleanest" nuclear bombs ever created, generating a very low amount of fallout relative to its yield). There was a strong incentive for this modification, since most of the fallout from a test of the bomb would probably have descended on populated Soviet territory.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The first studies on "Topic 242" began immediately after Igor Kurchatov talked with Andrei Tupolev (then held in late 1954). Tupolev appointed his deputy for weapon systems, Aleksandr Nadashkevich, as the head of the Topic. Subsequent analysis indicated that to carry such a heavy, concentrated load, the Tu-95 bomber carrying the Tsar Bomba needed to have its engines, bomb bay, suspension and release mechanisms extensively redesigned. The Tsar Bomba's dimensional and weight drawings were passed in the first half of 1955, together with its placement layout drawing. The Tsar Bomba's weight accounted for 15% of the weight of its Tu-95 carrier as expected. The carrier, aside from having its fuel tanks and bomb bay doors removed, had its BD-206 bomb-holder replaced by a new, heavier beam-type BD7-95-242 (or BD-242) holder attached directly to the longitudinal weight-bearing beams. The problem of how to release the bomb was also solved; the bomb-holder would release all three of its locks in a synchronous fashion via electro-automatic mechanisms as required by safety protocols.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: A Joint Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers (Nr. 357-28ss) was issued on 17 March, 1956, which mandated that OKB-156 begin conversion of a Tu-95 bomber into a high-yield nuclear bomb carrier. These works were carried out in the Gromov Flight Research Institute from May to September 1956. The converted bomber, designated the Tu-95V, was accepted for duty and was handed over for flight tests which, including a release of a mock-up "superbomb", were conducted under the command of Colonel S. M. Kulikov until 1959, and passed without major issues.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Despite the creation of the Tu-95V bomb-carrier aircraft, the test of the Tsar Bomba was postponed for political reasons: namely, Khrushchev's visit to the United States and a pause in the Cold War. The Tu-95V during this period was flown to Uzyn, in today's Ukraine, and was used as a training aircraft; therefore, it was no longer listed as a combat aircraft. With the beginning of a new round of the Cold War in 1961, the test was resumed. The Tu-95V had all connectors in its automatic release mechanism replaced, the bomb bay doors removed and the aircraft itself covered with a special, reflective white paint.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Nikita Khrushchev, the first secretary of the Communist Party, announced the upcoming tests of a 50-Mt bomb in his opening report at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on October 17, 1961. Before the official announcement, in a casual conversation, he told an American politician about the bomb, and this information was published on September 8, 1961, in "The New York Times". The Tsar Bomba was tested on October 30, 1961.


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The Tupolev Tu-95V aircraft, No. 5800302, with the bomb took off from the Olenya airfield, and was flown to State Test Site No. 6 of the USSR Ministry of Defense located on Novaya Zemlya with a crew of nine:


title: Tsar Bomba

text: The test was also attended by the Tupolev Tu-16 laboratory aircraft, no. 3709, equipped for monitoring the tests, and its crew:


title: Tsar Bomba

text: Both aircraft were painted with special reflective paint to minimize heat damage. Despite this effort, Durnovtsev, and his crew, were given only a 50% chance of surviving the test.