Was Katharine Hepburn Gay?

I always heard that rumor. Was it ever substantiated?

TCM just played this MGM thing where they showed all the stars from the mid-late 40''s eating together. Lena was given Katharine such a stank eye, I wonder what Hepburn said or did... Bad break up.
Read William J. Mann''s bio of her, KATE.\ \ It tells the whole story and names all the names (incl. the girlfriends)
Spencer was gay too...
I was just looking at a pic on another thread with Katherine Hepburn on the Dick Cavett show and the way she was sitting made her look VERY dykey, but her relationship with Spencer Tracey confuses me.
As a child I called myself Jimmie.
Kate
I seem to recall that, after Hepburn''s death, biographer Anne Edwards acknowledged that she thought Kate was gay, but wasn''t allowed to say it in her book about the actress.
Sad, R5. I guess since she couldn''t say it the book was full of false truths.%0D\ %0D\ Too bad; people still can''t be out. Not even in death.%0D
Would it really be a shock to her fans?.
Have you ever thought that she had Asperger''s and was asexual? She was reclusive too. Did not seem to like people and only liked whom she liked.
I think I read in Lauren Bacall''s autobiography that whenever she and Humphrey Bogart were with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, they would never talk about their relationship. They were apparently all close friends, but that subject was off limits.%0D\ %0D\ So if she was lesbian what was the deal with Tracey?
She loved Spencer as a friend & she cared for him,they probably had a good friendship because even though he was an angry man who didn''t always treat her well she never gave up on him & nursed to him until the end.She realized Spencer was a tormented man who drank way too much & she wanted to save him,maybe because she couldn''t help her troubled teenage brother who committed suicide. It''s a sad story not the romance the public believed.
Mann's book reveals that after Tracy's death it suited Hepburn in the 80s and 90s to create the legend of what a great couple they were, which surprised a lot of her friends. Suddenly the reclusive Hepburn was on lots of documentaries and talk shows about her and Spence, including that official documentary she made to publicise her own book, which was very selective in what she wanted us to know about her. %0D %0D She was off the screen from '59 to '67 (the [62 Long Days Journey into Night was hardly shown then) supposedly looking after Tracy but in fact they were not together much as she travelled a lot and spent time with her various female friends. Then of course she came back bigger than ever in 67 and 68 winning 2 oscars so there was a lot of renewed interest in her. So it all suited her very well to have this myth about Tracy and Hepburn.%0D %0D The Scot Berg and Mann books really make one like her a lot more now we know more about her. She did have lots of gay friends too - not only Cukor but pals like dancer Robert Helpmann whom she toured Australia with, and Anthony Harvey who directed Lion in Winter. There's a nice picture of the 3 of them chatting with drinks in one of those photobooks on her.
that sounds very true r11 - I get the same vibe from those later Hepburn books. The ones in her lifetime were all whitewashes, including her own.
bump
r8 said Kate "only liked whom she liked." Isn''t that true for all of us?%0D
I seem to recall that Kate claimed that she had no idea what men could possibly do to each other in a sexual way. Someone carefully explained it to her and she expressed utter shock and horror that stuff like that happened. I believe it was in the Anne Edwards biography. The impression was that she didn''t believe there was such a thing as homosexuality. The thing is she was maybe in her 40''s when all this took place. Unless I''m remembering it wrong.%0D\ %0D\ She always struck me as being asexual.
Asperger''s, asexual and reclusive, R8? No. We''re just Yankees. Short answers to stupid questions, not flaunting sex partners and not being photographed at the opening of the envelope would be another way of looking at it. She very well may have been bi or gay, but your post isn''t working.
Also, no one here has mentioned it, but Tracy is often said to have been a gay man.
Funny that he whole public persona was "Fuck it, I don''t care what thy think", when its clear she cared so deeply it informed all of her decisions.
[quote]Also, no one here has mentioned it, but Tracy is often said to have been a gay man.%0D\ %0D\ We don''t always mention everything. For example, it''s Wednesday.
No she wasn''t a lesbian. Who comes up with this ridiculous shit?
The William Mann bio is very good, and has the most in-depth exploration of Hepburn's sexuality to date. While Mann believes that she had some relationships with men that were romantic and sexual -- such as her relationship with Howard Hughes and, in the beginning, her relationship with Spencer Tracy -- he implies that she was more gay than straight. Hepbur is known to have had several passionate, intimate relationships with women, some of whom she lived with. It's not know for certain whether these relationships were sexual but it seems likely that they were. A. Scot Berg's book also has some interesting anecdotes concerning Hepburn's sexuality. (According to Berg, Hepburn's friend Irene Mayer Selznick believed Hepburn was a lesbian and actually caught Hepburn in a compromising position with a young woman). Re: Kate and Spencer Tracy -- their relationship began as a romance but after a while the sexual part apparently died out and it really became more of a friendship, with Hepburn taking on the role of caretaker of the ailing, alcoholic Tracy. According to Mann, Tracy had a penchant for rent boys and was tormented about this. He and Hepburn genuinely cared for each other as friends, but there's also a sense in which they bearded for each other so each could pursue same-sex relations with other people.
Do you think there would ever be an actress capable of sufficiently portraying Katharine in a movie about her life?\ \ Anyone we know today strike you as capable? I''m not seeing it, but you all know more than I do about these things.
Maybe Kate Mulgrew...
I actually read her biography ME where she addressed lesbian rumors and denied them...She also denied that her brother committed suicide so who the f---k knows but I will say this...She wasn''t allowed to Spencer Tracy''s funeral by his wife and neither did she ever acknowledge while he was alive that they were lovers I think it''s just as possible they were both just repressed OR MAYBE THEY LOVED EACHOTHER???
anonymous
it seems this unauthorized biographer william j. mann..seens to think everyone in hollywood was gay.. why should we believe him.. i dident find anything to prove she was.. and why would spencer tracy and hepburn live together all those years..
Some people want to believe that there are as many closeted lesbian actresses as there are gay male ones, but the facts are that there are many, many closeted gay men in Hollywood and very few lesbians in this particular industry. Acting, like the fashion industry, attracts a disproportionate amount of MEN who are gay, not women. Now Wimbledon on the other hand . . .
Firsthand%20experience
Kate Hepburn VIBED! I know about her famous relationship with Spencer Tracy, only, surprise!!!He vibed, too!!!
cristina.siegel@verizon.net
LOL, R20. "She always struck me as being asexual." Yeah, right. That's what they always say. My 80 y/o mother calls gays "neuter." Funny, R1, but Lena was all hot for Ava Gardner at the time. It wasn't until she was in her 60s that she went with skinny pasty white women like Hepburn.
A very funny lesbian anecdote: Hepburn was very friendly with Martina Navratilova and her LT girl friend, Judy Nelson. Upon hearing of their break-up (Navratilova dumped Nelson), Hepburn contacted Judy. Judy reported that Kate wrote her a long letter and tried to keep up the friendship -- she was HITTING on Nelson, but Nelson was too new to her newly single lesbian status to get the hints.
They didn't live together, oh frighted homophobe, r25.
Lick, Lick, Lick.
M
I've always thought Hepburn was more gay than straight, as well as her contemporary Barbara Stanwyck. 'Coming out' was not something that was even in their vocabulary. We're talking about people who were born in the early 1900's for christ's sake! It was just a totally different generation and time period. For people of that era, if you had same-sex feelings, you kept it very quiet and presented a heterosexual persona to the public. That's just the way it was.
[quote]Acting, like the fashion industry, attracts a disproportionate amount of MEN who are gay, not women. Don't forget bisexuals of both sexes.
The Mann bio rings very true and matches information from that do-everything-for-everybody gas pumper/bartender/yardman (cannot remember his name- who recently published a memoire of his Hollywood career as procurer of men for men, women for women, men for women and women for me (he could have sex with anyone). He accepted no $ for these services, rather he did other jobs for stars, producers, director etc, parties, bartending, handyman, you name it. Both Hepburn and Tracy used him for same sex liasons. Her relationship with Tracy was mostly best friend/brother-sister, not lovers. She definitely had sexual relationships with Howard Hughs, and others. And she definitely mislead the public making up a lot of herself for her public image. Her flinty, practical, blunt New England aristocrat personna was real, but not much else. I would call her bisexual. Mann gave the impression that she loved manly men, but sex with women was her real sexual passion. It's a good book- read it.
charlie
I dunno...just looking at her, the way she talked and walked...always screamed lesbian to me. One of my favorite films is SUMMERTIME and I just can't get the hetero vibe from her falling for uber hunk Rossano Brazzi.
"Tracy had a penchant for rent boys and was tormented about this. He and Hepburn genuinely cared for each other as friends, but there's also a sense in which they bearded for each other so each could pursue same-sex relations with other people." I can believe that Tracy and Hepburn had a serious involvement that stopped being sexual, if it ever was sexual. Hell, that's true of a great many relationships and marriages. I can also believe that Hepburn had other lovers, perhaps female ones. I can also easily believe that Tracy was gay and liked rentboys. However, I don't see their relationship as one of bearding for each other. Tracy already had a beard. His wife!
[quote]It's a good book- read it. Full Service by Scotty Bowers. Some people don't believe him, but I do. I grew to like Scotty as I read along. He loved sex and was a busy little prostitute his whole life. As far as stirring guests' drinks with his dick, no thanks.
Scot Berg is an unusual man. He spent so much time with Hepburn...at times it seems every weekend in Connecticutt even after she was not doing well mentally. Was he a loyal friend, or someone who knew there was a best selling book as a result of their relationship?
How is it possible that in 2012, decades and decades after hepburn and Tracy were HUGE international movie stars, recognized the world over, there can be not a shred of undeniable proof of either's homosexuality? Just simply a reliable witness coming forth or a recovered love note or an uncompromising photo or something? And I say this as someone who believes that both people were at least bisexual if not homosexual. How are such secrets so well-kept?
R39, the sexual heyday of Tracy and Hepburn happened eighty or ninety years ago, and you can bet they were discrete at the time. Their lovers are old or dead, and at the time they knew that writing descriptive love letters or taking the wrong sort of pictures could destroy their fabulous careers. So I'm not surprised there's no "proof" now. But that's celebrity gossip for you. Unless someone's stupid enough to make a sex tape, there's never any proof of anything.
We took uncompromising photos that were well-publicized and it never hurt us!
Cary & Randy
She looked great in slacks in "The Phildadelphia Story." Maybe women who were definitely gay noticed and came on to her. After a while, she might have figured it out.
anonymous
I wish celebrities would go back to being discreet about their affairs. I'm tired of their skanky sex tapes.
According to the Mann biography, Kate's great love was Laura Harding.
Sappho
R21 I don't know if Spencer was into rent boys but he was reportedly into womanizing, boozing and an ugly drunk. My impression is he and Hepburn were in love although he was unfaithful even to her. She herself was a modern woman, with liberal parents, in a liberal industry. Marriage wasn't necessary to her as it's not to a lot of women today. Considering that he has been described as an abusive drunk by peers and was arrested several times for disorderly conduct, I doubt he was easy to be around when he was bingeing. But I have definitely known supposedly independent women to take way too much shit from men and stay devoted to them. Way too many. I think that is a possible scenario.
The Hollywood industry was tightly locked back then with not that much scandalous stuff becoming public knowledge. Yes, people talk, but nowdays people go 'link to proof or shut the fuck up!'.
R45, you view is dated, something my 80 years old mother would say -- in 1970 and in 2012. Jeez, some of you guys are just so afraid of this. You have once married, had many girlfriends, George Clooney as gay/bi based on "rumors," and you get all in denial about Katharine Hepburn and ask for proof.
I hate it when our corn fed sisters decide to start threads.
R45, Tracy was not into women, he used male escorts/prostitutes, alot. This has been pretty well described by the guy who set up the men for him, as well as women for Hepburn. He was Catholic and would not divorce his wife- he was supposedly consumed with guilt over all this which was probably one of the sources of his alcoholism. He and Hepburn were friends- mostly on account of her devotion to him- and that devotion was as a caretaker and sympathizer. They would hole up in a cottage on George Cukor's estate. Tracy's marriage was in name alone. He was devoted to a handicapped son- more reason for guilt. You should read the Mann bio of Hepburn. If it is even half true, the above is accurate.
charlie
Dated? I think it's narrow to still think all women fall into cliches, when in current society women live vastly different lifestyles than their ancestors. Or that obvious things like alcoholism doesn't effect relationships. Or believe that biographers can't get away with saying a "source" "told them" or "speculates" like tabloids do all the time. I don't see Clooney who seems to date one bimbo after the next the same as Tracy. And Tracy's affairs were probably cleaned up back in the day. I don't say that I know one way or the other what KH's orientation was but it sounds like the author had an agenda. Having said that, I haven't read the book so maybe that'd change my mind.
The agenda of a good biographer is to get to the truth about their subject's life. I think that was Mann's goal and i think he got as close as anyone. Hepburn herself was not at all about telling the "truth" of her life, rather presenting an image that would serve her career, at all stages of her life, best. And she did that very well. Mann captures this "truth" about Hepburn quite well, without judgement and even a little admiration.
charlie
R45, 50 = Dated, in denial just like a geezer that likes to say, "you think everyone is gay!!!"
Im going to buy the Mann bio of Hepburn.
Many years ago, my mother was visiting the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. Into an otherwise empty gallery swept Katharine Hepburn, then starring in a Boston play, followed by a few well-dressed female companions. Hepburn was lecturing them pedantically about art, obviously used to being the center of attention. Suddenly she spotted my mother, who at the time was a slim, dark-haired, blue-eyed beauty from Smith College, and fell silent. My mother was stunned to find herself eye-to-eye with someone she had watched for years on the silver screen. The star's eyes bored intensely into hers, as if they were the only people in the room. After an awkward silence, Hepburn turned away and resumed her oration, the group dutifully following her into the next gallery. My mother was cruised by Katharine Hepburn.
She must've been bisexual to put up with alcoholic Spencer Tracy all those years or he was a Hollywood beard. Cynthia McFadden is adopted. She befriended Hepburn and became executor of her estate. Her son's name is Spencer. She strongly resembles Kate Hepburn to me too.
Yes, Hollywood was on lock down back then. Not a scandal got out. If they could hide Rock Hudson all those years they were GOOD!!! Liberace sued and won against a magazine for calling him gay yet he was flaming. They bearded him with a female ice skater. Such lies. Ugh! John Travolta's past lovers don't seem to be fazing his career, his wife or him so people are getting use to it. What a life to live. Kelly must have some sort of agreement. I'm sorry but I couldn't be with a gay or bisexual man. No way!!!
"Tracy was not into women, he used male escorts/prostitutes, alot. This has been pretty well described by the guy who set up the men for him, as well as women for Hepburn. He was Catholic and would not divorce his wife- he was supposedly consumed with guilt over all this which was probably one of the sources of his alcoholism." I suppose "the guy" you're referring to is Scotty Bowers. Of course you realize that Scotty Bowers has no proof whatsoever to back up his claims, that you have to take his stories "on faith", don't you? And of course you realize that Mann's biography is full of inaccuracies and sheer speculation on his part, don't you? John Curtis did a recent biography of Tracy, very thorough and researched. In the final chapter he does quite a good job of discrediting both Bowers and Mann. Perhaps you should read it. It would clear up a lot of things you assume simply because Bowers and Mann said it.
r,54. I don't even care if that's not true. It was beautifully written. I believe you.
Is it so out of bounds TO CONSIDER that they may have been both been bisexual.Tracy as an mean drunk apparently and I doubt Kate was a walk in the park to deal with either. They could have found much easier people to beard for them if they wanted to. Bisexuals are not unicorns we do exist.
Yes, for sure. Read Darwin Porter's "Katharine the Great"
How gay was Hepburn? SO gay that her first and only husband, nicknamed "Luddy,' was a gay man living with his longtime lover. He was obsessed with Hepburn, and she married him as a beard. Their "honeymoon" consisted of 4 people-Hepburn, Luddy-and his and her female lovers. Tracy and Hepburn were both bi-sexual. But Hepburn wanted to protect Tracy's image, and her own-which is why she has put out books and even documentaries about "her life with Spencer." In reality-their "affair" lasted only about a year. The rest of the time she was his caretaker, period- Of all the men in her life, the only one she really loved in a romantic and sexual was was director John Ford.
r48 = bitchy, yet hilarious.
Well, there were a series of photos posted earlier today of her having lunch with FDR, but maybe the real reason she went there was to meet Eleanor afterwards . . .
"Tracy and Hepburn were both bi-sexual" I don't know about Hepburn, but Tracy was not definitely NOT bi-sexual. In fact, he was a womanizer, and his relationship with Hepburn didn't change that. The only people who say Tracy was into cock are types like Darwin Porter, Scotty Bowers and William J. Mann, none of whom are even remotely credible.
To #68: It's much easier for people to accept that woman are bi-sexual, or gay-than it is to deal with the fact that male icons are bi or gay. But, the truth is that Spencer Tracy was one of the best concealed bi-sexuals of all time! My opinion is that Tracy was gay, and screwed women because he felt so guilty after screwing his male co-stars, rent boys, and especially the underage teen boys that he and gay pal George Cukor screwed together! I think Tracy was gay because he beat the shit out of female prostitutes. Almost killed quite a few. MGM hushed it up, of course. Tracy had to be strait-jacketed many times: it was hushed up, of course. But he was much nicer to his boyfriends. He was extremely cruel to Hepburn. Why she stood by him I don't understand-expect because of the guilt she felt over her young brother's suicide. Sexually? Kate liked very strong men-like John Ford, Hemingway-and Howard Hughes. and Tracy. But of all this group, John Ford was the ONLY ONE who wasn't majorly bi-sexual/gay. Since Kate was pretty gay herself, she accepted it. Laura Harding, yes-was her friend/lover all her life. But to Laura's extreme displeasure-Hepburn was not the "marrying kind."
Helen
Response to #53: Re: HEPBURN and ELEANOR ROOSEVELT Eleanor was gay, and fell madly in love with Hepburn. Hepburn admired the first lady enormously-but had no interest in her romantically or sexually. ER pursued Hepburn with romantic letters, and they saw each other on occasion-but that was one Sapphic love that was not reciprocated. Poor Eleanor! Helen
sometimes she ate black pussy, just sayin
housekeeper
To #64, AGAIN Excuse me-but clearly you have NOT read any of Darwin Porter's books if you think he is an "unreliable writer." His sources are incredible. He personally knew half of old Hollywood himself, and those he didn't know, he got personally stories about from firsthand sources. Porter is the author of 30 years of "Frommer's Guides..." the most highly respected travel books ever! Just because Porter is gay himself, and writes "from a gay POV," is no reason to call him a suspect writer. Check him out on Wikipedia! I mean-the man was close friends of Tennesee Williams, Cole Porter, Clifford Odets! The top writers of all time. If you don't believe what these guys say-who ARE you going to believe? The people who say that all celebs are pure and true and only do it missionary style? Helen