Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 1969
Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter 1969
Tied With
Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl
SEX WORKER ROLE
(for Katharine Hepburn)
Hostess in Night Hostess 1928
Character Is A Prostitute
Woman Racket aka Night Hostess 1930
For most actors arriving in New York City, there is always a struggling period. Even for one of the greatest actresses of this century. Katharine Hepburn’s first starring role was supposed to be in the “Big Pond.” However, she got fired after one performance. Undaunted, she plowed ahead and got another acting gig in short order. “Night Hostess” was a risque comedy cabaret opening in Minneapolis. Foreseeing this show’s risque, Katharine decided to use a stage name, Katherine Burns. Though the part’s characterization is a ‘hostess,’ that was a euphemism for ‘prostitute.’ Decades later, she would tell Dick Cavett the role was a ‘wicked fascinator’ and that she ‘never did learn how to be that kind of fascinator.’ The character and the show would be so obscure it very rarely gets mentioned in her credits.
In 1930 the play would be adapted into a movie entitled “Woman Racket.” Katharine Hepburn WAS NOT in that film, but watch the clip below to see what the stage play was all about.
“Woman Racket” aka “Night Hostess”
To read more about this prostitute role & other Oscar-winning actresses playing a hooker, please continue perusing
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