Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn
Biographical information
Full Name	Katharine Houghton Hepburn
Race/Nationality	White/American
Date of birth	May 12, 1907
Place of birth	Hartford, Connecticut
Date of death	June 29, 2003
Place of death	Fenwick, Connecticut
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Woman
Height	5'7
Eye color	Blue

Katharine Houghton Hepburn (1907-2003) is a historic film actress. She portrayed Rose Sayer in the 1951 film, The African Queen, which was an inspiration behind the original Jungle Cruise attraction as well as its 2021 film adaptation.

Appearances, allusions & tributes

Attractions

• Bengal Barbecue: In Bengal Barbecue, there's a photograph of Katharine Hepburn as Rose Sayer, across from Charlie Allnut aboard the Jungle Cruise boat the Zambezi Miss, passing by the African veldt and trapped safari.
• Jungle Cruise (attraction): The Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise and Tokyo Disneyland Jungle Cruise's boat, the Kwango Kate, is thought to be named in tribute to Katharine Hepburn. While removed from American parks in 2000, during the attraction's 2021 refurbishment this boat became a major part of the Jungle Cruise's narrative and appears as unnamed wreckage in the Hippo Pool of Disneyland's Jungle Cruise. In Disneyland's Jungle Cruise there is a boat called the Kissimmee Kate, which is also thought to be a tribute to Hepburn however is a more direct play to the 1948 musical, Kiss Me, Kate, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew (the name Kate in the play refers to the character of Katherine/Kate Minola). In addition to allusions to Rose Sayer in the Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise, said version of the ride also supposedly had a shrunken head in the possession of (since removed character) Chief Nah-mee, made to resemble the face of Katharine Hepburn.
• The Magic of Disney Animation: The poster for the fictional Jungle Cruise film recreated the poster for the African Queen, with Minnie Mouse replacing Katharine Hepburn.

Film

• Jungle Cruise (2021): The film's protagonist Dr. Lily Houghton is made to parallel Rose Sayer from the African Queen. Her family's surname appears to be a tribute to Katharine Hepburn's middle-name.

Trivia

• Katherine Hepburn well known in old Hollywood to have been a prolific sapphic and it is sometimes reported that she married her husband Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) as a beard to dodge accusations of lesbianism, possibly connecting to MacGregor Houghton's sexual orientation.

Gallery

Hepburn as Rose Sayer in the African Queen

One of Nah-mee's heads (likely that around his neck) made to resemble Hepburn

As Rose Sayer

As Rose Sayer

A photo of Hepburn as Rose Sayer in Bengal Barbecue

The Kwango Kate, overrun by Chimpanzees