Katharine Hepburn was nominated for a whopping
12 Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role, more than any other actress in her time. Although Hepburn won the Oscar for four of her film roles (MORNING GLORY (1933),
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967), THE LION IN WINTER (1968), and
ON GOLDEN POND (1981)), she never once attended an Academy Award ceremony to accept an award. It wasn't until she presented Producer Lawrence Weingarten the Irving G. Thalberg Award at the 46th awards ceremony in 1974 that Hepburn ever appeared at the Oscars.
"I've never been to an Academy Award [ceremony]. Now, if I sit here, in my chair, where I must be honest with myself so I'll progress and my character will improve, why don't I go to the Academy Awards? It has to be because I'm afraid that I'm gonna loose. Doesn't it? I don't approve of my attitude, of not going. I think that's cheap of me. Second rate. Second rate, not to go. It's a group activity." (interview with Morley Safer for "60 Minutes")
