Glenn Close wins award named after Katharine Hepburn

Glenn Close at the Academy Awards. (Reuters)

OLD SAYBROOK: Actress Glenn Close says she is humbled to receive an award named after Katharine Hepburn, given what an inspiration Hepburn was to her career.
The Day of New London reports Close received the Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award on Saturday in Connecticut.
The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center presents the honor to someone who embodies Hepburn’s “spirit, independence and character.”
Close has earned six Oscar nominations. She says she was inspired to become an actress in college when she saw an interview with Hepburn.
She told Hepburn the story when they finally met in 1990. In response, Hepburn wrote a letter saying she was glad she persuaded Close “to join this terrible profession” and “this delicious way to spend your life.”
Hepburn died in 2003 at 96.
Close is a six-time Academy Award nominee, tying the record for being the actress with the most nominations never to have won (along with Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter).
As of 2016, Close has more Oscar nominations without a win than any other living actor. In addition, she has been nominated for four Tonys, 14 Emmys (three wins), 13 Golden Globes (two wins), two Drama Desk Awards (one win) and eight Screen Actors Guild Awards (one win).
She has also won an Obie award, and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards and a BAFTA.
Close has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
She is a founder and chairperson of BringChange2Mind, a US campaign to eradicate the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness, supporting her sister Jessie who has bipolar disorder.
In 2010, Close announced to the public that she had her DNA sequenced in order to publicize her family’s history of mental illness.