NEW YORK, June 30: Actress Katharine Hepburn, who won a record four best actress Oscars during a career that spanned much of the last century, died on Sunday at her home in Connecticut at the age of 96, a family member said.

Ms Hepburn, whose health had been in decline for some time and had not spoken for several days, passed away peacefully, said her brother-in-law Ellsworth Grant.

“She’s the greatest actress of her age and with her passing that whole galaxy of great movie stars has ended,” Mr Grant, who saw the screen legend shortly before she died, told Reuters.

He said the cause of death was “simply complications from old age.”

Seven years ago Katharine Hepburn moved back to the family mansion in Fenwick, an upper-class borough of Old Saybrook on Long Island Sound.

She lived a quiet, reclusive life there and was rarely seen in public. Friends and relatives said she suffered from short-term memory loss.

Katharine Hepburn’s executor, Cynthia McFadden, told reporters the actress died at 2:50pm “surrounded by loved ones”.

“There will be no memorial service and her burial at a later date will be private... She died as she lived, with dignity and grace,” Ms McFadden said.

Katharine Hepburn won her first Academy Award in 1933 for “Morning Glory” and won again for “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, “The Lion in Winter” and “On Golden Pond.” She was nominated for the award eight other times.

She played opposite such leading men as James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and Henry Fonda. But it is with Spencer Tracy that her name will be forever linked.

Not only did she make nine films with Spencer Tracy, but for 27 years she was the “other woman” in his life.—Reuters