Katharine Houghton is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Joanna "Joey" Drayton, a Caucasian woman who brings home an African-American fiancé to meet her parents, in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Katharine Hepburn, who played the mother of Houghton's character in the film, was in real life Houghton's aunt. Houghton was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the second child of Marion Hepburn and Ellsworth Grant. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and majored in philosophy and art. Houghton was named after her maternal grandmother, Katharine Martha Houghton... Hepburn. Her aunt, Katharine Hepburn, was instrumental in helping Houghton launch her career. The acting torch was further passed along in the family to actress Schuyler Grant, Houghton's niece. Houghton has played leading roles in over sixty productions on Broadway, off-Broadway and in Regional Theatres across America. She won the Theatre World award for her performance in A Scent of Flowers off Broadway in 1969. She has appeared in ten films, most recently The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, in 2010. Eleven of her plays have been produced.
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