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Actress: Audrey Hepburn
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I probably hold the distinction of being one movie star who, by all laws of logic, should never have made it. At each stage of my career, I lacked the experience.
— Audrey Hepburn
THERE probably never will be another actress on the silver screen who projects as much radiance, charm, and elegant beauty as Audrey Hepburn did. She arrived in Hollywood at a time when impossibly upholstered blondes dominated the town like a tribe of buxom Amazons, and quietly introduced an enchanting brand of doe-eyed, nymph-like incandescence, fused with a gamine chic and sophistication, that provided a novel alternative to the lush prototype of the day. The physical antithesis of home-grown glamour queens like Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner, Hepburn was slender, tomboyish, and singularly ethereal. Director Billy Wilder once commented of the eminently photogenic actress, "After so many drive-in waitresses--it has been a real drought--here is class, somebody who went to school, can spell, and possibly play the piano. . . She's a wispy, thin little thing, but you're really in the presence of somebody when you see that girl."
The daughter of an English banker and a Dutch baroness, Hepburn received ballet training during her upbringing in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands (she performed in underground concerts to raise funds for the Dutch Resistance during the war, as well as acted as a courier). Also an experienced model and occasional actress, she was appearing in a bit-part capacity on a film shoot in the South of France when she met the French author Colette, who offered her the title role in a Broadway adaptation of her novel, Gigi. Following that auspicious Stateside debut, Hepburn's reed-like elegance was used to smashing effect in her lead role of a runaway princess in the romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953), in which she starred opposite Gregory Peck. She scored the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the film, not to mention instant international fame.
Hepburn would go on to score four more Oscar nominations over the course of her film career: for her fetching chauffeur's daughter in Sabrina (1954); her conflicted woman of God in The Nun's Story (1959); her unforgettable Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); and her terrorized blind woman in Wait Until Dark (1967). In her memorable portrayal of guttersnipe turned gentlewoman Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1964), she relayed a certain flair for Cockney-speak, if not for singing (her musical segments were dubbed), and she scored a direct hit with her delightful performance as Albert Finney's bickering wife in Stanley Donen's Two for the Road (1967). Hepburn's appearances in film, while rare, were uniformly enchanting, but not necessarily because she was all that brilliant an actress--quite simply, Audrey Hepburn didn't have to act, she just had to be.
Hepburn devoted most of her time in the 1970s to raising her children, with film and stage appearances becoming few and far between. In the late 1980s, she succeeded Danny Kaye as the official spokesperson of UNICEF, and in her unceasing and tireless crusading on behalf of the world's children, she earned perhaps even more admirers worldwide than she did with her film career. There was something so very fitting about the still breathtaking Hepburn's final film performance in 1989's Always: she played an angel named Hap. Hepburn was posthumously awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1993, shortly after she succumbed to colon cancer.
Occupation: Actress, Dancer, Model
Date of Birth: May 4, 1929
Date of Death: January 20, 1993
Place of Birth: Ixelles, Belgium
Sign: Sun in Taurus, Moon in Pisces
Relations: Husbands: Mel Ferrer (actor), Andrea Dotti (psychiatrist); last companion: Robert Wolders (former actor); kids: Sean Ferrer (actor, producer), Luca Dotti (artist)
Education: Attended Arnhem Conservatory; majored in ballet
MOVIES
Actor
Always — 1989
Love Among Thieves — 1987
Directed by William Wyler — 1986
They All Laughed — 1981
Bloodline — 1979
Robin and Marian — 1976
Two for the Road — 1967
Wait Until Dark — 1967
How To Steal a Million — 1966
My Fair Lady — 1964
Paris When It Sizzles — 1964
Charade — 1963
The Children's Hour/The Loudest Whisper — 1962
Breakfast at Tiffany's — 1961
The Unforgiven — 1960
Green Mansions — 1959
The Nun's Story — 1959
Funny Face — 1957
Love in the Afternoon — 1957
War and Peace — 1956
Sabrina — 1954
Roman Holiday — 1953
Monte Carlo Baby — 1952
The Secret People — 1952
One Wild Oat — 1951
Nous irons a Monte Carlo — 1951
The Lavender Hill Mob — 1951
Laughter in Paradise — 1951
Young Wives' Tale — 1951
Nederlands in 7 lessen — 1948
TV
Mayerling — 1957 (Movie)
Producers' Showcase — 1954 (Appearance)
Latest Videos of: Audrey Hepburn
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