 Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993) was an iconic Academy
Award-winning actress, fashion model and humanitarian.
She has often been called one of the most beautiful women of all time, most
recently in a 2006 poll for New Woman magazine. She was ranked as the third
greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute (AFI's 100
Years... 100 Stars).
Early Life
Born Audrey Kathleen Ruston in Brussels, Belgium, she was the only child of
Joseph Hepburn-Ruston, an Anglo-Irish banker, and Baroness Ella van Heemstra, a
Dutch aristocrat descended from French nobility and English kings. Her father
later appended the name Hepburn to his surname, and her surname became
Hepburn-Ruston. She had two half-brothers, Alexander and Ian Quarles van Ufford,
by her mother's first marriage to a Dutch nobleman. She was a descendant of King
Edward III of England.
Hepburn's father's job required the family to travel often between Brussels,
England, and The Netherlands. From 1935 to 1938, Hepburn attended boarding
school in England. In 1935, her parents divorced and her father left the family.
She later called this the most traumatic moment of her life. Years later she
located him in Dublin through the Red Cross. She stayed in contact with him and
supported him financially until his death. In 1939, her mother moved her and her
two half-brothers to Arnhem, Netherlands, a neutral country with some sympathies
towards the German side. Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to
1945 where she trained in ballet, in addition to learning a standard school
curriculum.
In 1940, the Nazis invaded Arnhem. During the war Hepburn adopted the pseudonym
Edda Van Heemstra, modifying her mother's documents to do so, because an
English-sounding name was considered dangerous. This was never her legal name.
The name Edda was a modified version of Hepburn's mother's name, Ella.
By 1944, Hepburn had become a very proficient ballet dancer. She secretly danced
for groups of people to collect money for the underground movement.
After the landing of the Allied Forces on D-Day, things grew worse under the
German occupiers. During the Dutch famine over the winter of 1944, the Nazis
confiscated the Dutch people's limited food and fuel supply for themselves.
Without heat in their homes or food to eat, people in the Netherlands starved
and froze to death in the streets. Arnhem was devastated during allied bombing
raids that were part of Operation Market Garden. Hepburn's uncle and a cousin of
her mother's were shot for being part of the Resistance. Hepburn's brother spent
time in a German labor camp. Suffering from malnutrition, Hepburn developed
acute anemia, respiratory problems, and edema - a swelling of the limbs.
In 1991, Hepburn reminisced: I have memories. More than once I was at the
station seeing trainloads of Jews being transported, seeing all these faces over
the top of the wagon. I remember, very sharply, one little boy standing with his
parents on the platform, very pale, very blond, wearing a coat that was much too
big for him, and he stepped on to the train. I was a child observing a child.
Hepburn also noted the similarities between her and Anne Frank: I was exactly
the same age as Anne Frank. We were both 10 when war broke out and 15 when the
war finished. I was given the book in Dutch, in galley form, in 1946 by a
friend. I read it... and it destroyed me. It does this to many people when they
first read it but I was not reading it as a book, as printed pages. This was my
life. I didn't know what I was going to read. I've never been the same again, it
affected me so deeply.
We saw reprisals. We saw young men put against the wall and shot and they'd
close the street and then open it and you could pass by again. If you read the
diary, I've marked one place where she says, 'Five hostages shot today'. That
was the day my uncle was shot. And in this child's words I was reading about
what was inside me and is still there. It was a catharsis for me. This child who
was locked up in four walls had written a full report of everything I'd
experienced and felt.
These times were not all bad and she was able to enjoy some of her childhood.
Again drawing parallels to Anne Frank's life, Hepburn said: This spirit of
survival is so strong in Anne Frank's words. One minute she says, 'I'm so
depressed.' The next she is longing to ride a bicycle. She is certainly a symbol
of the child in very difficult circumstances, which is what I devote all my time
to. She transcends her death. One way in which Audrey Hepburn passed the time
was by drawing, and some of her childhood artwork can be seen today.
When the tanks came in and Holland was liberated, relief-agency trucks followed.
Hepburn said in an interview that she ate an entire can of condensed milk and
then got sick from one of her first relief meals because she put too much sugar
in her oatmeal. As UNICEF saved her early in life, she would later give back to
UNICEF starting in 1954 with radio presentations.
Early Career
In 1945, after the war, Hepburn left the Arnhem Conservatory and moved to
Amsterdam, where she took ballet lessons with Sonia Gaskell. In 1948, Hepburn
went to London and took dancing lessons with the renowned Marie Rambert, teacher
of Vaslav Nijinsky, one of the greatest male dancers in history. Hepburn
eventually asked Rambert what her future would be. Rampert assured Hepburn that
she could continue to work there and have a great career as a ballerina, but
that her tall height, 5'7", coupled with her poor nutrition during the war would
keep her from becoming a prima ballerina. Hepburn trusted Rampert's advice and
decided to pursue acting, a career which she at least had a chance to excel in.
In addition, Hepburn's mother was working menial jobs to support them, and since
she had trained all her life to be a performer, acting was her only career
option.
Her career started with the instructional film, Dutch in Seven Lessons. She then
played in musical theatre in productions such as High Button Shoes and Sauce
Piquante. Hepburn's first role in a motion picture was in the British film One
Wild Oat, in which she played a hotel receptionist. She played several more
minor roles in Young Wives' Tales, Laughter in Paradise, The Lavender Hill Mob
and Monte Carlo Baby. During the filming of Monte Carlo Baby, Hepburn was chosen
to play the lead character in the Broadway play Gigi that opened on 24 November
1951. The writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette upon first seeing Hepburn reportedly
said, Voila! There's our Gigi! She won a Theatre World Award for her debut
performance, and it had a successful six-month run in New York City.
Her first significant film performance was in the 1952 film The Secret People,
in which she played a prodigy ballet dancer. Naturally, Hepburn did all of her
own dancing scenes.
Hepburn's first starring role and first American film was opposite Gregory Peck
in the Hollywood motion picture Roman Holiday. Producers initially wanted
Elizabeth Taylor for the role, but director William Wyler was so impressed by
Hepburn's screen test, in which the camera was left on and candid footage of
Hepburn relaxing and answering questions was taken, that he cast her in the
lead. Wyler said: She had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence and
talent. She also was very funny. She was absolutely enchanting, and we said,
That's the girl! The billing was to have Gregory Peck's name above the title in
large font with "introducing Audrey Hepburn" beneath. After filming had been
completed, Peck called his agent and had Hepburn's name equally billed with his
because he had predicted that she would win the Oscar. Hepburn and Peck bonded
during filming, and there were rumors that they were romantically involved; both
denied such claims. Hepburn, however, added, actually, you have to be a little
bit in love with your leading man and vice versa. If you're going to portray
love, you have to feel it. You can't do it any other way. But you don't carry it
beyond the set. Hepburn would later call Roman Holiday her dearest movie,
because it was the one that made her a star.
Hollywood Stardom
After Roman Holiday she filmed Billy Wilder's Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart and
William Holden. Hepburn was sent to fashion designer Givenchy to decide on her
wardrobe. When told that Miss Hepburn was coming to see him, Givenchy famously
expected to see Katharine Hepburn (who was only distantly related to Audrey). He
was not disappointed with Audrey, however, and they formed a lifelong friendship
and partnership. During the filming of Sabrina, Hepburn and Holden became
romantically involved and she hoped to marry him and have children. She broke
off the relationship when Holden revealed that he had a vasectomy.
In 1954, Audrey went back to the stage to play the water sprite in Ondine in a
performance with Mel Ferrer, whom she would wed later that year. During the run
of the play, Hepburn was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture
Actress and the Academy Award for Best Actress, both for Roman Holiday. Six
weeks after receiving the Oscar, Hepburn was awarded the Tony Award for Best
Actress for Ondine.
By the mid 1950s, Hepburn was not only one of the biggest motion picture stars
in Hollywood, but she also came to be regarded as a major style icon. Her gamine
and elfin appearance and widely recognized sense of chic were both admired and
imitated. In 1955, she was awarded the Golden Globe - World Film Favorite -
Female.
Having become one of Hollywood's most popular box-office attractions, Audrey
Hepburn co-starred with other major actors such as Fred Astaire in Funny Face,
Maurice Chevalier and Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon, George Peppard in
Breakfast at Tiffany's, Cary Grant in the critically acclaimed hit Charade, Rex
Harrison in My Fair Lady, Peter O'Toole in How to Steal a Million, and Sean
Connery in Robin and Marian. Many of these leading men became very close to her.
Rex Harrison called Audrey his favorite leading lady; Cary Grant loved to humor
her and once said: all I want for Christmas is another picture with Audrey
Hepburn; and Gregory Peck became a lifelong friend. After her death, Peck went
on camera and tearfully recited her favorite poem, Unending Love by Rabindranath
Tagore. Some believe Bogart and Hepburn did not get along, but this is untrue.
Bogart got along better with Hepburn than anyone else on set. Hepburn later
said, Sometimes it's the so-called tough guys that are the most tender hearted,
as Bogey was with me.
Funny Face in 1957 was Hepburn's favorite movie to film because she got to dance
with Fred Astaire. The Nun's Story in 1959 was one of Hepburn's most daring
roles, and one of her favorites since it was so socially relevant.
Hepburn's performance as Holly Golightly in 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's
resulted in one of the most iconic characters in 20th Century American cinema.
Hepburn called the role, the jazziest of my career. Asked about the acting
challenge of the role, Hepburn said, I'm an introvert. Playing the extroverted
girl was the hardest thing I ever did. She wore trendy clothing designed by her
and Givenchy and added blonde streaks to her brown hair, a look that she would
keep off-screen as well.
Hepburn had cemented herself as one of Hollywood's greatest actresses, right
alongside Marilyn Monroe. In fact, Monroe was not the only one to sing Happy
Birthday Mr President to President John F Kennedy. For JFK's next birthday in
1963, Hepburn did the honors. Despite her stardom, Hepburn retained her humility
throughout life. She preferred a more quiet living with family and nature. She
lived in houses, not mansions, and she loved to garden.
 Hepburn starred in 1964's My Fair Lady which was said to be the most anticipated
movie since Gone With The Wind. Hepburn was cast as Eliza Doolittle instead of
then-unknown Julie Andrews, who had originated the role on Broadway. The
decision not to cast Andrews was made before Hepburn was cast for the role.
Hepburn initially refused the role and asked Jack Warner to give it to Andrews,
but when they informed her that it would either be her or Elizabeth Taylor, who
was vying for the role, she decided to take the part. According to an article in
Soundstage magazine, everyone agreed that if Julie Andrews was not to be in the
film, Audrey Hepburn was the perfect choice. Julie Andrews had yet to make Mary
Poppins, which was released within the same year as My Fair Lady. Audrey
recorded singing vocals for the role, but subsequently discovered a professional
singing double Marni Nixon had overdubbed all of her songs. She walked off the
set after being told of the dubbing and returned early the next day to apologize
for her behavior. Footage of several songs with Hepburn's original vocals still
exist and have been included in documentaries and the DVD release of the film,
though to date, only Nixon's renditions have been released on LP and CD. Some of
her original vocals remained in the film, such as Just You Wait and snippets
from I Could Have Danced All Night. When asked about the dubbing of an actress
with such distinctive vocal tones, Hepburn frowned and said, you could tell,
couldn't you? And there was Rex, recording all his songs as he acted...next time
- She then bit her lip to keep from saying any more. Aside from the dubbing,
many critics agreed that Hepburn's performance was excellent. Gene Ringgold
said: Audrey Hepburn is magnificent. She is Eliza for the ages.
The controversy over Hepburn's casting reached its height at the 1964-65 Academy
Awards season, when Hepburn was not nominated for best actress while Andrews was
nominated for Mary Poppins. The media tried to play up the rivalry between the
two actresses as the ceremony approached, even though both women denied such bad
feelings existed and got along well. Julie Andrews won Best Actress at the
ceremony.
Two For The Road was a non-linear and innovative movie about divorce. Director
Stanley Donen said that Hepburn was more free and happy than he had ever seen
her, and be accredited that to Albert Finney. Wait Until Dark in 1967 was a
difficult film to do. It was an edgy thriller in which Hepburn played the part
of a blind woman being terrorized. In addition, it was produced by Mel Ferrer
and filmed on the brink of their divorce. Hepburn is said to have lost 15 pounds
under the stress. On the bright side, she found co-star Richard Crenna to be
very funny, and she had a lot to laugh about with director Terence Young. They
both joked that he was shelling his favorite star years before; Terence Young
was a tank commander during the Battle of Arnhem. Hepburn's performance was
nominated for an Academy Award.
From 1967 onward, after fifteen highly successful years in film, Hepburn acted
only occasionally. After her divorce from first husband Mel Ferrer, she married
Italian psychiatrist Dr. Andrea Dotti and had a second son, after a difficult
pregnancy that required near-total bed rest. After her eventual separation from
Dotti, she attempted a comeback, co-starring with Sean Connery in the period
piece Robin and Marian in 1976, which was moderately successful. She reportedly
turned down the tailor-made role of a former ballet dancer in The Turning Point.
(Shirley MacLaine got the part.) Hepburn finally returned to cinema in 1979,
taking the leading role in Sidney Sheldon's Bloodline. Author Sidney Sheldon
revised his novel when it was reissued to tie into the film, making Hepburn's
character older to better match the actress' age. The film was a critical and
box office failure.
Hepburn's last starring role in a cinematic film was with Ben Gazzara in the
comedy They All Laughed, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Although a critical
success, the film was overshadowed by the murder of one of its stars,
Bogdanovich's girlfriend, Dorothy Stratten; the film was released after
Stratten's death but played only limited runs. In 1987, she co-starred with
Robert Wagner in a tongue-in-cheek made-for-television caper film, Love Among
Thieves which borrowed elements from several of Hepburn's films, most notably
Charade and How to Steal a Million. The TV-film, which also starred Jerry Orbach
as a villain, was only a moderate success, with Hepburn being quoted that she
appeared in it just for fun.
Hepburn's last film role, a cameo appearance, was of an angel in Steven
Spielberg's Always, filmed in 1988. This film was also only moderately
successful.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1652 Vine Street.
Marriages, Family, and Later Life
In the early 1950s she was engaged to the young James Hanson. She called it love
at first sight; however, after having her wedding dress fitted and date set, she
decided the marriage would not work, due to the demands of his career that would
require him to be gone on business most of the time. She had the wedding dress
given to a poor Italian couple, who still have it today.
Hepburn did marry, twice: to American actor Mel Ferrer and to an Italian doctor,
Andrea Dotti, and had a son to each husband - Sean in 1960 by Ferrer, and Luca
in 1970 by Dotti.
Hepburn met Mel Ferrer at a party hosted by Gregory Peck, and quickly fell in
love with him. After Sabrina, Audrey went back to the stage, this time with
Ferrer in a play called Ondine, in which she played a water sprite. Ferrer was
rumored to be perhaps too controlling of Hepburn, but in William Holden's words,
I think Audrey allows Mel to think he influences her.
She married him on 25 September 1954. Before having their first child, Hepburn
had two miscarriages, the first of which was in March of 1955. In 1959, while
filming The Unforgiven, Hepburn broke her back after falling off a horse onto a
rock. She spent weeks in the hospital and later had a miscarriage that was
probably induced by the physical and mental stress. While she was resting at
home, Mel Ferrer brought her the fawn from the movie Green Mansions to keep as a
pet. They called him Ip, short for Pippin. In 1965, she had another miscarriage.
Hepburn was much more careful when she was pregnant with Luca in 1969; she
rested for months and passed the time by painting. Luca was delivered by
Caesarean section. Hepburn had her final miscarriage in 1974.
The marriage to Ferrer lasted 14 years until 5 December 1968; their son was
quoted as saying Hepburn stayed in the marriage too long. In the later years of
the marriage, Ferrer was rumored to have had a girlfriend on the side, while
Hepburn had an affair with her handsome Two for the Road co-star, Albert Finney.
After the marriage fell apart, Hepburn met Italian psychologist Andrea Dotti on
a cruise and fell in love with him on a trip to Greek ruins. She believed she
would have many children, and possibly stop working. She married him on 18
January 1969. Although Dotti loved Hepburn and was well-liked by Sean, who
called him fun, Dotti had affairs with younger women. The marriage lasted 13
years and ended in 1982 after Luca and Sean were old enough to handle life with
a single mother.
Hepburn had several pets, including a Yorkshire Terrier named Mr Famous, who was
hit by a car and killed. To cheer her up, Mel Ferrer got her another Yorkshire
named Assam of Assam. She also kept Ip the fawn as a pet; they made a bed for
him out of a bathtub. Sean Ferrer had a Cocker Spaniel named Cokey. When Hepburn
was older, she had two Jack Russell Terriers.
At the time of her death, she was the companion of Robert Wolders, a handsome
Dutch actor who was the widower of film star Merle Oberon. She met Wolders
through a friend, in the later stage of her marriage to Dotti. Six months later,
they met again for a drink, which turned into dinner. They fell in love, and
after Hepburn's divorce from Dotti was final, she and Wolders started their
lives together, although they never married. In 1989, after nine years with him,
she called them the happiest years of her life. Took me long enough, she said in
an interview with Barbara Walters. Walters also asked why she never married
Wolders. Hepburn replied that they were married, just not formally. Hepburn and
Wolders planned the UNICEF trips together. At every one of her moving speeches,
Wolders would watch and sometimes shed tears.
Cancer
In late 1992, Hepburn began to feel pains in her abdomen, which turned out to be
a rare form of cancer that originated in the appendix. Hepburn had surgery in a
Los Angeles hospital, but the cancer continued to spread and doctors decided
that another surgery would not help. (Hepburn had been a lifelong smoker. That
addiction may have come to her at great cost; studies have found that women who
smoke are more than 40% more likely to die from colorectal cancer than women who
never have smoked.
Hepburn died of colorectal cancer on 20 January 1993, in Tolochenaz, Vaud,
Switzerland, and was interred there. She was 63.
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