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Audrey Hepburnr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 — January 20, 1993) was an Anglo-Dutch actress, fashion model, and humanitarian. Born Audrey Kathleen Ruston in Brussels, Belgium, she was the only child of Joseph Anthony Ruston, an Anglo-Irish banker, and Baroness Ella van Heemstra, a Dutch aristocrat descended from French and English kings.

Her father appended the name Hepburn to his surname, and Audrey became Audrey Hepburn-Ruston at the same time. She had two half-brothers, Alexander and Ian Quarles van Ufford, by her mother's first marriage to a Dutch nobleman.

Rise to Stardom

Audrey Hepburn in her breakthrough film, Roman Holiday.

After the war, Hepburn and her mother moved to London, England where she studied ballet, worked as a model, and in 1951 began acting in films, mostly in minor or supporting roles as Audrey Hepburn; her first major performance was in the 1951 film The Secret People.

Chosen to play the lead character in the Broadway play Gigi that opened on November 24, 1951, she won a Theatre World Award for her debut performance.

Following a successful six-month run in New York City, she was offered a starring role opposite Gregory Peck in the Hollywood motion picture, Roman Holiday. For her performance in this movie she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and over her illustrious career she would be nominated for best actress four more times. In the film Funny Face, Hepburn's mother appeared as the patron of a sidewalk cafй.

Hepburn's performance as "Holly Golightly" in 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's resulted in the creation of one of the most iconic characters in 20th Century American cinema.

Having become one of Hollywood's most popular box-office attractions, Audrey Hepburn co-starred with other major actors such as Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Sir Rex Harrison, Peter O'Toole, and Sir Sean Connery.

Work for UNICEF

From 1967 onward, after fifteen highly successful years in film, Hepburn acted only occasionally and her last role was filmed in 1988 just before she was appointed a special ambassador to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Grateful for her own good fortune after being a victim of the Nazi occupation as a child, she dedicated the remainder of her life to helping impoverished children in the world's poorest nations.

In 1992, President George Bush presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work with UNICEF. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded her The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her contribution to humanity. Her son accepted the award shortly after her death. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1652 Vine Street.

Marriages and Death

Hepburn married twice, to the American actor Mel Ferrer and to an Italian doctor, Andrea Dotti, and had two sons — one, Sean, by Ferrer and one, Luca, by Dotti.

At the time of her death she was the companion of Robert Wolders, a Dutch actor who was the widower of film star Merle Oberon.

Hepburn died of colorectal cancer on January 20, 1993, in Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland at the age of 63, and was interred there.

According to Hepburn's son, Sean Ferrer, Hepburn's cancer was very rare and originated in the appendix. Ferrer has written a book about his mother: Audrey Hepburn: An Elegant Spirit.

Filmography

• Always (1989)

• Love Among Thieves (1987) — made for television

• They All Laughed (1981)

• Sidney Sheldon's Bloodline (1979)

Audrey Hepburn in 1963's Charade,

• Robin and Marian (1976)

• Wait Until Dark (1967)

• Two for the Road (1967)

• How to Steal a Million (1966)

• My Fair Lady (1964)

• Paris — When it Sizzles (1964)

• Charade (1963)

• The Children's Hour (1961)

• Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

• The Unforgiven (1960)

• Green Mansions (1959)

• The Nun's Story (1959)

• Love in the Afternoon (1957)

• Mayerling (1957) — produced as an episode of the TV series Producers' Showcase and released to theatres in Europe.

• Funny Face (1957)

• War and Peace (1956)

• Sabrina (1954)

• Roman Holiday (1953)

• The Secret People (1952)

• The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) — bit role

• Monte Carlo Baby (1951) — released in both the English and French languages

• Young Wives' Tale (1951) — bit role

• One Wild Oat (1951) — bit role

• Laughter in Paradise (1951) — bit role

• Nederlands in 7 lessen (1948) — bit role; also known as Dutch in Seven Lessons.

In addition to the above, Hepburn hosted the 1993 television series, Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn for PBS, a nine-episode documentary series which premiered the day of her death.

She also appeared in an April 1952 episode of CBS Television Workshop entitled "Rainy Day at Paradise Junction" which predates her "official" American debut in Roman Holiday. According to some biographies, Hepburn claimed to have made "several" American and British TV appearances before Roman Holiday, and a poster for a 1951 British public appearance listed her as a TV actress, but so far a copy of "Rainy Day" is the only example of this early work to have surfaced.

Some sources state that Hepburn makes a cameo appearance in the 1963 Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward film, A New Kind of Love but this has not been confirmed.

Biographical film

To date only one biographical film based upon Audrey Hepburn's life has been attempted. The 2000 American made for television effort, The Audrey Hepburn Story starred Jennifer Love Hewitt as the actress.

Hewitt also co-produced the film. The film received mixed reviews, with some of the criticism being directed at the casting of American actress Hewitt in the role.

The film concludes with footage of the real Audrey Hepburn shot during one of her final missions for UNICEF. Several versions of the film exist; it was aired as a mini-series in some countries, and in a truncated version on America's ABC television network, which is also the version released on DVD in North America.

Potential 'Audrey Hepburns'

A handful of current actresses have been noted for their physical similarities to Audrey Hepburn, with some media and Internet writers suggesting they might make good choices for a future bio-pic.

Among the names often mentioned are Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman, French actress Audrey Tautou, and American teen actress Emmy Rossum. Portman once dressed as Hepburn for a modelling photo shoot, while Tautou closely resembles Hepburn physically, a fact noted by reviewers of her film, Amйlie. Rossum played Hepburn as a child in the Hewitt film.

Awards

Audrey Hepburn was one of the few people who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award, although this distinction was arrived at posthumously.

• Academy Award: Best Actress for Roman Holiday (1954) and posthumous The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1993).

• Tony Award: Best Actress for Ondine (1954) and Special Achievement award (1968).

• Grammy Award: Best Spoken World Album for Children (1993) for Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales (posthumous).

• Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement — Informational Programming (1993) for the "Flower Gardens" episode of her documentary series, Gardens of the World (posthumous).

Trivia

• Opera diva Maria Callas reportedly loved Hepburn's look so much that she adopted it for herself in the 1950s.

• Despite the similar career choices, Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn were neither sisters nor even closely related in any way despite occasional, and mistaken, press reports to the contrary.

• A related legend holds that Audrey chose the last name Hepburn in honor of Katharine when she became an actress, however the record shows that it was part of her family name for some time before she entered show business.

Hepburn is considered by many in Japan as a model for feminine beauty, a theme explored in Alan Brown's novel Audrey Hepburn's Neck (ISBN 0671526723).

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