Audrey Hepburn
Real name : Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston
Date of Birth + location : 4 May 1929, Brussels, Belgium
Date of death + cause : 20 January 1993, Tolochenaz, Switzerland. (cancer)
Height : 5' 7"
Parents : Baroness Ella van Heemstra and Joseph Victor Henry Ruston.
Spouses:
Mel Ferrer(25 September 1954 - 1968) (divorced) - One Son: Sean Ferrer
Dr. Andrea Dotti (1969 - 1979)- One son: Luca Dotti
Biography:
Audrey Hepburn Born in 1929 in Brussels of Irish-Dutch parents, Audrey lived in the
Netherlands during World War ii and later moved to London to study dance at the Rambert Ballet
School. She made her stage debut in 1948, as a ballerina in the musical 'High Button Shoes',
and later danced in 'Sauce Tartare'. After some initial film roles in Britain, France, and
Holland, Audrey was chosen to play the starring role in Gigi, which Anita Loos had converted
into a Broadway hit play. Then William Wyler saw an earlier screen test Audrey had made for
Paramount and demanded her to play Princess Anne in 'Roman Holiday' (1953), opposite Gregory
Peck, a performance that would eventually earn her her first and only Academy Award.
Although Audrey had appeared in earlier movies, 'Roman Holiday' really began her legendary
screen career, including such early successes as 'Sabrina'(1954), 'War and Peace'(1956),
'Funny Face'(1957), and 'Love In the Afternoon'(1957). On Broadway, she also starred in
'Ondine, for which she won the Drama Critics' Award(she won this award in the same week as her
Academy Award). Her co-star in 'Ondine' was Mek Ferrer, whom she married at the end of the
plays run.
In 1957, Audrey Co-starred with Mel again, this time in the made for television movie
'Mayerling'. Up next came one of her greatest performances in 'The Nun's Story' in 1959. In
the early sixties, she starred in 'The Unforgiven', 'Breakfast At Tiffany's', 'The Children's
Hour', 'Charade', and 'Paris When It Sizzles' in 1964.
It was in 1964 also that Audrey got the part of Eliza Doolittle in 'My Fair Lady'. She then
co-starred with Peter O'Toole in 'How To Steal A Million' and Albert Finney in ' Two For The
Road', both in 1966, and in 1967 she played Susi Hendrix in the thriller 'Wait Until Dark'.
'Wait Until Dark' marked Audrey's fifth and final Academy Award nomination, and was the last
movie she did for almost a decade.
In 1976, Audrey returned to the Silver Screen to co-star with Sean Connery in 'Robin and
Marian'. A movie she chose to do because she knew her kids would enjoy it. In 1987, Audrey
starred in 'Love Among Thieves', which would be the last starring role Audrey ever had. But in
that same year, Audrey was given the role of her lifetime. She was chosen to succeed the late
Danny Kaye as the Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
In 1989, she accepted a cameo role in Steven Spielberg's 'Always', in which she played an
angel named Hap. It would be her last movie. In the next years she continued her work with
UNICEF until the end of 1992, when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Four months before her
64th birthday, Audrey died quietly in her sleep at her home in Tolochenaz, Switzerland.
Filmography
Films:
Nederlands in Zeven Lessen (Dutch in Seven Lessons/Dutch on the Double) - KLM Stewardess
Directed by Charles Huguenot (1948)
Laughter in Paradise - Cigarette Girl
Also Starring Alistair Sim, Fay Compton, Beatrice Campbell
Directed by Mario Zampi (1951)
The Lavender Hill Mob - Chiquita
Also Starring Sir Alec Guiness, Stanley Holloway
Directed by Charles Chricton (1951)
Stanley Holloway would play her father twelve years later in "My Fair Lady".
One Wild Oat - Unidentified Bit Part
Also Starring Robertson Hare, Stanley Holloway, Sam Costa
Directed by Charles Saunders (1951)
Young Wive's Tale - Eve Lester
Also Starring Joan Greenwood, Nigel Patrick, Derek farr
Directed by Henry Cass (1951-Britain; 1952 & 1954 U.S.)
Secret People - Nora Brent
Also Starring Valentina Cortesa, Srege Reggiani
Directed by Thorold Dickinson (1952)
Nous Irons A Monte Carlo - Melissa Walter
Also Starring Phillipe Lemaire, Danielle Godet
Directed by Jean Boyer (1952)
Monte Carlo Baby - Linda Farrell
Also Starring Jules Lunshin, Michele Farmer
Directed by Jean Boyer (1953)
English version of "Nous irons a Monte Carlo"
Roman Holiday - Princess Anne
Also Starring Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert
Directed by William Wyler (1953)
Academy Award Winner for Best Actress
Sabrina - Sabrina Fairchild
Also Starring Humphrey Bogart, William Holden
Directed by Billy Wilder (1954)
Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress
War and Peace - Natasha Rostov
Also Starring Mel Ferrer, Henry Fonda
Directed by King Vidor(uncredited) and Mario Soldati(battle scenes) (1956)
Funny Face - Jo Stockton
Also Starring Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson
Directed by Stanley Donen (1957)
Love in the Afternoon - Ariane Chavasse
Also Starring Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier
Directed by Billy Wilder (1957)
The Mayerling - Maria Vetsera
Also Starring Mel Ferrer, Raymond Massey
Directed by Anatole Litvak (1957)
Made for Television Movie(NBC). Released theatrically in Europe.
Green Mansions - Rima
Also Starring Anthony Perkins, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Silva
Directed by Mel Ferrer (1959)
The Nun's Story - Gabrielle Van der Mal/Sister Luke
Also Starring Peter Finch, Dame Edith Evans
Directed by Fred Zinnemann(1959)
Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress
The Unforgiven - Rachel Zachary
Also Starring Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy, Lillian Gish
Directed by John Huston (1960)
Audrey suffered four fractured vertebrae and a sprained foot when she was thrown from the horse she was riding. The horse
became startled during blank-ammunition practice and threw her to the ground.
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Holly Golightly
Also Starring George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Ebsen
Directed by Blake Edwards (1961)
Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress
The Children's Hour - Karen Wright
Also Starring Shirley MacLaine, James Garner
Directed by William Wyler (1962)
Charade - Reggie Lambert
Also Starring Cary Grant, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy
Directed by Stanley Donen (1963)
My Fair Lady - Eliza Doolittle
Also Starring Rex Harrison, Wilfred Hyde White, Stanley Holloway
Directed by George Cukor (1964)
* voice dubbed by Marni Nixon
Paris - When it Sizzles - Gabrielle Simpson
Also Starring William Holden
Directed by Richard Quine (1964)
How to Steal a Million - Nicole Bonnet
Also Starring Peter O'Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith
Directed by William Wyler (1966)
Two For the Road - Joanna Wallace
Also Starring Albert Finney
Directed by Stanley Donen (1967)
Wait Until Dark - Susy Hendrix
Also Starring Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Directed by Terence Young (1967)
Earned her Fifth and final Academy Award Nomination. This would also be her
last picture for nearly a decade
Robin and Marian - Maid Marian/Mother Jennet
Also Starring Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Richard Harris
Directed by Ridhard Lester (1976)
Sidney Sheldon's Bloodline -Elizabeth Roffe
Also Starring Ben Gazzara, James Mason
Directed by Terence Young (1979)
They All Laughed - Angela Niotes
Also Starring Ben Gazzara, John Ritter, Colleen Camp, Dorothy Stratten
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich (1981)
Sean Ferrer (her son) played the part of Jose
Directed By William Wyler - Herself
Directed by Aviva Slesin (1986)
This was a documentary on William Wyler
Love Among Thieves - Baroness Caroline DuLac
Also Starring Robert Wagner
Directed by Roger Young (1987)
Made for Television Movie (ABC)
Always - Hap
Also Starring Richeard Dreyfuss, John Goodman, Holly Hunter
Directed by Steven Spielberg (1989)
Was chosen 1990 by PEOPLE magazine as one of the 50 Most
Beautiful People in the world.
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