"[160], Hepburn's influence as a style icon continues several decades after the height of her acting career in the 1950s and 1960s. [85] The film turned out to be a positive experience for him; he said, "All I want for Christmas is another picture with Audrey Hepburn. [22] Joseph left the family and moved to London, where he became more deeply involved in Fascist activity and never visited his daughter abroad. This was French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy. ", "Audrey Hepburn's work for the world's children honoured", "U.N. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. [128], On the evening of 20 January 1993, Hepburn died in her sleep at home. Critic Bosley Crowther was less kind to her performance, stating that, "Hepburn is cheerfully committed to a mood of how-nuts-can-you-be in an obviously comforting assortment of expensive Givenchy costumes. Not bad. "Hepburn is engaged to Italian psychiatrist". A review in Variety reads: "Hepburn has her most demanding film role, and she gives her finest performance",[70] while Henry Hart in Films in Review stated that her performance "will forever silence those who have thought her less an actress than a symbol of the sophisticated child/woman. [54], Hepburn was then offered a small role in a film being shot in both English and French, Monte Carlo Baby (French: Nous Irons Monte Carlo, 1952), which was filmed in Monte Carlo. Her portrayal of Sister Luke is one of the great performances of the screen. [113] She issued a public statement about her decision, saying "When I get married, I want to be really married". She was survived by her two sons, half brothers Sean and Luca. Famous. Academy Award (1954): Actress in a Leading Role, Emmy Award (1993): Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming, Golden Globe Award (1955): World Film Favorites, Golden Globe Award (1954): Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama, Grammy Award (1994): Best Spoken Word Album for Children, Tony Award (1954): Best Actress in a Play, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Audrey-Hepburn, New Netherland Institute - Audrey Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), NY Fashion Week: Siriano channels Audrey Hepburn in a garden, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Emily In Paris actress captures the classic Hepburn look in a series of poses for Harper's Bazaar UK . [95] The second, Wait Until Dark, is a suspense thriller in which Hepburn demonstrated her acting range by playing the part of a terrorised blind woman. Director Stanley Donen said that Hepburn was freer and happier than he had ever seen her, and he credited that to co-star Albert Finney. Audrey Hepburn: an iconic problem | Movies | The Guardian However, Peck suggested to Wyler that he elevate her to equal billing so that her name appeared before the title, and in type as large as his: "You've got to change that because she'll be a big star, and I'll look like a big jerk. But they both had dance backgrounds and were multilingual. Who inherited Audrey Hepburn's money? 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 the train. What pet did Audrey Hepburn have? - Profound-Information Hosts Special Session on Children's Rights", Why Audrey Hepburn Was Afraid Of Marriage, "Audrey Hepburn puts an end to "will she" or "won't she" rumors by marrying Mel Ferrer! who did audrey hepburn leave her money to (25 January 1993). Did Audrey Hepburn Date James Dean - Audrey Hepburn Kids, Husbands, and "[71] Hepburn spent a year researching and working on the role, saying, "I [129] Funeral services were held at the village church of Tolochenaz on 24 January 1993. After appearing in the thriller Wait Until Dark (1967), Hepburn went into semiretirement. 6 Facts You May Not Know About Audrey Hepburn - Biography How did Audrey Hepburn become an actress? 1. This was French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy. She worked closely with French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy as his muse, and left a legacy of elegant, achievable style. []. She rose to stardom in the romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953) alongside Gregory Peck, for which she was the first actress to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. After a 14-year marriage, the couple divorced in 1968. She continued to enchant movie audiences, however, in such light romantic comedies as Sabrina (1954; this role provided her first occasion to appear in designs by Hubert de Givenchy, with whose fashions she became identified) and Funny Face (1957), as well as in major dramatic pictures such as War and Peace (1956) and The Nuns Story (1959). The 59-year-old Grant, who had previously withdrawn from the starring male lead roles in Roman Holiday and Sabrina, was sensitive about his age difference with 34-year-old Hepburn, and was uncomfortable about the romantic interplay. [159], Added to the International Best Dressed List in 1961, Hepburn was associated with a minimalistic style, usually wearing clothes with simple silhouettes which emphasised her slim body, monochromatic colours, and occasional statement accessories. [173][e], Hepburn was considered by some to be one of the most beautiful women of all time,[178][179] she was ranked as the third greatest screen legend in American cinema by the American Film Institute. When she was diagnosed with cancer of the appendix in 1992, Audrey Hepburn showed true grace. After that, she only occasionally appeared in films, one being Robin and Marian (1976) with Sean Connery. Christian Siriano has lined his New York Fashion Week runway Thursday with thousands of multicolored flowers. Ferrer and Dotti created a charity for children after the death of their mother, and they used her name. "[104] In October 1989, Hepburn and Wolders went to Bangladesh. Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 20 January 1993) was a British[a] actress and humanitarian. I had never seen that. "[156] The magazine and its British version frequently reported on her style throughout the following decade. As the daughter of Baroness Edda van Heemstra (above left), Hepburn was privileged in her early years as she traveled between. Playing the extroverted girl was the hardest thing I ever did. Hepburn and Ferrer's on-stage collaboration eventually turned into a real-life romance. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. '" She died on January 20, 1993. In 1967 she starred in the thriller Wait Until Dark, receiving Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA nominations. Remember: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. When making your financial, tax and estate plans, do not go it alone. "[82] She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Her next project took her to Rome, where she starred in her first major American film, Roman Holiday (1953). First, ask around. He and Audrey also had one child together, giving them a bond to last until her own 1993 death. She did not return to acting until 1976, when she costarred in the nostalgic love story Robin and Marian. Audrey Hepburn was born in Brussels, Belgium, on May 4, 1929, the daughter of J. Audrey Hepburn Biography - life, family, children, name, story, death "[59] The producers of the movie had initially wanted Elizabeth Taylor for the role, but Wyler was so impressed by Hepburn's screen test that he cast her instead. [148] A year after his mother's death in 1993, Ferrer founded the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund (originally named Hollywood for Children Inc.),[149] a charity funded by exhibitions of Audrey Hepburn memorabilia. [118][119], Despite the insistence from gossip columns that their marriage would not last, Hepburn claimed that she and Ferrer were inseparable and happy together, though she admitted that he had a bad temper. [120], Hepburn met her second husband, Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, on a Mediterranean cruise with friends in June 1968. Corrections? [133] She was the recipient of numerous posthumous awards including the 1993 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and competitive Grammy and Emmy Awards. [47][48][49], While Ella worked in menial jobs to support them, Hepburn appeared as a chorus girl[50] in the West End musical theatre revues High Button Shoes (1948) at the London Hippodrome, and Cecil Landeau's Sauce Tartare (1949) and Sauce Piquante (1950) at the Cambridge Theatre. [8], In 1942, her uncle, Otto van Limburg Stirum (husband of her mother's older sister, Miesje), was executed in retaliation for an act of sabotage by the resistance movement; while he had not been involved in the act, he was targeted due to his family's prominence in Dutch society. [127], Hepburn and her family returned home to Switzerland to celebrate her last Christmas. Her intellectual property, film rights, likeness rights, and the majority of her estate were left to her sons, Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Luca Dotti. She had been offered the scholarship already in 1945, but had had to decline it due to "some uncertainty regarding her national status". [6], Hepburn's mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra (12 June 1900 26 August 1984), was a Dutch noblewoman. [104] Of the trip, she said, I have a broken heart. Early in her career, producers cast male actors old enough to be her father as love interests (and paid her a fraction of their paychecks). Audrey Hepburn starred in her first major American film, Roman Holiday, in 1953. Later that year she posthumously received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. An icon of both fashion and Hollywood, Hepburn was the subject of numerous books and documentaries, the latter of which included Audrey (2020). She could have included instructions on how her likeness would be used for the fund. Hepburn's voice remains in one line in "I Could Have Danced All Night", in the first verse of "Just You Wait", and in the entirety of its reprise in addition to sing-talking in parts of "The Rain in Spain" in the finished film. Its production was troubled by several problems. She called it "love at first sight", but after having her wedding dress fitted and the date set, she decided the marriage would not work because the demands of their careers would keep them apart most of the time. There has yet to be a conclusion to these suites. [161] Hepburn was in particular associated with French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy, who was first hired to design her on-screen wardrobe for her second Hollywood film, Sabrina (1954), when she was still unknown as a film actor and he a young couturier just starting his fashion house. The film was followed by two films in 1967. That image is too much for me. [77][78][79][80] Hepburn stated that the role was "the jazziest of my career"[81] yet admitted: "I'm an introvert. Biography of Audrey Hepburn, Elegant Actress - LiveAbout After the war, she continued to study ballet in Amsterdam and in London. For example, she was named the "most beautiful woman of all time"[170] and "most beautiful woman of the 20th century"[171] in polls by Evian and QVC respectively, and in 2015, was voted "the most stylish Brit of all time" in a poll commissioned by Samsung. A month later, she died of appendiceal cancer at her home in Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland, at the age of 63. Audrey Kathleen Ruston (later, Hepburn-Ruston [4]) was born on 4 May 1929 at number 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. Hepburn's Hollywood debut as a runaway princess in William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953) opposite Gregory Peck made her a star. Hepburn played the daughter of a famous art collector, whose collection consists entirely of forgeries which are about to be exposed as fakes. Audrey Hepburn was discovered at age 22 on . [8][24] That same year, her mother moved with Hepburn to her family's estate in Arnhem; her half-brothers Alex and Ian (then 15 and 11) were sent to The Hague to live with relatives. Audrey Hepburn was a Belgian-born British actress and humanitarian. Mel and Audrey were married for 13 years before they divorced in 1968. [136] Her son and granddaughter, Sean and Emma Ferrer, helped produce a biographical documentary directed by Helena Coan, entitled Audrey (2020). Not So Saintly After All: A Sad Star, Strongly Sexed | Observer Of the trip, she said, "The army gave us their trucks, the fishmongers gave their wagons for the vaccines, and once the date was set, it took ten days to vaccinate the whole country. [46] Hepburn then performed on the British stage as a chorus girl in the musicals High Button Shoes (1948), and Sauce Tartare (1949). [69] Having become one of Hollywood's most popular box-office attractions, she starred in a series of successful films during the remainder of the decade, including her BAFTA- and Golden Globe-nominated role as Natasha Rostova in War and Peace (1956), an adaptation of the Tolstoy novel set during the Napoleonic wars, starring Henry Fonda and her husband Mel Ferrer. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Audrey Hepburn only weighed 88 pounds: her son reveals why - AOL After starring in the thriller Wait Until Dark (1967), Audrey Hepburn went into semi-retirement. [32] She also volunteered at a hospital that was the center of resistance activities in Velp,[32] and her family temporarily hid a British paratrooper in their home during the Battle of Arnhem. She studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell in Amsterdam beginning in 1945, and with Marie Rambert in London from 1948. Although born in Belgium, Audrey Hepburn had British citizenship through her father and attended school in England as a child. She is even more luminous as the daughter and pet of the servants' hall than she was as a princess last year, and no more than that can be said. She called Turkey "the loveliest example" of UNICEF's capabilities. Audrey Hepburn gained renown for her film career, starring in movies including Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffanys and Charade (pictured). She left Robert Wolders two candlesticks. Her most well-known canine companion was a Yorkshire terrier appropriately named Mr. Unfortunately, she took a turn for the worse, with the prognosis giving her only three months left to live, as per People. Before her death, Hepburn planned how she wanted her estate distributed. Audrey Hepburn's will revealed in son's lawsuit - Mail Online The US Fund for UNICEF also founded the Audrey Hepburn Society: the Society hosted annual charity balls for fund raising until Ferrer became involved in lawsuits in the late 2010s on behalf of his mother's estate. gave more time, energy, and thought to this role than to any of my previous screen performances". ", "Audrey Hepburn digitaly reborn for Galaxy", "Google Doodle Pays Tribute to Audrey Hepburn", "Audrey Hepburn's Oldest Son in Legal Wrangle with Her Children's Fund", "Proposed Decision Favors Actress' Eldest Son in Dispute with Charity", "Audrey Hepburn's Son Sean Hepburn Ferrer Vindicated By Court Decision", "Rare Disease Day 2015 Sean Hepburn Ferrer, special ambassador of Rare Disease Day 2014", "Audrey Hepburn's son sues children's charity over use of mother's name", "Audrey Hepburn: a new kind of movie star", "Audrey Hepburn everybody's fashion icon", "Actress Tops Poll of 20th Century Beauties", "Audrey Hepburn is officially Britain's style icon 22 years after her death", "Stylebook: Hepburn gown fetches record price", "Marilyn Monroe "subway" dress sells for $4.6million", "Hepburn's wardrobe sells for double estimate", "AFI's 50 Greatest American Screen Legends", "Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon review beautiful, but unrevealing", "The cult of Audrey Hepburn: how can anyone live up to that level of chic? It earned her a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. I went into rebel country and saw mothers and their children who had walked for ten days, even three weeks, looking for food, settling onto the desert floor into makeshift camps where they may die. [132], Hepburn's legacy has endured long after her death. [162][163], In addition to Sabrina, Givenchy designed her costumes for Love in the Afternoon (1957), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Funny Face (1957), Charade (1963), Paris When It Sizzles (1964), and How to Steal a Million (1966), as well as clothed her off screen. Of her experiences in Venezuela and Ecuador, Hepburn told the United States Congress, "I saw tiny mountain communities, slums, and shantytowns receive water systems for the first time by some miracle and the miracle is UNICEF. How Audrey Hepburn Helped the Dutch Resistance During WWII | Time As the Los Angeles Times notes, doctors expected her to fully recover at the time. [154] When she first rose to stardom in Roman Holiday (1953), she was seen as an alternative feminine ideal that appealed more to women than men, in comparison to the curvy and more sexual Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor. During her early 20s, she studied acting and worked as a model and dancer. Omissions? After winning an Academy Award for her role as the (fictional) Princess Ann, she appeared in Sabrina (1954), War and Peace (1956), The Nuns Story (1959), and, perhaps most famously, Breakfast at Tiffanys (1961). In January 2009, Hepburn was named on The Times' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. Having divorced Ferrer in 1968, she married a prominent Italian psychiatrist and chose to focus on her family rather than her career. Ella was the daughter of Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra, who served as mayor of Arnhem from 1910 to 1920 and as governor of Dutch Suriname from 1921 to 1928, and Baroness Elbrig Willemine Henriette van Asbeck (18731939), a granddaughter of Count Dirk van Hogendorp. View Complete Answer Who inherited Audrey Hepburn's wealth? Audrey Hepburn's Final Days - Peoplemag Her intellectual property, film rights, likeness rights, and the majority of her estate were left to her sons, Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Luca Dotti. He sent back thousands of cigarettes, which she was able to sell on the black market and so buy the Penicillin which saved Hepburn's life. [125], Upon returning from Somalia to Switzerland in late September 1992, Hepburn developed abdominal pain. A. Hepburn-Ruston and Baroness Ella van Heemstra. [162] According to Moseley, fashion plays an unusually central role in many of Hepburn's films, stating that "the costume is not tied to the character, functioning 'silently' in the mise-en-scne, but as 'fashion' becomes an attraction in the aesthetic in its own right". Bogart was 54 in Sabrina; Hepburn was 24. [72], Following The Nun's Story, Hepburn received a lukewarm reception for starring with Anthony Perkins in the romantic adventure Green Mansions (1959), in which she played Rima, a jungle girl who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller,[73] and The Unforgiven (1960), her only western film, in which she appeared opposite Burt Lancaster and Lillian Gish in a story of racism against a group of Native Americans.[74].