Audrey Hepburn

Hepburn was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston in Brussels, Belgium. Her mother was the Dutch baroness Ella Van Heemstra, and her father was Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston. After her parents’ divorce, she spent part of her youth in England and later returned to the Netherlands with her mother.

During World War II, Hepburn lived through the German occupation of the Netherlands. Her family endured bombings, rationing, poverty, disease, and severe food shortages, and Hepburn suffered from malnutrition and jaundice. She and other children also passed money and notes to resistance workers. After the war, she studied ballet in Amsterdam and London, but was told that her height and late start made a career as a prima ballerina unlikely.

After working as a model and dancer, Hepburn began appearing in small British film and stage roles. Her breakthrough came when French novelist Colette saw her while she was making Monte Carlo Baby and insisted that she be considered for the title role in the stage adaptation of Gigi. Hepburn was 22 when she made her Broadway debut in the production, which earned her strong reviews.

Hepburn returned to Broadway in 1954 in Ondine, a fantasy play in which she portrayed a water nymph opposite Mel Ferrer. Her performance won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Hepburn and Ferrer later costarred in War and Peace, and they married in 1954.

Hepburn’s first major American film was Roman Holiday (1953), in which she played Princess Ann opposite Gregory Peck. Her performance combined regal poise with comic vulnerability and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She followed it with Sabrina (1954), which brought her an additional Academy Award nomination.

Her major films of the 1950s included War and Peace (1956), Funny Face (1957), and The Nun’s Story (1959). In Funny Face, she appeared opposite Fred Astaire, while The Nun’s Story earned her another Academy Award nomination. She also worked closely with designer Hubert de Givenchy, who created costumes for several of her films and much of her personal wardrobe.

Hepburn reached a new level of fame as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), earning another Oscar nomination. She then starred opposite Cary Grant in Charade (1963) and played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1964). Her later 1960s films included Two for the Road and Wait Until Dark, the latter earning her a fifth Academy Award nomination.

After Wait Until Dark in 1967, Hepburn entered semi-retirement and worked only sporadically in films. She returned to the screen in Robin and Marian (1976), followed by Bloodline (1979), They All Laughed (1981), and Always (1989), which was her final film role.

In 1988, Hepburn became a special goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. She traveled to projects in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America, raising awareness of the needs of children affected by poverty, famine, displacement, and war. Her humanitarian work continued until shortly before her death and became the central focus of her later public life.

Hepburn was married to actor Mel Ferrer from 1954 to 1968. They had one son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer. She married Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti in 1969, and they had a son, Luca Dotti, in 1970. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982.

Hepburn later shared her life with Dutch actor Robert Wolders. They never married. Her sons, Sean and Luca, and Wolders established the Audrey Hepburn Memorial Fund at UNICEF in 1994, which later became the Audrey Hepburn Society at the US Fund for UNICEF.

After returning from a UNICEF trip to Somalia in 1992, Hepburn became ill and was diagnosed with cancer. She returned to Switzerland later that year and spent the final month of her life at her home in Tolochenaz. She died there on January 20, 1993, aged 63.

Hepburn received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and was posthumously awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1993. She was also one of the few entertainers to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Her influence continued through her films, her partnership with Givenchy, and her humanitarian work for UNICEF.