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Actress, humanitarian. Born Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston in
Brussels, Belgium, on May 4, 1929. Her father, Joseph Anthony
Hepburn-Ruston, was an English banker, and her mother, Ella
Hepburn-Ruston, was a Dutch baroness. Hepburn grew up in England, but
moved to the Netherlands after her parents separated. In 1948, she
appeared in her first film, Nederland in Lessen (Dutch at the
Double), billed as Edda Hepburn. Following the Nazi invasion of the
Netherlands in 1940, Hepburn was consequently unable to leave the
country until 1948, when she returned to London to study ballet on a
scholarship at Arnhem Conservatory, at which time she began using the
professional name of Audrey Hepburn.
In 1949, she made her London stage debut in the chorus of High
Button Shoes. With her gamine-like features and graceful beauty, she
was hand-picked by Colette herself to star in the1951 Broadway
production of Gigi, which garnered enormous critical acclaim.
From 1951-52, she made a string of unremarkable films, while slowly
gaining recognition with her solid character portrayals despite such a
seemingly delicate demeanor.
In 1953, she was cast as a runaway princess wooed by an international
news journalist, played by Gregory Peck, in the romantic comedy Roman
Holiday. Her beguiling performance landed her a Best Actress Oscar;
from then on, Hepburn became an international star and the very
definition of elegant chic.
Hepburn earned another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for
her performance in Billy Wilder�s romantic comedy Sabrina (1954),
costarring Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. That year she returned to
New York where she starred in Broadway�s Ondine and received a
Tony Award for Best Actress in a Drama. In 1957, she appeared in the
musical Funny Face (1957) with Fred Astaire, and in Wilder's
romantic comedy Love in the Afternoon with Gary Cooper. In 1959,
she received an Oscar nomination, the New York Film Critics Circle
Award, and the British Film Academy Award for Best Actress for her
leading role in the critically acclaimed drama The Nun�s Story.
Hepburn earned another Oscar nomination for her now-iconic
performance as Holly Golightly in Blake Edward�s romantic comedy
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), costarring George Peppard. That year
she starred with Shirley MacLaine in The Children�s Hour, a
controversial drama that became one of Hollywood�s earliest treatments
on the subject of lesbianism. She received a British Academy Award for
Best Actress for the romantic mystery Charade (1963), costarring
Cary Grant and Walter Matthau. Also in 1963, she reteamed with her
Sabrina costar William Holden for Paris�When It Sizzles. But
it was her performance as Eliza Doolittle in 1964�s My Fair Lady
that Hepburn hit on the most lucrative film of her career, as well as
earning yet again Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominations. She played a
blind woman in Terence Young�s thriller Wait Until Dark (1967),
earning a fifth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
After a nine-year absence, she returned to film in the romantic
adventure Robin and Marian (1976) with Sean Connery, Richard
Harris, and Ian Holm. She appeared in several more film productions,
including her final role playing the angel Hap in Steven Spielberg's
Always (1989).
A long-time activist for charitable causes, in 1988, Hepburn was
named the official spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF). Among numerous other honors, in 1990, she was awarded the
Cecil B DeMille Award, as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
1992. That same year she received the George Eastman Award for Lifetime
Achievement, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In
1993, she was presented with the Council of Fashion Designers of America
Award. Posthumous awards included the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
for her work with UNICEF (1993), a Grammy for Best Spoken Album for
Children for Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales (1993), and the
Women in Film Crystal Award (1996).
Hepburn�along with John Gielgud, Helen Hayes and Rita Moreno�was one
of only four performers to have won all of the four major entertainment
awards (Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony).
In 1954, she married actor Mel Ferrer, and together they had a son,
Sean, in 1960, before divorcing in1968. In 1969, she married
psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, with whom she had a son, Luca, in 1970.
Hepburn and Dotti were also divorced, and she later married Dutch actor
Robert Wolders.
In 1992, Hepburn was diagnosed with colon cancer, for which she
underwent surgery in Los Angeles; however, she died from the disease on
January 20, 1993 in Tolochenaz, Switzerland.
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