Born into an aristocratic family inIxelles, Brussels, Hepburn spent parts of her childhood in Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. She attendedboarding school inKent from 1936 to 1939. Hepburn returned to the Netherlands with theSecond World War's outbreak.[3] She studiedballet at the Arnhem Conservatory during the war. By 1944, Hepburn was performing ballet to raise money to support theresistance.[4] She studied withSonia Gaskell inAmsterdam from 1945 to 1948 and then withMarie Rambert in London.
Later in life, Hepburn devoted much of her time toUNICEF, to which she had contributed since 1954. Between 1988 and 1992, she worked in some of the poorest communities of Africa, South America and Asia.
Audrey Kathleen Ruston (later, Hepburn-Ruston[6]) was born on 4 May 1929 at number 48 Rue Keyenveld inIxelles, a municipality of Brussels, Belgium.[7] She was known to her family asAdriaantje.[8] She was raised Protestant and remained one throughout her life.[9]
Hepburn's mother, BaronessElla van Heemstra (1900–1984), was a Dutch noblewoman. She was the daughter of BaronAarnoud van Heemstra (1871–1957), who served as the mayor ofArnhem from 1910 to 1920 and as the governor ofDutch Guiana from 1921 to 1928, and Baroness Elbrig Willemine Henriette van Asbeck (1873–1939),[10] a granddaughter of CountDirk van Hogendorp (1797–1845). At the age of 19, she marriedJonkheer Hendrik Gustaaf Adolf Quarles van Ufford, an oil executive based inBatavia, Dutch East Indies, where the couple subsequently lived.[11] Before divorcing in 1925, they had two sons, Jonkheer Arnoud Robert Alexander "Alex" Quarles van Ufford (1920–1979) and Jonkheer Ian Edgar Bruce Quarles van Ufford (1924–2010).[7][12][13]
Hepburn's father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston (1889–1980), was aBritish subject born inAuschitz,Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary. He was the son of Victor John George Ruston, who was of British and German-Austrian background, and Anna Juliana Franziska Karolina Wels, who was of German-Austrian origin and born inKovarce.[14] He was an Honorary British Consul inSemarang, Dutch East Indies, from 1923 to 1924.[15] Joseph was married to Cornelia Bisschop, a Dutch heiress, prior to his marriage to Ella.[16] He later changed his surname to the more "aristocratic"double-barrelled Hepburn-Ruston, perhaps at Ella's insistence,[17] due to mistakenly believing himself descended fromJames Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell.[b][18][19]
Ella and Joseph married in Batavia in 1926. Joseph was working for a trading company at the time. Soon after the marriage, the couple moved to Europe, where he began working for a loan company; reportedly tin merchants MacLaine, Watson, and Company in London.[8] After a year in London, they moved to Brussels, where he had been assigned to open a branch office.[20] After three years spent travelling between Brussels, Arnhem,The Hague and London, the family settled in the suburban Brussels municipality ofLinkebeek in 1932.[21] Hepburn's early childhood was sheltered and privileged.[11] Due to Joseph's job, the family travelled back and forth among three countries, enhancing her multinational background.[c][22]
In the mid-1930s, Ella and Joseph recruited and collected donations for theBritish Union of Fascists (BUF).[23] Ella metAdolf Hitler and wrote favourable articles about him for the BUF.[24] Joseph left the family abruptly in 1935 after a "scene" in Brussels. He subsequently moved to London, where he became more deeply involved in the Fascist activity and never visited Hepburn abroad.[25] The same year, Ella moved to her family's estate in Arnhem with Hepburn and sent Alex and Ian to The Hague to live with relatives. Joseph wanted Hepburn to be educated in the United Kingdom,[26] so in 1937, she was sent to live in Kent, where she, known as Audrey Ruston or "Little Audrey", was educated at a smallprivate school inElham.[26][27][28] Ella and Joseph officially divorced the next year.[29] Later in her life, Hepburn often spoke of the effect on a child of being "dumped" as "children need two parents";[30] she stated that Joseph's departure was "the most traumatic event of my life".[11][31] In the 1960s, Hepburn renewed contact with Joseph after locating him inDublin through theRed Cross; she supported him financially until his death although he remained emotionally detached.[32]
After Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, Hepburn's mother moved her daughter back to Arnhem in the hope that, as during theFirst World War, the Netherlands would remain neutral and be spared a German attack. While there, Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to 1945. She had begun taking ballet lessons during her last years at boarding school, and continued training in Arnhem under the tutelage of Winja Marova, becoming her "star pupil".[11] After the Germansinvaded the Netherlands in 1940, Hepburn used the name Edda van Heemstra, because an "English-sounding" name was considered dangerous during theGerman occupation. Her family was profoundly affected by the occupation, with Hepburn later stating that "had we known that we were going to be occupied for five years, we might have all shot ourselves. We thought it might be over next week… six months… next year… that's how we got through".[11]
In 1942, her uncle, Otto vanLimburg 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.[11] These family events were the turning point in the attitude of Hepburn's mother, who had flirted with Nazism up to this point. Hepburn's half-brother Ian was deported to Berlin to work in a Germanlabour camp, and her other half-brother Alex went into hiding to avoid the same fate.[11]
"We saw young men put against the wall and shot, and they'd close the street and then open it, and you could pass by again... Don't discount anything awful you hear or read about the Nazis. It's worse than you could ever imagine."[11]
—Hepburn on the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands
After her uncle's death, Hepburn, Ella, and Miesje left Arnhem to live with her grandfather, Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra, in nearbyVelp.[11] Around that time Hepburn gave silent dance performances that reportedly raised money for the Dutch resistance effort.[33] It was long believed that she participated in theDutch resistance itself,[11] but in 2016 theAirborne Museum 'Hartenstein' reported that after extensive research it had not found any evidence of such activities.[34] A 2019 book by Robert Matzen provided evidence, based on Hepburn's personal statements, that she had supported the resistance by giving "underground concerts" to raise money, delivering the underground newspaper, and taking messages and food to downed Allied flyers hiding in the woodlands north of Velp.[35] She also volunteered at a hospital that was the center of resistance activities in Velp,[35] and, according to Hepburn, her family temporarily hid a British paratrooper in their home during theBattle of Arnhem.[36][37] Matzen also claims that Hepburn carried messages for the Dutch Resistance, including to downed British paratroopers.[38]
In addition to other traumatic events, she witnessed the transportation of Dutch Jews toconcentration camps, later stating that "more than once I was at the station seeing trainloads of Jews being transported, seeing all these faces over the top of the wagon. 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. I was a child observing a child."[39]
After the Allied landing onD-Day, living conditions grew worse, and Arnhem was subsequently heavily damaged duringOperation Market Garden. During the1944–45 Dutch famine, the Germans hindered or reduced the already limited food and fuel supplies to civilians in retaliation for Dutch railway strikes that were held to disrupt the occupation. Like others, Hepburn's family resorted tomaking flour out of tulip bulbs to bake cakes and biscuits,[40][41] a source of starchy carbohydrates; Dutch doctors provided recipes for using tulip bulbs throughout the famine.[42] Suffering from the effects ofmalnutrition, after the war ended Hepburn became gravely ill withjaundice,anaemia,oedema, and a respiratory infection. In October 1945, a letter from Ella asking for help was received byMicky Burn, a former lover and British Army officer with whom she had corresponded while he was aprisoner of war inColditz Castle. He sent back thousands of cigarettes, which she was able to sell on theblack market and thus buy thepenicillin which saved Hepburn's life.[43][44][45] The Van Heemstra family's financial situation changed significantly through the occupation, during which time many of their properties (including their principal estate in Arnhem) were damaged or destroyed.[46]
After the war ended in 1945, Hepburn moved with her mother and siblings toAmsterdam, where she began ballet training underSonia Gaskell, a leading figure in Dutch ballet, and Russian teacher Olga Tarasova.[47] Due to the loss of the family fortune, Ella had to support them by working as a cook and housekeeper for a wealthy family.[48] Hepburn made her film debut playing an air stewardess inDutch in Seven Lessons (1948), an educational travel film made by Charles van der Linden and Henry Josephson.[49]
Later that year, Hepburn moved toLondon after accepting a ballet scholarship withBallet Rambert, which was then based inNotting Hill.[50][d] She supported herself with part-time work as a model, and dropped "Ruston" from her surname. After she was told by Rambert that despite her talent, her height and weak constitution (the after-effect of wartime malnutrition) would make the status ofprima ballerina unattainable, she decided to concentrate on acting.[51][52][53] While Ella worked in menial jobs to support them, Hepburn appeared as achorus girl[54] in theWest End musical theatrerevuesHigh Button Shoes (1948) at theLondon Hippodrome, and Cecil Landeau'sSauce Tartare (1949) andSauce Piquante (1950) at theCambridge Theatre. Also, in 1950, she worked as a dancer in an exceptionally "ambitious" revue,Summer Nights, atCiro's London, a prominentnightclub.[55]
Hepburn then took a small role in a bilingual film,Monte Carlo Baby (French:Nous Irons à Monte Carlo, 1952), which was filmed inMonte Carlo. Coincidentally, French novelistColette was at theHôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo during the filming, and decided to cast Hepburn in the title role in theBroadway playGigi.[59] Hepburn went into rehearsals having never spoken on stage, and required private coaching.[60] WhenGigi opened at theFulton Theatre on 24 November 1951, she received praise for her performance, despite criticism that the stage version was inferior to the French film adaptation.[61]Life called her a "hit",[61] whileThe New York Times stated that "her quality is so winning and so right that she is the success of the evening".[60] Hepburn also received aTheatre World Award for the role.[62] The play ran for 219 performances, closing on 31 May 1952,[62] before going on tour, which began 13 October 1952 inPittsburgh and visitedCleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, D. C., and Los Angeles, before closing on 16 May 1953 in San Francisco.[11]
Hepburn in ascreen test forRoman Holiday (1953) which was also used as promotional material for the filmHepburn and Gregory Peck in a promotional still forRoman Holiday (1953)
Hepburn had her first starring role inRoman Holiday (1953), playing Princess Ann, a European princess who escapes the reins of royalty and has a wild night out with an American newsman (Gregory Peck). On 18 September 1951, shortly afterSecret People was finished but before its premiere, Thorold Dickinson made a screen test with the young starlet and sent it to directorWilliam Wyler, who was in Rome preparingRoman Holiday. Wyler wrote a glowing note of thanks to Dickinson, saying that "as a result of the test, a number of the producers at Paramount have expressed interest in casting her."[63] The producers of the film had initially wantedElizabeth Taylor for the role, but Wyler was so impressed by Hepburn'sscreen test that he cast her instead. Wyler later commented, "She had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence, and talent. She also was very funny. She was absolutely enchanting, and we said, 'That's the girl!'"[64] Originally, the film was to have had only Gregory Peck's name above its title, with "Introducing Audrey Hepburn" beneath in smaller font. Peck suggested Wyler elevate her to equal billing so her name appears 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."[65]
The film was a box-office success, and Hepburn gained critical acclaim for her portrayal, unexpectedly winning anAcademy Award for Best Actress, aBAFTA Award for Best British Actress in a Leading Role, and aGolden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama in 1953. In his review inThe New York Times,A. H. Weiler wrote: "Although she is not precisely a newcomer to films, Audrey Hepburn, the British actress who is being starred for the first time as Princess Anne, is a slender, elfin, and wistful beauty, alternately regal and childlike in her profound appreciation of newly-found, simple pleasures and love. Although she bravely smiles her acknowledgement of the end of that affair, she remains a pitifully lonely figure facing a stuffy future."[66]
Hepburn was signed to a seven-picture contract withParamount, with 12 months in between films to allow her time for stage work.[67] She was featured on 7 September 1953 cover ofTime magazine, and also became known for her personal style.[68] Following her success inRoman Holiday, Hepburn starred inBilly Wilder's romanticCinderella-story comedySabrina (1954), in which wealthy brothers (Humphrey Bogart andWilliam Holden) compete for the affections of their chauffeur's innocent daughter (Hepburn). For her performance, she was nominated for the 1954 Academy Award for Best Actress, while winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role the same year.[69]Bosley Crowther ofThe New York Times stated that she was "a young lady of extraordinary range of sensitive and moving expressions within such a frail and slender frame. 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."[70]
Hepburn also returned to the stage in 1954, playing awater nymph who falls in love with a human in the fantasy playOndine onBroadway. A critic forThe New York Times commented that "somehow, Miss Hepburn is able to translate [its intangibles] into the language of the theatre without artfulness or precociousness. She gives a pulsing performance that is all grace and enchantment, disciplined by an instinct for the realities of the stage". Her performance won her the 1954Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play three days after she won the Academy Award forRoman Holiday, making her one of three actresses to receive the Academy and Tony Awards for Best Actress in the same year (the other two areShirley Booth andEllen Burstyn).[71] During the production, Hepburn and her co-starMel Ferrer began a relationship, and were married on 25 September 1954 in Switzerland.[72]
Although she appeared in no new film releases in 1955, Hepburn received the Golden Globe for World Film Favorite that year.[73] 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 asNatasha Rostova inWar and Peace (1956), an adaptation of theTolstoy novel set during the Napoleonic wars, starringHenry Fonda and her husband Mel Ferrer. She exhibited her dancing abilities in her debutmusical film,Funny Face (1957), whereinFred Astaire, a fashion photographer, discovers a beatnik bookshop clerk (Hepburn) who, lured by a free trip to Paris, becomes a beautiful model. Hepburn starred in another romantic comedy,Love in the Afternoon (also 1957), alongsideGary Cooper andMaurice Chevalier.
Hepburn played Sister Luke inThe Nun's Story (1959), which focuses on the character's struggle to succeed as a nun, alongside co-starPeter Finch. The role produced a third Academy Award nomination for Hepburn, and earned her a second BAFTA Award. A review inVariety reads: "Hepburn has her most demanding film role, and she gives her finest performance",[74] while Henry Hart inFilms 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. Her portrayal of Sister Luke is one of the great performances of the screen."[75] Hepburn spent a year researching and working on the role, saying, "I gave more time, energy, and thought to this role than to any of my previous screen performances".[76]
FollowingThe Nun's Story, Hepburn received a lukewarm reception for starring withAnthony Perkins in the romantic adventureGreen Mansions (1959), in which she playedRima, a jungle girl who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller,[77] andThe Unforgiven (1960), her onlywestern film, in which she appeared oppositeBurt Lancaster andLillian Gish in a story of racism against a group of Native Americans.[78]
1961–1967:Breakfast at Tiffany's and continued success
Hepburn next starred as New Yorker Holly Golightly inBlake Edwards'sBreakfast at Tiffany's (1961), a film loosely based on theTruman Capotenovella of the same name. Capote disapproved of many changes that were made to sanitise the story for the film adaptation, and would have preferredMarilyn Monroe to have been cast in the role, although he also stated that Hepburn "did a terrific job".[79] The character is considered one of the best-known inAmerican cinema, and a defining role for Hepburn.[80] Thedress she wears during the opening credits has been considered an icon of the 20th century, and perhaps the most famous "little black dress" of all time.[81][82][83][84] Hepburn stated that the role was "the jazziest of my career"[85] yet admitted: "I'm an introvert. Playing the extroverted girl was the hardest thing I ever did."[86] She was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
The same year, Hepburn also starred in William Wyler's dramaThe Children's Hour (1961), in which she andShirley MacLaine play teachers whose lives are destroyed after two pupils accuse them of being lesbians.[87][88] Bosley Crowther ofThe New York Times writes that the film "is not too well acted", with the exception of Hepburn, who "gives the impression of being sensitive and pure" of its "muted theme".[87]Variety magazine also compliments Hepburn's "soft sensitivity, marvelous projection and emotional understatement", adding that Hepburn and MacLaine "beautifully complement each other".[88]
Hepburn next appeared oppositeCary Grant in the comic thrillerCharade (1963), playing a young widow pursued by several men who chase after the fortune stolen by her murdered husband. The 59-year-old Grant, who had previously withdrawn from the starring male lead roles inRoman Holiday andSabrina, was sensitive about his age difference with 34-year-old Hepburn, and was uncomfortable about the romantic interplay. To satisfy his concerns, the filmmakers agreed to alter the screenplay so that Hepburn's character was pursuing him.[89] The film turned out to be a positive experience for him; he said, "All I want for Christmas is another picture with Audrey Hepburn."[90] The role earned Hepburn her third, and final, competitive BAFTA Award, and another Golden Globe nomination. 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 expensiveGivenchy costumes."[91]
Although filmed in the summer of 1962 beforeCharade, Hepburn reunited with herSabrina co-starWilliam Holden inParis When It Sizzles (1964), ascrewball comedy in which she played the young assistant of a Hollywood screenwriter, who aids hiswriter's block by acting out his fantasies of possible plots. Its production was troubled by several problems. Holden unsuccessfully tried to rekindle a romance with the now-married Hepburn, and his alcoholism was beginning to affect his work. Afterprincipal photography began, she demanded the dismissal of cinematographerClaude Renoir after seeing what she felt were unflatteringdailies.[92] Superstitious, she also insisted on dressing room 55 because that was her lucky number and required thatHubert de Givenchy, her long-time designer, be given a credit in the film for her perfume.[92] Dubbed "marshmallow-weight hokum" byVariety upon its release in April,[93] the film was "uniformly panned"[92] but critics were kinder to Hepburn's performance, describing her as "a refreshingly individual creature in an era of the exaggerated curve".[93]
Hepburn's second film released in 1964 wasGeorge Cukor'sfilm adaptation of the stage musicalMy Fair Lady, which premiered in October.[94]Soundstage wrote that "not sinceGone with the Wind has a motion picture created such universal excitement asMy Fair Lady",[71] although Hepburn's casting in the role ofCockney flower girlEliza Doolittle was a source of dispute.Julie Andrews, who had originated the role on stage, was not offered the part because producerJack L. Warner thought Hepburn was a more "bankable" proposition. Hepburn initially asked Warner to give the role to Andrews but was eventually cast. Further friction was created when, although non-singer Hepburn had sung inFunny Face and had lengthy vocal preparation for the role inMy Fair Lady, her vocals were dubbed byMarni Nixon, whose voice was considered more suitable to the role.[95][96] Hepburn was initially upset and walked off the set when informed.[e]
Critics applauded Hepburn's performance. Crowther wrote that, "The happiest thing about [My Fair Lady] is that Audrey Hepburn superbly justifies the decision of Jack Warner to get her to play the title role."[95] Gene Ringgold ofSoundstage also commented that, "Audrey Hepburn is magnificent. She is Eliza for the ages",[71] while adding, "Everyone agreed that if Julie Andrews was not to be in the film, Audrey Hepburn was the perfect choice."[71] The reviewer inTime magazine said her "graceful, glamorous performance" was "the best of her career".[97] Andrews won an Academy Award forMary Poppins at the 196437th Academy Awards and Hepburn earned Best Actress nominations for Golden Globe andNew York Film Critics Circle awards.[98]
Hepburn appeared in an assortment of genres including the heist comedyHow to Steal a Million (1966). Hepburn played the daughter of a famous art collector, whose collection consists entirely of forgeries that are about to be exposed as fakes. Her character plays the part of a dutiful daughter trying to help her father with the help of a man played byPeter O'Toole. The film was followed by two films in 1967. The first wasTwo for the Road, a non-linear and innovative Britishdramedy that traces the course of a couple's troubled marriage. DirectorStanley Donen said that Hepburn was freer and happier than he had ever seen her, and he credited that to co-starAlbert Finney.[99] 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. Filmed on the brink of her divorce, it was a difficult film for her, as husband Mel Ferrer was its producer. She lost 15 pounds under the stress, but she found solace in co-starRichard Crenna and directorTerence Young. Hepburn earned her fifth and final competitive Academy Award nomination for Best Actress; Bosley Crowther affirmed, "Hepburn plays the poignant role, the quickness with which she changes and the skill with which she manifests terror attract sympathy and anxiety to her and give her genuine solidity in the final scenes."[100]
After 1967, Hepburn chose to devote more time to her family and acted only occasionally. She attempted a comeback playingMaid Marian in theperiod pieceRobin and Marian (1976) withSean Connery co-starring asRobin Hood, which was moderately successful.Roger Ebert praised Hepburn's chemistry with Connery, writing, "Connery and Hepburn seem to have arrived at a tacit understanding between themselves about their characters. They glow. They really do seem in love. And they project as marvellously complex, fond, tender people; the passage of 20 years has given them grace and wisdom."[101] Hepburn reunited with director Terence Young in the production ofBloodline (1979), sharing top-billing withBen Gazzara,James Mason, andRomy Schneider.[102] The film, an international intrigue amid thejet-set, was a critical and box-office failure. Hepburn's last starring role in a feature film was opposite Gazzara in the comedyThey All Laughed (1981), directed byPeter Bogdanovich.[103] The film was overshadowed by the murder of one of its stars,Dorothy Stratten, and received only a limited release. Six years later, Hepburn co-starred withRobert Wagner in amade-for-televisioncaper film,Love Among Thieves (1987).[104]
In the 1950s, Hepburn narrated two radio programmes forUNICEF, re-telling children's stories of war.[106] In 1989, Hepburn was appointed aGoodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. On her appointment, she stated that she was grateful for receiving international aid after enduring the German occupation as a child, and wanted to show her gratitude to the organisation.[107]
Hepburn receivingUNICEF's InternationalDanny Kaye Award for Children in 1989.
Hepburn's first field mission for UNICEF was to Ethiopia in 1988. She visited an orphanage inMek'ele that housed 500 starving children and had UNICEF send food.[108] Of the trip, she said,
I have a broken heart. I feel desperate. I can't stand the idea that two million people are in imminent danger of starving to death, many of them children, [and] not because there isn't tons of food sitting in the northern port ofShoa. It can't be distributed. Last spring, Red Cross and UNICEF workers were ordered out of the northern provinces because of two simultaneous civil wars... 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. Horrible. That image is too much for me. The 'Third World' is a term I don't like very much, because we're all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering.[109]
In August 1988, Hepburn went to Turkey on an immunisation campaign. She called Turkey "the loveliest example" of UNICEF's capabilities. 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. Not bad."[108] In October, Hepburn went to South America. 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. I watched boys build their own schoolhouse with bricks and cement provided by UNICEF."[110]
Hepburn toured Central America in February 1989, and met with leaders in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. In April, she visited Sudan with Wolders as part of a mission called "Operation Lifeline". Because of civil war, food fromaid agencies had been cut off. The mission was to ferry food tosouthern Sudan. Hepburn said, "I saw but one glaring truth: These are notnatural disasters but man-made tragedies for which there is only one man-made solution – peace."[108] In October 1989, Hepburn and Wolders went to Bangladesh.John Isaac, a UN photographer, said, "Often the kids would have flies all over them, but she would just go hug them. I had never seen that. Other people had a certain amount of hesitation, but she would just grab them. Children would just come up to hold her hand, touch her – she was like thePied Piper."[11]
In October 1990, Hepburn went to Vietnam, in an effort to collaborate with the government for national UNICEF-supported immunisation andclean water programmes. In September 1992, four months before she died, Hepburn went to Somalia. Calling it "apocalyptic", she said, "I walked into a nightmare. I have seen famine in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, but I have seen nothing like this – so much worse than I could possibly have imagined. I wasn't prepared for this."[108] Though scarred by what she had seen, Hepburn still had hope stating:
As we move into the twenty-first century, there is much to reflect upon. We look around us and see that the promises of yesterday have to come to pass. People still live in abject poverty, people are still hungry, people still struggle to survive. And among these people we see the children, always the children: their enlarged bellies, their sad eyes, their wise faces that show the suffering, all the suffering they have endured in their short years.[111]
Alongside her native English and Dutch, Hepburn also had some fluency in French (which she learned at school in Belgium), German, Italian, and Spanish.[116] Throughout her life, Hepburn lived in many countries, including spending her childhood in Belgium, England, and the Netherlands, and her adult years in the United States, Italy, and Switzerland,[117] and travelled extensively during her later years of life as part of her humanitarian work with UNICEF.[118]
In 1952, Hepburn became engaged to industrialistJames Hanson,[119] whom she had known since her early days in London. 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.[120] She issued a public statement about her decision, saying "When I get married, I want to bereally married".[121] In the early 1950s, she also dated futureHair producerMichael Butler.[122]
At a cocktail party hosted by mutual friendGregory Peck, Hepburn met American actorMel Ferrer, and suggested that they star together in a play.[71][123] The meeting led them to collaborate inOndine, during which they began a relationship. Eight months later, on 25 September 1954, they were married inBürgenstock, Switzerland,[124] while preparing to star together in the filmWar and Peace (1956).
She and Ferrer had a son,Sean Hepburn Ferrer, born on 17 June 1960.[125] Prior to Sean's birth, Hepburn had two other pregnancies that ended in miscarriages, the second one at six months.[117][125][126] Ferrer was rumoured to be too controlling, and had been referred to by others as being her "Svengali" – an idea that Hepburn laughed off. William Holden was quoted as saying, "I think Audrey allows Mel to think he influences her." After a 14-year marriage, the couple divorced in 1968.[127]
In 1960, Hepburn settled in Switzerland, having decided to reduce her film work and live in the country where her first son Sean was born. Looking for a house, she focused on the French-speaking part of Switzerland, theRomandie, to avoid Sean learning German in school – an echo of her traumatic wartime childhood. She bought the 21-room country estate "La Paisible" ("The Peaceful One") in the country village ofTolochenaz,Vaud. The remote estate, surrounded by high walls, suited her desire for privacy, and Hepburn was fond of cooking with the produce from its extensive vegetable gardens.[128]
Hepburn met her second husband, Italian psychiatristAndrea Dotti, on aMediterranean cruise with friends in June 1968. She believed she would have more children and possibly stop working.[129][130] They married on 18 January 1969, and their son Luca Andrea Dotti was born on 8 February 1970.[125] While pregnant with Luca in 1969, Hepburn was more careful, resting for months before delivering the baby viacaesarean section. Hepburn suffered a miscarriage in 1974.[125]
Dotti and Hepburn were both unfaithful, he with younger women and she with actorBen Gazzara during the filming ofBloodline (1979).[131] The marriage lasted 12 years and was dissolved in 1982.[125][132]
From 1980 until her death in 1993, Hepburn was in a relationship with Dutch actorRobert Wolders, the widower of actressMerle Oberon.[41] She had met Wolders through a friend during the later years of her second marriage. In 1989, she called the nine years she had spent with him the happiest years of her life, and stated that she considered them married, just not officially.[133]
Upon returning to Switzerland from Somalia in late September 1992, Hepburn developedabdominal pain. While initial medical tests in Switzerland had inconclusive results, alaparoscopy performed at theCedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in early November revealed a rare form of abdominal cancer belonging to a group of cancers known aspseudomyxoma peritonei.[134] Having grown slowly over several years, the cancer hadmetastasised as a thin coating over hersmall intestine. After surgery, Hepburn beganchemotherapy.[135]
Hepburn and her family returned home to Switzerland to celebrate her last Christmas. As she was still recovering from surgery, she was unable to fly on commercial aircraft. Her long-time friend, fashion designerHubert de Givenchy, arranged for socialiteRachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon to send her privateGulfstream jet, filled with flowers, to take Hepburn from Los Angeles toGeneva. She spent her last days inhospice care at her home inTolochenaz,Vaud, and was occasionally well enough to take walks in her garden, but gradually became more confined to bedrest.[136]
On the evening of 20 January 1993, Hepburn died in her sleep at her home. She was 63. After her death,Gregory Peck recorded a tribute to Hepburn in which he tearfully recited the poem "Unending Love" byRabindranath Tagore.[137] Funeral services were held at the village church of Tolochenaz on 24 January 1993. Maurice Eindiguer, the same pastor who wed Hepburn and Mel Ferrer and baptised her son Sean in 1960, presided over her funeral, whilePrince Sadruddin Aga Khan delivered a eulogy. Many family members and friends attended the funeral, including her sons, partner Robert Wolders, half-brother Ian Quarles van Ufford, ex-husbands Andrea Dotti and Mel Ferrer, Hubert de Givenchy, executives of UNICEF, and fellow actorsAlain Delon andRoger Moore.[138] Flower arrangements were sent to the funeral by Peck,Elizabeth Taylor, and theDutch royal family.[139]Later on the same day, Hepburn was interred at the Tolochenaz Cemetery.[140]
She has been the subject of many biographies since her death, including the 2000 dramatisation of her life titledThe Audrey Hepburn Story which starredJennifer Love Hewitt andEmmy Rossum as the older and younger Hepburn respectively.[144] Her son and granddaughter,Sean andEmma Ferrer, helped produce a biographical documentary directed by Helena Coan, entitledAudrey (2020). The film was released to positive reception.[145][146]
In 2012, Hepburn was among the British cultural icons selected by artist SirPeter Blake to appear in a new version of his best known artwork – the Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his lifetime thus far that he most admires.[147] On 4 May 2014, Google featured adoodle on its homepage on what would have been Hepburn's 85th birthday.[148]
Sean Ferrer founded the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund[149] in memory of his mother shortly after her death. The US Fund for UNICEF also founded the Audrey Hepburn Society: the Society hosted annual charity balls for fundraising, until Ferrer became involved in lawsuits in the late 2010s on behalf of his mother's estate.[150][151] Dotti also became patron of thePseudomyxoma Survivor charity, dedicated to providing support to patients of the rare cancer that was fatal to Hepburn,pseudomyxoma peritonei,[152] and Sean Ferrer became the rare disease ambassador since 2014 and for 2015 on behalf ofEuropean Organisation for Rare Diseases.[153] A year after his mother's death in 1993, Ferrer founded the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund (originally named Hollywood for Children Inc.),[154] a charity funded by exhibitions of Audrey Hepburn memorabilia. He directed the charity in cooperation with his half-brother Luca Dotti, andRobert Wolders, his mother's partner, which aimed to continue the humanitarian work of Audrey Hepburn.[155] Ferrer brought the exhibition "Timeless Audrey" on a world tour to raise money for the foundation.[156] He served as Chairman of the Fund before resigning in 2012, turning over the position to Dotti.[157] In 2017, Ferrer was sued by the Fund for alleged self-serving conduct.[157] In October 2017, Ferrer responded by suing the Fund for trademark infringement, claiming that the Fund no longer had the right to use Hepburn's name or likeness.[154] Ferrer's suit against the Fund was dismissed in March 2018 due to the complaint's failure to include Dotti as a defendant.[158] In 2019, the court sided with Ferrer, with the judge ruling there was no merit to the charity's claims it had the independent right to use Audrey Hepburn's name and likeness, or to enter into contracts with third parties without Ferrer's consent.[150][151]
Hepburn's image is widely used in advertising campaigns across the world. In Japan, a series of commercials usedcolourised and digitally enhanced clips of Hepburn inRoman Holiday to advertiseKirinblack tea. In the United States, Hepburn was featured in a 2006Gap commercial that used clips of her dancing fromFunny Face, set toAC/DC's "Back in Black", with the tagline "It's Back – The Skinny Black Pant". To celebrate its "Keep it Simple" campaign, the Gap made a sizeable donation to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund.[159] In 2013, acomputer-manipulated representation of Hepburn was used in a television advert for the British chocolate barGalaxy.[160][161] In 2025, she was the subject of "Audrey Hepburn", a song by singer-songwriterMaisie Peters.[162]
Hepburn with a short hairstyle and wearing one of her signature looks: black turtleneck, slim black trousers, and ballet flats
Hepburn was known for her fashion choices and distinctive look, to the extent that journalistMark Tungate has described her as a recognisable brand.[163] When she first rose to stardom inRoman Holiday (1953), she was seen as an alternative feminine ideal that appealed more to women than men, compared to the more sexual and curvyMarilyn Monroe andElizabeth Taylor.[164][165] With her short hairstyle, thick eyebrows, slim body, and "gamine" looks, she presented a look that young women found easier to emulate than those of more sexual film stars.[166] In 1954, fashion photographerCecil Beaton declared Hepburn the "public embodiment of our new feminine ideal" inVogue, and wrote that "Nobody ever looked like her before World War II ... Yet we recognise the rightness of this appearance in relation to our historical needs. The proof is that thousands of imitations have appeared."[165] The magazine and itsBritish version frequently reported on her style throughout the following decade.[167] Alongside modelTwiggy, Hepburn has been cited as one of the key public figures who made being very slim fashionable.[166]Vogue has referred to her as "the acme of classic beauty".
Added to theInternational Best Dressed List in 1961, Hepburn was associated with a minimalistic style, usually wearing clothes with simple silhouettes that emphasised her slim body, such as monochromatic colours with occasional statement accessories.[168] In the late 1950s, Hepburn popularised plain black leggings.[169] She was in particular associated with French fashion designerHubert 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 youngcouturier just startinghis fashion house.[170] Although initially disappointed that "Miss Hepburn" was notKatharine Hepburn as he had mistakenly thought, Givenchy and Hepburn formed a life-long friendship.[170][171]
In addition toSabrina, Givenchy designed her costumes forLove in the Afternoon (1957),Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961),Funny Face (1957),Charade (1963),Paris When It Sizzles (1964), andHow to Steal a Million (1966), as well as clothing her off screen.[170] 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 themise-en-scène, but as 'fashion' becomes an attraction in the aesthetic in its own right".[172] She also became the face of Givenchy's first perfume,L'Interdit, in 1957.[173] In addition to her partnership with Givenchy, Hepburn was credited with boosting the sales ofBurberrytrench coats when she wore one inBreakfast at Tiffany's, and was associated with Italian footwear brandTod's.[174]
In her private life, Hepburn preferred to wear casual and comfortable clothes, contrary to thehaute couture she wore on screen and at public events.[175] Despite being admired for her beauty, she never considered herself attractive, stating in a 1959 interview that "you can even say that I hated myself at certain periods. I was too fat, or maybe too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly... you can say my definiteness stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority. I couldn't conquer these feelings by acting indecisive. I found the only way to get the better of them was by adopting a forceful, concentrated drive."[176] In 1989, she stated that "my look is attainable ... Women can look like Audrey Hepburn by flipping out their hair, buying the large glasses and the little sleeveless dresses."[168]
Hepburn's influence as a style icon still continued several decades after the height of her acting career in the 1950s and 1960s. Moseley notes that especially after her death in 1993, she became increasingly admired, with magazines frequently advising readers on how to get her look, and fashion designers using her as inspiration.[177][166] Throughout her career and after her death, Hepburn received numerous accolades for her stylish appearance and attractiveness. For example, she was named the "most beautiful woman of all time"[178] and "most beautiful woman of the 20th century"[179] in polls byEvian andQVC respectively, and in 2015, was voted "the most stylish Brit of all time" in a poll commissioned bySamsung.[180] Her film costumes fetch large sums of money in auctions: one of the "little black dresses" designed by Givenchy forBreakfast at Tiffany's was sold byChristie's for a record sum of £467,200 in 2006.[181][f]
In 1999,HarperCollins publishedAudrey's Style by Pamela Keogh, a 340-page tome devoted to Hepburn's personality, beliefs and style. The book included interviews with some of the people who knew her best, and also included many photographs of her, some of which had been rarely seen before.[186]
^When asked about her background, Hepburn identified as half-Dutch,[1] for her mother was a Dutch noblewoman. Furthermore, she spent a significant number of her formative years in the Netherlands and was able to speak Dutch fluently. She solely held British nationality since at the time of her birth Dutch women were not permitted to pass on their nationality to their children; Dutch law did not change in this regard until 1985.[2] Her ancestry is covered in the "Early life" section.
^Spoto writes that Hepburn's maternal great-grandmother's maiden name was Kathleen Hepburn.
^Walker writes that it is unclear for what kind of company Joseph worked; he was listed as a "financial adviser" in a Dutch business directory, and the family often travelled among the three countries.
^She had been offered the scholarship already in 1945, but had had to decline it due to "some uncertainty regarding her national status".[46]
^Overall, about 90 per cent of her singing was dubbed, despite being promised that most of her vocals would be used. 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. When asked about the dubbing of an actress with such distinctive vocal tones, Hepburn frowned and said, "You could tell, couldn't you? And there wasRex, recording all his songs as he acted ... next time —" She bit her lip to prevent her saying more.[86] She later admitted that she would have never accepted the role knowing that Warner intended to have nearly all of her singing dubbed.
^This was the highest price paid for a dress from a film,[182] until it was surpassed by the $4.6 million paid in June 2011 for Marilyn Monroe's "subway dress" fromThe Seven Year Itch.[183] Of the two dresses that Hepburn wore on screen, one is held in the Givenchy archives while the other is displayed in the Museum of Costume in Madrid.[184] A subsequent London auction of Hepburn's film wardrobe in December 2009 raised £270,200, including £60,000 for the black Chantilly lace cocktail gown fromHow to Steal a Million.[185]
^She had her son Sean christened by the Revd Maurice Eindiguer, a Swiss Protestant pastor who also officiated her first wedding and later conducted her funeral.
^Sean Hepburn Ferrer v. Hollywood For Children, Inc., Court Listener. Free Law Project (District Court, Central District of California 2017–2018), archived fromthe original on 28 July 2020. from the original on 28 July 2020.
Capote, Truman (1987).Truman Capote: Conversations (Literary Conversations Series) (Edited by M. Thomas Inge). Univ Pr of Mississippi; First Edition (1 February 1987).ISBN0-87805-274-7.
Eastman, John (1989).Retakes: Behind the Scenes of 500 Classic Movies. Ballantine Books.ISBN0-345-35399-4.
Wilson, Julie (14 March 2011). "A new kind of star is born: Audrey Hepburn and the global governmentalisation of female stardom".Celebrity Studies.2 (1). Informa UK Limited:56–68.doi:10.1080/19392397.2011.544163.ISSN1939-2397.S2CID144559753.
Harvey Fierstein / Marco Paguia, David Oquendo, Renesito Avich, Gustavo Schartz, Javier Días, Román Diaz, Mauricio Herrera, Jesus Ricardo, Eddie Venegas, Hery Paz, and Leonardo Reyna / Jamie Harrison, Chris Fisher, Gary Beestone, and Edward Pierce (2025)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)
![[76]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2f%23cite_note-nunsstory03.jpg-80){kind=link}
![[124]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2f%23cite_note-bigmoment54pg1.jpg-129){kind=link}
