Audrey Hepburn
“I decided, very early on, just to
accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me,
yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped.”
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey
Kathleen Ruston; 1929 – 1993) was a British actress and
humanitarian. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by
the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend in Golden Age Hollywood. I am going to
gloss over her film career and style icon status here (I’ll detail it more on
the blog), because everyone knows that she was a beautiful actress. I want to
share the aspects of her life which are less celebrated – her traumatic
childhood, her difficult marriages, and her humanitarian efforts.
Hepburn was born in Brussels,
Belgium. Her mother was a Dutch Baroness and her father was a British subject
born in Bohemia who had served as a British consul in the Dutch East Indies.
Hepburn had a sheltered and privileged upbringing and her international
background and frequent travels allowed her to learn five languages – English,
Dutch, French, Spanish, and Italian
In the mid-1930s, Hepburn's parents
recruited and collected donations for the British Union of Fascists. Her father
deserted the family unexpectedly in 1935 when Audrey was six. She later
recounted the trauma that being “dumped” by her father caused her. She
described the abandondment as “the most traumatic event of my life.” Her father
moved to London, where he became more deeply involved in Fascist activity. In
later years, Audrey tracked him down and continued to financially support him for
the rest of his life – despite his reluctant to reconcile and never apologising
for his treatment of her – which says a lot about Audrey’s compassion long
before her later humanitarian efforts.
In 1937, Audrey and her mother moved
to Kent so that she could receive an English education in accordance with her
father’s wishes (not sure he had a right to be expressing such wishes but never
mind.
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"Don't discount anything awful
you hear or read about the Nazis. It's worse than you could ever imagine."
When war was declared in 1939, her mother
took her back to the Netherlands which she hoped would remain neutral and keep
the family safe. Here, Audrey studied ballet under prestigious teachers.
Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, Hepburn used the name
Edda van Heemstra, because her "English-sounding" name was considered
dangerous. Her family was deeply impacted 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". In 1942, her uncle
was executed in retaliation for an act of sabotage by the resistance movement –
he was not involved but was targeted due to the family’s social prominence. Hepburn's
half-brother was deported to Berlin to work in a German labour camp, and her other
half-brother Alex went into hiding to avoid the same fate.
After her uncle's death, Hepburn
along with her mother and aunt left Arnhem to live with her grandfather in nearby Velp. Hepburn
performed silent dance performances to raise money for the Dutch resistance
effort. She also volunteered at a hospital that was the centre of resistance
activities in Velp, and her family temporarily hid a paratrooper in their home
during the Battle of Arnhem. Perhaps she
wanted to counterbalance her father’s support of the facists by doing all she
good to protect her society from their wrath. In addition to other traumatic
events, she witnessed the transportation of Dutch Jews to concentration 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.”
After the Allied landing on D-Day, living conditions
grew worse. During the Dutch famine that followed in the winter of 1944, the
Germans blocked the resupply routes of the Dutch people's already-limited food
and fuel supplies as retaliation for railway strikes that were held to hinder
German occupation. Audrey developed acute anaemia, respiratory problems and oedema as a result of malnutrition, which later destroyed her hopes of becoming a
ballerina. Her family were also left financially ruined by the war.
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As the family's fortunes had been
lost during the war, her mother supported them by working as a cook and
housekeeper for a wealthy family. Hepburn made her film debut playing an air
stewardess in Dutch in Seven Lessons (1948). Later
that year, Hepburn moved to London after
accepting a ballet scholarship based
in Notting Hill. She found
part-time work as a model to support herself. Having discovered that her
illness during the war left her too weak to be a professional ballerina, she
decided to focus on her acting career.
Hepburn had her first starring role
in Roman Holiday (1953)
alongside Gregory Peck. Despite beating Elizabeth Taylor for the role, she was
initially downplayed in the film’s promotion. However, Peck suggested that she
be elevated 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."
The film was a box-office success,
and Hepburn gained critical acclaim for her portrayal, unexpectedly winning
an Academy Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best British Actress
in a Leading Role, and a Golden Globe Award
for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama in 1953. She
was the first actress to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award
for a single performance. That same year Hepburn won a Tony Award for Best Lead
Actress in a Play for her performance in Ondine. She went on to star in a
number of successful films. Hepburn was signed to a seven-picture contract,
with 12 months in between films to allow her time for stage work
After 1967, Hepburn chose to devote
more time to her family and acted only occasionally in the following decades.
After finishing her last motion picture role, Hepburn completed only two more
entertainment-related projects, both critically acclaimed.
In the 1950s, Hepburn narrated two
radio programmes for UNICEF, re-telling
children's stories of war. 1989, Hepburn was appointed a Goodwill 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.
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“As you grow older, you will discover
that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping
others.”
Hepburn's first field mission for
UNICEF was to Ethiopia in 1988. She visited an orphanage in Mek'ele that housed 500 starving children
and had UNICEF send food. In August
1988, Hepburn went to Turkey on an immunisation campaign, and in October went
to South America.
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 from aid agencies had been cut
off. The mission was to ferry food to southern Sudan. Hepburn said, "I saw but one
glaring truth: These are not natural disasters but man-made tragedies for
which there is only one man-made solution – peace." In October 1989,
Hepburn 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.”
In October 1990, Hepburn went to
Vietnam, in an effort to collaborate with the government for national
UNICEF-supported immunisation and clean 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.” Despite this, she kept hope: “taking care of children
has nothing to do with politics. I think perhaps with time, instead of there
being a politicisation of humanitarian aid, there will be a humanisation of
politics."
United States president George H. W. Bush presented
Hepburn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
recognition of her work with UNICEF.
Audrey showed real compassion and
intelligence in her activism. Another of my favourite quotes of hers is: “’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."
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“I believe that laughing is the best
calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong
when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the
prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in
miracles.”
In 1952, Hepburn became engaged to
James Hanson whom she had first met in London. She believed it to be “love at
first sight”, but pulled out at the last minute fearing that the marriage would
interfere with her work and keep the pair apart: "When I get married, I want to be really married".
She met her first husband at Gregory
Peck’s cocktail party. Upon meeting the American actor Mel Ferrer, she suggested
that they star together in a play. This play was Ondine, during which they began
an off-stage relationship/ They were married in Switzerland in 1954, 8 months
after meeting. During their marriages
she had 4 miscarriages – one after falling from a horse during filing. However,
the pair did have one healthy son, Sean in July 1960. Many complained that Mel
was controlling. Audrey insisted that they were happy, despite her husband’s
short temper. However, they divorced in 1968 after 14 years of marriage so
perhaps there was some truth to his reputation.
Hepburn met her second husband,
Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, on a Mediterranean cruise with
friends in June 1968. They married shortly after and had a son, Luca, in 1970.
She took great precautions to ensure safe pregnancy, however she suffering
another miscarriage in 1974. Her husband was unfaithful, and the pair divorced
in 1982.
From 1980 until her death, Hepburn
was in a relationship with Dutch actor Robert Wolders. Whom she had met during 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.
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“Living is like tearing through a
museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking
about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering - because you can't take it
in all at once.”
In late 1992, Hepburn was diagnosed
with a rare form of abdominal cancer. Hepburn and her family returned home to
Switzerland to celebrate her last Christmas. She gradually became bedbound and
died in her sleep at home on 20th
January 1993. Many famous famouses attended her funeral, including her
co-stars and ex-husbands.
Hepburn's legacy has endured long
after her death. The American Film Institute named Hepburn third among
the Greatest Female Stars of All Time. She is one of few
entertainers who have won Academy, Emmy,
Grammy and Tony Awards. She won a record three BAFTA Awards for Best British Actress in a Leading
Role. She has been the subject of many biographies since her death including
the 2000 dramatisation of her life titled The Audrey Hepburn Story. In January 2009,
Hepburn was named on The Times' list of the
top 10 British actresses of all time.
Hepburn's image is widely used in
advertising campaigns across the world. Her sons also founded charitable bodies
in her name.
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“For beautiful eyes, look for the
good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for
poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”
Hepburn was known for her fashion
choices and distinctive look. She was considered as anlternative feminine ideal
that appealed more to women than men, in comparison to the curvy and more
sexual Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor. Her look was
considered more easily copiable than that of other stars. Alongside model Twiggy, Hepburn has been
cited as one of the key public figures who made being very slim fashionable –
perhaps one of the more regrettable of her legacies!
Despite being admired for her beauty
even long after her stardom, 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.” 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."
Hepburn's influence as a style icon
continues several decades after the height of her acting career in the 1950s
and 1960s. Particularly, after her death in 1993, she became increasingly
admired. In 2004, Hepburn was named the "most beautiful woman of all
time"[149] and
"most beautiful woman of the 20th century", and in 2015, was voted
"the most stylish Brit of all time".
While there is no doubt that Audrey
was absolutely stunning, I wish she was remembered as more than a pretty face.
She was a survivor, a fighter, an award-winning actress, a model daughter, and
most importantly, a lifelong humanitarian who showed more than a “photoshoot”
care for the third world, but a genuine compassion for those in need and an
astute awareness that most of the world’s problems were man-made. For this,
more than anything, Audrey will always be one of my heroes – although I
certainly do wish I had her style too!
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