Audrey Hepburn

Biography

Birth and childhood

Audrey Hepburn is born on May 4th, 1929 with Ixelles, commune bilingual of the Belgian area of Brussels-Capital. His/her mother, the baroness Ella Van Heemstra is an aristocrat Dutchwoman. She marries at the nineteen years age the knight Hendric Gustaaf Adolf Quarles Van Ufford. Ella, after five years of marriage, divorces in 1925. She has then two children, Alexander and Ian Quarles van Ufford.

His/her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, was English born in Bohème of a British father. He had roots Austrian, Irish, Scottish and French. His/her grandmother is downward of James Hepburn, count de Bothwell, third husband of Marie Stuart, queen of Scotland. It meets Ella Van Heemstra whereas it works as directing of the subsidiary company of Brussels of the Bank of England.

In 1926, they marry in Batavia (current Jakarta in Indonesia) and move in with Ixelles, known to be the common inhabitant of Brussels of the students, the artists and the intellectuals. Three years after, Audrey is born and, of fragile nature, survives to with it of little the whooping-cough; she saw two years with Ixelles then the family moves in a nearby village named Linkebeek. Audrey is a child player and imaginative: his/her father calls it besides “Monkey Puzzle. ”

At 5 years, she is discovered a passion for the ballet dancing. She lives then between London, the Netherlands and Belgium with the liking of the needs for the trade of her father.

The frequent arguments between his/her parents lead in 1935 to separation: his/her father, sympathizing Nazi and whose relations with the baroness Van Heemstra are tended more and more, leaves the family home without leaving to a mot. the young girl is then sent in England in a boarding school where it receives a very strict education victorienne. It remains there until 1939, when England declares the war in Germany. Fearing a bombardment, Ella Van Heemstra makes return his/her daughter to the Netherlands where they settle in the castle of Zijpendaal then in an apartment with Arnhem.

With its origins English, Irish, Belgian Dutchwoman and , it develops a talent for the languages. Adult, it usually spoke English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian.

Adolescence and Second world war

In 1939, the war bursts and the German troops invade the Netherlands. To prevent that its name with English consonance does not draw the attention of the occupants, his/her mother makes him adopt the name of Edda van Heemstra, going until modifying her papers. Indeed, during the war, British being in of the Netherlands occupied by the German forces could lead to the imprisonment, even with the Déportation.

It is for this period of war that Audrey saw her first years devoted to the spectacle. If, as of eleven years, one would have charged it with carrying messages for the resistance, it follows also courses of ballet dancing. At the time of these difficult years, where Arnhem is devastated during the Opération Market Garden, the restrictions and the famine of the winter 1944 deteriorate its health, making it suffer from depression and malnutrition. It however takes share with resistance against the occupant Nazi while raising funds by spectacles or while carrying messages. but the malnutrition of which she suffers will have harmful effects. Diana Maychick, in the biography which it devoted to Audrey Hepburn, wrote as follows:

She was skeletal. Its mode comprised lettuce, if possible a potato, and a horrible bread containing pea which worsened as the supply became more problematic. If need be, Audrey folded back itself on the water and the bulbs of tulip. Already large, it weighed less than 40 kilos, continued to lose and it was with end of forces. In fact, malnutrition forced Audrey to stop the courses of dance during a certain time|Diana Maychick, Audrey Hepburn , Edition 1, Paris, 1993

It will keep a silhouette of it extremely longiligne, which on several occasions involved questions about a possible anorexia of the actress.

Beginnings with the cinema

After the war, it adopts the name of Hepburn, the name of a family of which the family goes down from her father. She chooses it as name of scene but will not change its name of civil statue. She was only very in a remote way allied with the actress Katharine Hepburn, probably by the count James Hepburn.

She still takes courses of dance to the the Netherlands, with Sonia Gaskel with Amsterdam, but finally Audrey and her mother move with London, where the young woman studies and works like mannequin, while continuing her formation to become ballerina. In 1948, it takes courses with Marie Rambert, who has Nijinski as raises. However it must be solved to give up its vocation, its body having suffered from the deprivations of the war.

It begins with the cinema in 1948, with a small role of airline hostess in Dutch in seven lessons . In 1951, the minor roles multiply, as in Rires with the paradise (where it precisely incarnates a ballerina) or wild oats . It also appears in several publicities, like that for Lacto-Calamine.

In 1953, the realizer William Wyler offers to him its first great role with the cinema in the romantic comedy Roman Vacances , at the sides of Gregory Peck, whereas the producers wanted Elizabeth Taylor initially. After casting, Wyler declared as follows:

It is that which we need! It is that which we need!

the film is a success and it obtains the Oscar of the best actress, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. Its career is then launched.

Its emotional life is however more unstable then: she becomes engaged first of all to the beginnings of the year 1950 with the industrialist James Hanson. After having envisaged the date of the ceremony and to have bought its wedding gown, it cancels the marriage to be able to devote itself to its career, informant: When I decide to marry me, it will be to be truly married.

Dedication

From 1954 to 1966, it turns with the largest Hollywood actors under the direction of famous realizers. If it turns relatively little of films, it remains faithful to some realizers like Stanley Donen, Billy Wilder or William Wyler. In 1954, it allures Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina . It is there that it meets the dressmaker Hubert de Givenchy, who draws his behaviors for film and will remain his friend all his life.

In July 1953, it had met the actor and American realizer Mel To shoe at the time of one evening organized by Gregory Peck. Twelve years old more than it, it had then already been married three times, including two with the same woman, and was father of four children. Then it is confrontation in love with a Gary Cooper, playboy much older, in ARIANE in 1957, under the anxious glance of the father, Maurice Chevalier. Then in Mayerling , she plays with her husband for a televised program of the NBC.

With Anthony Perkins, she plays in Vertes Residences in 1959, under the direction of her husband. The same year it incarnates a nun missionary in Africa in With the risk to lose Fred Zinnemann. It is again nominated for the Oscar of the best actress, obtained finally by Simone Signoret.

Absent from the screens in 1960, it returns in 1961 with the role of Holly Golightly in Diamants on settee , the adaptation of the novel of Truman Capote. She plays there with George Peppard. This role inserts it in the cinematographic legend in spite of disappointing receipts. It was also one of the most difficult roles for it; she declared as follows: I am introverted. To play a woman extravertie was what I had of harder to make. In the years 1960, its popularity is with its roof. For (last) the birthday of US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy on May 29th 1963, Audrey Hepburn sang Happy birthday, dear Jack , thus taking the continuation of Marilyn Monroe and sound Happy birthday, Mister President.

It continues to play with superstars of the 7th art like Cary Grant in Charade in 1963. This last had refused to play with it in Roman Vacances or Sabrina , being too old to play with an actress much younger than him. Audrey Hepburn had especially, like partners, of the actors older than it. He appreciated the actress however and declared as follows: All that this I want for Christmas, it is another film with Audrey.

In 1964, she plays in one of the films which from now on is generally associated with its name, My Fair Lady . After a first refusal, it accepts the role which had been initially planned for Julie Andrews. The film is very awaited by the public, as much as could the being Gone With The Wind according to certain journalists. Audrey Hepburn started to record the sung passages but they were finally doubled by the singer Marni Nixon. Its service is finally well accommodated and Ringgold Gene will say then They settle in Rome and Audrey Hepburn devotes itself to her family. In 1970, it is confined of a second boy, Luca Dotti. The marriage does not last however more than one ten years and, in 1982, they divorce because of their respective extra-marital connections, in particular that of Andrea with the Daniela mannequin. However, she plays in some rare films like the Rose and the arrow with Sean Connery like partner in 1976.

Its second marriage has to him also problems and, since 1980, one had announced by an official statement that the two husbands separated. Audrey Hepburn then settles with the Dutch actor Robert Wolders in her villa of Tolochenaz-on-Morges, Peaceful the . Both lived there together until the death of Audrey, without marrying. :

I was a child underfed during the years of the post-war period. I profited from the services of the UNICEF, I knew the UNICEF all my life|Audrey Hepburn

A smart private individual

Audrey Hepburn marked her time by the incarnation of a particular style. The actress Shirley MacLaine, its partner in the Rumor , known as thus of it:

When I think of Audrey, his nobleness of heart and his imagination, I am always moved. It had very rare qualities and I envied his style and his taste. I felt left and badly faggoted when I was in his company. I made him share of it. She said to me not to be worried, that she would teach me to get dressed if I learned how to him to swear. We never reached that point! |Shirley MacLaine|Stars of my life (My Lucky Stars), Presses of the City, Paris, 1996,

Audrey Hepburn, a small truth Saxony, rose without haste, her small poodle in the arms and advanced on the scene as if it had slipped on satin|Shirley MacLaine|From Hollywood at Beijing, three stages of my life (You Edge Get There From Young stag), Editions Denoël/Gonthier (Collection Woman), Paris, 1977.

She also inspired the fashion photographer Richard Avedon, whose life was used as screen in the film Drôle of frimousse .

Its physique was very far away from the guns of Hollywood at the time which preferred the actresses with the generous curves like Marilyn Monroe, Martine Carol, Kim Novak or Lana Turner. “It is able, to it only, to make chest a value of the past”, said Billy Wilder malicieusement. Audrey Hepburn incarnates contrary one charm very new of “small boy missed” but very female by its grace, its eyes immense and its long legs. And even more: He was always the best and it remained it. Because it kept this style stripped which I adore. What y-a it of more beautiful than a very simple sleeve makes in an extraordinary way in a fabric extraordinary, and right with two earrings? It also popularized the glasses Ray-Ban Wayfarer, after the film Diamants on settee in 1961. Audrey Hepburn in addition did the one of many magazines of mode like Vogue, the Harper' S Bazaar (April 1956 or May 1957) or Glamor (December 1955).

She exerted and continuous to exert an influence on the fashion, thus on Maria Callas, or actresses, such Keira Knightley, even of the characters of cartoon like Aurore in Sleeping Beauty of Walt Disney.

Popularity

Fifteen years after her death, Audrey Hepburn remains an actress of most known and there exist many references to the actress or the roles which she incarnated. In 1993, year of its death, documentary is carried out on it. In 2000, a film, The Audrey Hepburn Story , thus recalled its life with Jennifer Love Hewitt in the role titrates. It accepted a reception very mitigated because of repeated factual errors. In 2003, the United States Postal Service also left a stamp to its effigy, illustrated by Michael J. Deas and describing it like a legend of Hollywood, implied in the humanitarian aid.

His/her oldest son, Sean Hepburn To shoe, created the Audrey Hepburn Children' S Fund , organization American aiming at perpetuating the humane engagement of his mother.

Its image is still largely used in films or publicities. In the film Pretty Woman , Julia Roberts looks at Audrey Hepburn playing in Charade , like symbol of the romanticism. In S1m0ne in 2001, Andrew Niccol presents several images of the actress in Diamants on Settee as reference to the charm and the beauty.

With the Japan, the Kirin used images colorized of the film Roman Vacances at the time of a publicity campaign. In the United States, the mark Gap diffused between the September 7th and the October 5th 2006 a clip based on a scene of the film Drôle of frimousse . Gap accompanied the countryside by a gift to the Audrey Hepburn Children' S Fund. the Givenchy perfumes also used its image for the promotion of the perfume the Interdict , created at the origin for Audrey Hepburn.

The Petite black dress drawn by Hubert de Givenchy for Diamants on settee was sold with the biddings by the house of sales Christie' S on December 5th, 2006 and reached: 467200 £, is approximately: 607720 €. Its estimate was only of: 70000 £ and assembling it reached is the record for a costume of cinema. The incomes drawn from the sale were transferred at the bottoms of assistance of the children of the City of the joy, with Calcutta in India, to which Givenchy had initially given the dress. The sold dress is however not that which Audrey Hepburn in film carries. Of the two dresses which it wore, one is preserved in the private collections of Givenchy, the other with the museum of the costume with Madrid. The purchaser, who had maintained the secrecy, was Bernard Arnault, the owner of Givenchy.

The cocktail dress pink to pea which the actress carried in 1961 in same film, it, was sold with the biddings with New York for 192.000 dollars at the end of May 2007.

Career

Cinema

Theater

1948 : High Short prop Shoes of Julius Styne
1949: Tartare sauce of Cecil Landeau
1950: Piquant sauce of Cecil Landeau
1951 - 1953: Gigi of Colette, put in scene of Raymond Roller
1954: Ondine of Jean Giraudoux, put in scene of Alfred Lunt

Rewards

It is one of the 9 people in the world to have gained Emmy, Grammy, a Oscar and Tony Award.

It gains in 1953 the Oscar of the best actress for Roman Vacances . She will be also named four other times for this reward, for her roles in Sabrina (1954), With the risk to lose (1959), Diamants on settee (1961) and Seule in the night (1967).

For the same role in Roman Holidays , it receives a British Academy Award (BAFTA), the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the Golden Globe Award. She will receive a second New York Film Critics Circle Award for With the risk to lose . The same year, it also receives a Tony Award for his service in Ondine of Jean Giraudoux.

It in addition gained Henrietta Award 1955 for the actress most loved in the world, Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1990 and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1992. One also decreed to him on a purely posthumous basis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1993. Hersholt was that which had given its Oscar to him in 1953.

Random links: