Audrey Hepburn facts

Today, I want to share with you some of my favourites facts about out beloved Audrey Hepburn.  

Lets start with the basics.  

Audrey was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. Her mother Baroness Ella van Heemstra was a Dutch Aristocrat, though she had British nationality because of her father.

During the 1930s, her parents were members of the British Union of Fascists, during the Second World War, the young Audrey suffered under the brutal Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

In 1940, after the fall of Holland, she adopted the pseudonym Edda van Heemstra to avoid an English sounding name.

She learnt to be a ballerina and used to perform to raise money the Dutch Resistance.

After the liberation of the Netherlands, she was so malnourished she fell ill after eating some sugar and a can of condensed milk – she was so unused to proper quantities of food. This experience of hunger led to a lifelong support to the charity UNICEF.

Her malnutirion during the war, was one reason she decided to drop a career as a professional ballerina.

Her first significant film role was The Secret People (1952), where she played a ballerina

Her favourite role was said to be in Roman Holiday (1953) with Gregory Peck, where she plays role of a European Princess living incognito.

The director had initially wanted Elizabeth Taylor for the role, but found “She (Audrey Hepburn) had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence and talent. She also was very funny.”

Her most iconic film was perhaps ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’

Initially, the plot involved playing a New York hooker, but Audrey Hepburn said she couldn’t play the role of a hooker, so the film was very different to original book. 

The little black dress worn by Hepburn at the beginning of the film is cited as one of the most iconic items of clothing in cinema.

French couturier Hubert de Givenchy helped create the ‘Hepburn look’, through is costumes for the film ‘Sabrina’.

Her last film was directed by Steven Speilberg and was called ‘Always’ It was made in 1989. She played the role of an angel.

Humanitarian Work

After visiting starving children in Ethiopia, she commented: “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“She had two sons. Sean was born on July 17, 1960, and Luca was born on February 8, 1970.

She married twice to Mel Ferrer, and Andrea Mario Dotti.

She died of cancer at the age of 63