Audrey Hepburn was a great person on and off stage. She was one of the most
loved movie stars of the twentieth century. Audrey was born on May 4, 1929 in
Brussels, Belgium. She was the daughter of a Dutch baroness and a wealthy
British banker. When she was young she spent most of her time traveling between
England, Belgium and the Netherlands. When she was 5 years old she was sent to
England to boarding school. One year later her father abandoned her family. In
1939 her mother moved Audrey and two stepbrothers to the Netherlands. The
following year the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, which forced the family into
difficult times. Audrey loved dance and continued to study ballet. It was her
love of dance that got her into a film career. After the war she and her family
moved to Amsterdam were she trained to be a ballerina and modeled to make extra
money. In 1948 she got a small role in a Dutch film called "Dutch in 7
lessons", the same year she and her mother moved to London. In London she
got a Dance school scholarship. After awhile she decided she would not be a
dancer. She realized she was too tall and she had lost to many years of training
because of the war. She got her part in High Button Shoes. When she was
working in "Monte Carlo Baby" (1953) a famous novelist decided
she would be perfect in a movie called Gigi. She was so good that she was
hired for the same role working on Broadway. She made many movies after that
including Roman Holiday, Sabrina, The Nun’s Story, My Fair Lady
and Breakfast at Tiffany’s to name a few. She won an Academy
Award for her performance in Roman Holiday in 1953. Audrey was married
twice, American actor Mel Ferrer in 1953 to Italian doctor Andre Dotti. In 1987
she became the United Nations Children’s Fund Goodwill Ambassador. She spent
the last years of her life traveling to places in Latin America and Africa
drawing attention to the needs of children. She died of colon cancer on January
20, 1993 at her home in Switzerland.
BACK