Hollywood's Audrey Hepburn - film actress, humanitarian & above all - loving mother

Audrey Hepburn                                                                             (Photo/wiki)

Audrey Kathleen Ruston, "Audrey Hepburn," was a British actress, humanitarian and Academy Award winner.

Hepburn spent her childhood chiefly in the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem, Netherlands, during the Second World War (1939-1945).

Hepburn studied ballet and drama in Amsterdam and dance in London in 1948.  She worked part-time as a fashion model.  And somewhere during her training of the fine arts, she also learned to be a dental assistant!

She appeared in a handful of European films before starring in the 1951 Broadway play Gigi.  Her first starring role was with Gregory Peck in the Italian-set Roman Holiday (1952), and her screen test for Holiday was used in the promotional trailer for the film. 

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) proved to be a hit, and another film not originally thought to have Audrey cast as the lead.

Hepburn's first role in a motion picture was in the British film One Wild Oat in which she played a hotel receptionist. She played several more minor roles in Young Wives' Tale, Laughter in Paradise, The Lavender Hill Mob, and Monte Carlo Baby.

During the filming of Monte Carlo Baby Hepburn was chosen to play the lead character in the Broadway play Gigi. The writer Colette, when she first saw Hepburn, reportedly said:

Voilà! There's our Gigi!"

Elizabeth Taylor was the first choice for the role, in Roman Holdiay, but Hepburn's screen test included footage of when the camera was left on, with candid footage showing her relaxing and answering questions, unaware that she was still being filmed.  As a result, she was cast in the lead. Wyler, the director, said:

[Audrey] 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!'"

The movie was to have had Gregory Peck's name above the title in large font with "Introducing Audrey Hepburn" beneath. After filming had been completed, Peck called his agent and, predicting correctly that Hepburn would win the Academy Award for Best Actress, had the billing changed so that her name also appeared before the title in type as large as his.

Hepburn and Peck bonded during filming, and there were rumours that they were romantically involved, but both denied it. Hepburn, however, added,

(Photo/wiki)  Actually, you have to be a little bit in love with your leading man and vice versa. If you're going to portray love, you have to feel it. You can't do it any other way. But you don't carry it beyond the set." - Audrey Hepburn

Eliza Doolittle was portrayed by Hepburn in the film version of My Fair Lady (1964). When Barbara Walters interviewed Audrey, she asked if she felt funny that Julie Andrews didn't get the part of Eliza instead.

I did agree that it should have been Julie Andrews.  In fact I told my agent that I didn't want to do it, because it should be her, and for some crazy reason - and Hollywoods' often been crazy...(Julie Andrews didn't get it and I did)..."  

From 1968 to 1975 she took a break from acting, mostly to spend more time with her two sons - Sean and Luca. In 1976 she starred with Sean Connery in Robin and Marian. In 1989 she made her last film appearance in Steven Spielberg's Always.

Hepburn returned to cinema in 1979, taking the leading role of Elizabeth Roffe in the international production of Bloodline.  Her last starring role in a cinematic film was with Ben Gazzara in the comedy They All Laughed, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film was overshadowed by the murder of one of its stars, Bogdanovich's girlfriend, Dorothy Stratten; the film was released after Stratten's death but only in limited runs.

In 1987, Audrey co-starred with Robert Wagner in a tongue-in-cheek made-for-television caper film, Love Among Thieves which borrowed elements from several of Hepburn's films, most notably Charade and How to Steal a Million. 

In the final months of her life, Hepburn completed two entertainment-related projects, that of hosting a television documentary series entitled Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn, which debuted on PBS the day after her death, and she recorded a spoken word album, Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales featuring readings of classic children's stories, which would win her a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.  In 2000 Jennifer Love Hewitt starred in The Audrey Hepburn Story.

Audrey Hepburn had an intense passion for humanitarian work, and although she had worked for UNICEF since the 1950s, during her later life, she dedicated much of her time and energy to the organization. From 1988 until 1992, she worked in some of the most profoundly disadvantaged communities of Africa, South America and Asia. In 1992, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.