Audrey Hepburn

Born May 4th 1929 in Brussels, Belgium Audrey Hepburn burst onto the Hollywood film scene in 1951 appearing in a number of films most notable opposite Oscar nominee Alec Guinness in The Lavender Hill Mob. But it was not until 1953 that audiences really took notice. Hepburn appeared that year in Roman Holiday, the classic film in which she plays the princess who just wants to be a girl, if only for a little while. With her waifish figure and her radiant smile Hepburn was an unconventional beauty but as with Roman Holiday and many of the characters she portrayed she was always elegant and enchanting. Hepburn won a Best Actress Oscar for her work in Roman Holiday and became an A-list actress.

In 1954 Hepburn made Sabrina teamed opposite Humphrey Bogart who was nearly twice her age. Here began one of the longest collaborations in Hollywood, not with Bogart, but with Hubert de Givenchy who was uncredited for his costuming work in Sabrina. Givenchy provided most of Miss Hepburn’s costumes, and her wardrobe off screen, for the next thirty years. Rarely has an actress been so closely aligned with one designer.

After her triumphant turn in Roman Holiday, Hepburn appeared in a number of recognizable films such as War and Peace and the two comedies Funny Face and Love in the Afternoon. In Funny Face she plays an unconventional looking girl who is molded into a famous cover girl by photographer Fred Astaire. In Love in the Afternoon, a nonsensical romantic comedy, she played opposite Gary Cooper as a Parisian out to catch a womanizing American. Her persona had been defined as an unconventional lady with class and breeding. With her elfin looks and her strange mannerisms she appeared often as a worldly stylish lady. Again, it was her collaboration with Givenchy that provided much of that aura. With her he always provided a classic ensemble, her floating ball gown in Sabrina, her simple black dress and the start of a trench coat craze in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and her well tailored looks in How to Steal a Million and Charade.

In 1961 Audrey Hepburn played one of her most famous roles as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. In the film she plays a young woman who has gone from the Midwest to New York City to reinvent herself. Her life is a whirlwind of parties and men until she meets another penniless leech like herself, a writer played by George Peppard. He attempts to woo Holly and to love and support her when the fun ceases and Holly’s world begins to unravel.

She played against many other leading men, Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s Charade (recently remade as the terrible Something About Charlie), Peter O’Toole in How to Steal a Million, and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. In George Cukor’s 1964 My Fair Lady, one of the best musicals ever made, Audrey plays Eliza Doolittle who is made over from a flower girl to a duchess for the amusement of linguist Henry Higgins. Of course Audrey Hepburn practiced very carefully for all of her singing parts, but after production began all of her songs were overdubbed. Though not amused after the work was all put in it probably saved some trouble considering that Rex Harrison did all of his own singing and insisted on doing it live for the scenes. This meant that he was live miked through most of the movie and many of his scenes had to be done a multitude of times to get the sound right. There is a recording of Audrey Hepburn singing I Could Have Danced All Night available with the DVD and though she sings well, the woman who overdubbed her part, uncredited, Marni Nixon had a much stronger voice. Marni Nixon was also the voice for Anna in The King and I and Maria in West Side Story so Audrey is in good company with Natalie Wood and Deborah Kerr in being overdubbed.

After her first marriage Audrey started to back away from Hollywood and the Hollywood life though she did occasionally appear in films. Audrey went on to play some more serious roles like the blind woman Susy Hendrix in Wait Until Dark who is trapped in her apartment and tormented by robbers searching for a doll filled with smuggled drugs. She went on to star opposite Sean Connery in the film Robin and Marian, an interesting continuation of the Robin Hood story.

In the later portion of her life Audrey Hepburn was most noted for her charity work especially as a UN ambassador for UNICEF in Africa and Latin America. She died in 1993.