Audrey Hepburn Ruston was born on 4th May 1929 and was a British actress as well as a humanitarian. People know her by many of her famous films and she is also known for her fashion sense. She has won various awards for fashion as well as for actress.
Early life
She was born on 4th May in the year of 1929 as mentioned above. She mostly spends her childhood in Belgium, England and she was born in Ixelles, Brussels. Along with England, she also went to live in Netherland. So, that’s the place where she also spends some of her childhood days. Her schooling was done in Amsterdam.
She was also in the ballet and she studies her ballet in Sonia Haskell which is also in Amsterdam. With the extreme level of talent in ballet, she started performing in West End which was a musical theatre.
Hepburn’s mother moved her daughter back to Arnhem because of the second world war. The family has already faced a lot due to the first world war. This was when she started living with her uncle. That’s where she started going to the ballet lessons and also did a lot of other things. During the warning, she used the second name that Ella van Heemstra to survive because her original name was English. During the German occupation in the country, it was considered risky.
Her entire family moved a lot (not all at once) due to the war situation. However, Audrey was staying with her uncle. After her uncle’s death which was in the middle of the world war, she left the current city and started living with her grandfather.
That was all about early life. Thereafter, she starts working in the movies.
Film Career
Later after 6 years, in the year 1951, she got her first performance. Not to mention, before getting a big role, she performed in many minor roles. She was played in Gigug. This was when the French Novelist found her in one of her plays. She was offered the role and she accepted it. Thereafter, she got many more films and she even continued the performance along with this.
Audrey Hepburn’s big break came when she became a part of a romantic comedy movie in 1953. The movie was a Romance Holiday. She was starring in the movie along with Gregory Peck. She was also the first actress to win an Oscar along with two other awards for the same movie. The two other awards that she got for the same movie were a BAFTA award and a golden globe award. All this was on a single performance.
This was just the starting of her career. In the same year, she was also nominated for best lead actress in the play for the Tony award. Luckily, she even goes to that award. The tony award was for her performance in Ondine.
After these many awards in the same year along with a hit movie, she got a chance to work with many big stars and she did a lot of movies after that. There are many notable movies that people are still knowing.
Last Films
She was active for very few years when it comes to movies. There are only a few but the best movies she has. The last big movie she worked on was Wait Until Dark. It was a thriller released in 1967. Even the last big movie she worked on got a lot of nominations in awards. She got an Academy Award, Golden Globe award, and BAFTA nominations all together in the last movie also.
However, this was not her last film. She appeared in a few more films occasionally. She also worked on various documentaries throughout her career. Her last series was also a documentary. It was Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn. Here, she also got various awards including three BAFTA awards for the leading role. She also received BAFTA’s lifetime achievement award for her films and achievement.
Other Activities
Along with the film career and ballet, she did a lot of activities. In one of the movies called Funny Face which was released in 1957. She even sang some of the parts of her song. With that being said, she was also into the singing.
As this was not the end of the career, she devoted a lot of her time to the people in need. She started contributing to UNICEF in 1954. She worked for many communities that are poor when it comes to money and needed economical help at that time.
Even the president of the United Sated gave her a presidential medal of freedom because of her contribution to UNICEF. In the same way, she was recognized in many places.
Audrey’s Personal Life and Death
She was about to share her life with James Hanson after getting engaged back in 1952. She knew him for a long time and states the meeting as love at first sight. However, after fitting the wedding dress, she thought it might harm the time and prior because of her career.
She got married twice and got a divorce both of the times. The first man she married was Mel Ferrer and later on, she got married to Andrea Dotti. After getting divorced, she was in a relationship with Robert Wolders which was until her death.
She went to Somalia and when asked for the reason she said she was going there because of apocalyptic. She got a similar thing in her dream and wanted to see it in the real life. After she returned from the country which was in September 1992, she started feeling abdominal pain.
After getting checked, it was recognized as abdominal cancer. The cancer was from the group of cancers called pseudomyxoma peritonei. Audrey spent her last Christmas with her family and was pretty good at that time. However, on the evening of 20th January 1993, she passed away in sleep at her home. Gregory also recited “Unending love”, it’s a poem by Rabindranath Tagore.