The Oscar-winning actress made her mark as a style icon, introducing women to the elegance of the sheath dress, dark sunglasses, headscarves (she even wore one for her wedding hairstyle), ballet flats, cropped plaid cigarette pants, white shirts, and leather belts that accentuated her 22-inch waist in an incredibly alluring way. Her boyish bangs, delicate physique, lack of voluptuous curves, and the striking simplicity of Audrey Hepburn’s wardrobe set a new standard for feminine beauty.
To the gallery of sex symbols from Hollywood’s “dream factory,” this unique star brought a distinctive image of a vibrant yet innocent heroine: open yet unattainable. Her own persona was equally intriguing. Her charm lay in an intelligence and unwavering restraint that was uncommon among Hollywood beauties. What hidden dramas lay behind this captivating enigma?
Audrey Hepburn (1951)
In the Grip of Self-Control
According to Stanley Donen, the “king of Hollywood musicals,” who directed three films with Audrey Hepburn, he could never break through the invisible barrier that kept the actress at a distance from others. “She had an uncanny ability to maintain distance, mysteriously avoiding intimacy,” the director recalled. “She never let you get close enough to lose that sense of space.” Everyone who worked or interacted with her noted her “iron self-control.” Even friends often found themselves searching for reasons behind her inexplicable reticence. This alluring beauty, like all things mysterious, boldly defied Hollywood’s “slave etiquette,” which demanded total submission from actors to promotional demands. Audrey Hepburn was the first to separate her personal life from her work and never invited journalists into her home—literally and figuratively. With the graceful poise of a ballerina, the former dancer carried the burden of troubling childhood memories and family secrets that caused her undeserved pain.
The actress’s distinctive English accent stemmed from her heritage: her birth certificate indicated British citizenship (through her father). However, the daughter of a London financier and a Dutch noblewoman grew up speaking English, Dutch, and French. Born on May 4, 1929, in the suburbs of Brussels, she lived in both England and the Netherlands after her parents’ divorce. In search of safe refuge during World War II, her family moved throughout Europe, and Hepburn also learned Italian and Spanish.
In her family, Audrey was called Adriantje, and in Nazi-occupied Arnhem (her mother Ella’s hometown), the girl had to hide her British roots under the name Edda and her mother’s Dutch surname, van Himstra.
From her father, she inherited two surnames because Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston once decided to add a touch of aristocracy, hinting at hereditary ties to James Hepburn, the third husband of Mary Stuart. Biographers later found that there was no real basis for this claim. Moreover, the nature of Hepburn-Ruston’s work leaves room for interpretation: he was both an honorary British consul in a Dutch colony (with “interrupted duties,” as documents from the Foreign Office indicate) and a trade representative, as well as a financial advisor. Some considered him a banker, while others labeled him an adventurer.
The castle where Audrey lived with her family during the early years of the war
The Forbidden Topic
What is known for certain is that “Jamaican Joe,” as Joseph Ruston was called in the West Indies, was a handsome man whose charm captivated a Dutch baroness when they met in Suriname. She was 17 years younger than her chosen one but already burdened with a marriage and two sons. Both had to divorce before entering a new marital union. After their wedding in 1926 in Jakarta, the couple settled in Brussels, where their enchanting daughter Audrey was born.
Audrey was six years old when her parents separated: one day, her mother caught her handsome husband in the arms of the children’s nanny. The family breakdown (which occurred in 1935, with the official divorce finalized three years later) was Audrey Hepburn’s first traumatic experience.
In the family, discussing the reasons for this tragedy was not customary. Nor was there any talk of the parents’ pre-war connection to the British Union of Fascists. In the mid-1930s, the Hepburns were involved in recruiting supporters and collecting donations for the organization. This ultimately cost Joseph Hepburn-Ruston his life. He disappeared from his daughter’s life for a long time, and she only managed to locate him through the Red Cross: after the war, he was found in Dublin. Until her last days, the star supported her father financially, keeping their contact private and not expecting to restore their close relationship. Her father paid for his past political choices with a five-year prison sentence, while her mother had to come to terms with the realities of wartime suffering.
Childhood in Adulthood
“If we had known the occupation would last five years, we would have shot ourselves,” the actress recalled. “Hope saved us, the hope that this horror wouldn’t last forever; otherwise, we wouldn’t have survived it.”
The family estate in Arnhem—the city where her father had been mayor for ten years before being appointed governor of a remote colony—was shared with refugees. After sending her teenage sons to relatives in The Hague, Audrey Hepburn’s mother, in emotional and physical exhaustion, endured the burdens of occupation alongside her daughter, witnessing the deportation of Jews to concentration camps and the executions of loved ones, including relatives. One of Audrey’s brothers was taken to work in Germany, while the other managed to escape this grim fate by hiding.
“I often went to the station, but I only remember one pale, light-haired child on the platform in a coat that didn’t fit,” the actress recounted. “He boarded the train with his parents, and I couldn’t take my eyes off that boy: one child was watching another.”
Surviving on tulip bulbs (which were ground into flour to bake bread), Audrey Hepburn found the strength during the hungry war years to attend conservatory, go to school, and practice ballet. She even tried to earn money through dancing, collecting funds for the Dutch Resistance.
From malnutrition, the girl suffered from anemia and shortness of breath. The family lost nearly all their possessions during the occupation: they were either damaged or destroyed.
In the future, Audrey Hepburn reflected that she “felt older then than I do now”: “Children of war had no sense of security. Is it any wonder I was so withdrawn? We didn’t plan our futures. The only promise I remember from that time and try to keep is this: if this ends, I told myself, I will never complain about my fate; I will be content with everything.”
Ballet lessons
Steps into the Profession
While the impoverished baroness mother took a job as a housekeeper and cook for a wealthy family after the war, Audrey landed her first role as a stewardess in a documentary film: her first cinematic experience in 1948 was a promotional product for a Dutch airline. Then came a ballet scholarship with a London dance troupe, modeling gigs, and lessons in acting, public speaking, and singing.
The talented girl entered the acting profession through theater, becoming a chorus girl in productions like “High Button Shoes,” “Tartare Sauce,” and “Spicy Sauce” from 1948 to 1950. After registering with an acting agency, Audrey began appearing on screen and even played a ballerina in the film “Secret People,” where she performed all the choreography herself.
Audrey Hepburn in the play Gigi (1951)
Step by step, Hepburn approached the lead role in the Broadway production of Gigi: during the filming of the movie at a hotel in Monte Carlo, the play’s author, Colette, noticed the charming girl and invited her to rehearsals. The premiere at the Fulton Theatre in 1951 was a sensation, running for 200 performances, and Hepburn received her first professional award—the Theatre World Award—for her role. More accolades soon followed: the young actress quickly became a Golden Globe and Oscar winner.
In her Hollywood debut, Audrey Hepburn outshone Elizabeth Taylor in the casting process and seized her chance for success. “Roman Holiday” introduced a new global star whose light has not dimmed for over half a century. In Hollywood’s “golden hierarchy,” this actress ranks third among the most outstanding actresses in American cinema.
Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in a scene from “Roman Holiday” (1953)
Goodwill Ambassador
Audrey Hepburn’s subsequent notable works in films like “Sabrina,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Charade,” “My Fair Lady,” and “Ondine” only solidified the initial impression of the uniqueness of this discovery.
After dedicating a decade and a half to the film industry, by the late 1960s, the actress devoted herself to her family. In her marriages to actor Mel Ferrer and Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, who treated her depression after her first divorce, she had two sons.
Audrey Hepburn and Ferrer at a film gala
After her second divorce, Audrey became Sean Connery’s partner in the film “Robin and Marian” (1976) and turned down (a decision she later regretted) a nearly autobiographical role as a former ballerina in the film “The Turning Point.”
Her last companion until the end of her life was Dutch actor Robert Wolders (from 1980), and her final film role was as an angel in Steven Spielberg’s remake of “Always” (1989).
Audrey Hepburn and Robert Wolders at the White House (1981)
From that time on, the star actively participated in UNICEF campaigns (she had been collaborating with the international charity organization since the 1950s), drawing attention to humanitarian issues in troubled regions of the planet. Her visits to Somalia and Kenya in September 1992 marked her final mission as a goodwill ambassador.
Audrey Hepburn in the Netherlands receiving the Danny Kaye Award (1989)
Painful episodes during her exhausting trip turned out to be symptoms of cancer. Surgery was unsuccessful. On January 20, 1993, 63-year-old Audrey Hepburn passed away surrounded by family in her mountain estate in the Swiss village of Tolochenaz-sur-Morges, where she is buried.
According to the obituary’s author, writer Peter Ustinov, “by the numbers, Audrey died young, but she would have died young at any age.” Actress Elizabeth Taylor compared her colleague to “a beautiful angel awaiting many bright deeds in heaven.”
Interesting Facts About Audrey Hepburn
- Audrey Hepburn was called the “muse of Givenchy”: her fruitful collaboration with the renowned French fashion designer went beyond creating iconic looks; it also included a 40-year personal friendship. The founder of the fashion house, Hubert de Givenchy, referred to his friend as “sister.”
- The role in the melodrama “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was challenging for the debutante not only due to her lack of acting experience but also because of the contrasting psychological temperaments of the actress and her character: the calm introvert Audrey found herself exhausted by the impulsiveness of the extroverted girl she portrayed.
- Hepburn is a member of the elite club of winners of all major cinematic, musical, theatrical, and television awards on the planet.
