Audrey Hepburn

Hepburn’s life is a success story due to her hard work, determination, and love for all people.

Audrey Kathleen Ruston was born May 4, 1929 in Brussels Belgium. She was born into a family with two older step-brothers, Arnoud Robert Alexander Quarles van Ufford (1920-1979) and Ian Edgar Bruce Quarles van Ufford (1924-2010), from her mother’s earlier marriage (biography.com) Her father was an English Irish banker and her mother, Ella van Heemstra, was a Dutch baroness. Due to her father’s job, she spent a lot of her childhood traveling in between London and Brussels (ic.galegroup.com). At age 5, her mother her sent her to boarding school to experience more English culture. Then in 1935, Hepburn father left her unexpectedly. Her parents officially divorced in 1938 and Hepburn struggled in keep a relationship with her father. He never visited her even when she called him constantly and asked him to visit her. Her lack of a fatherly figure crushed her, but also made her stronger and more independent (audrey1.org).

In 1939, WWII advances, and Hepburn’s mother moves her to Arnhem to live with family, hoping that Hepburn would be safer with family than in England. Yet in 1940, Germany troops invaded Arnhem and Hepburn had to hide any of her English influence with Germans in the city (audrey1.org).

Her interest in ballet performances she saw when she lived in Brussels, led to her taking ballet classes in 1935.She began ballet training at Arnhem School of Music in 1941, while food supply became a struggle (www.audrey1.org). She lost a lot of her weight on her wartime diet yet performed acts of courgae. During the WWII resistance she transferred messages in her shoes against the resistance and danced in “blackout performances,” which helped fundraise money for the resistance as well. She becomes a very talented dancer, that she teachers other students to help support her family, but because of food shortage, she became very weak and had to stop dancing for a time. Holland is liberated on her sixteenth birthday. Yet her wartime diet affects her body for the rest of her life (audrey1.org).

In 1945, Hepburn’s mother, Ella, and Hepburn relocate to Amsterdam where Audrey begins studying Dutch ballet. Hepburn could not afford her lessons, but her teacher, Sonia Gaskell, believe she deserved it. Hepburn learned from her teacher “that if you work really hard, you’d succeed, and that everything had to come from the inside” (www.audrey1.org).

In 1948, Hepburn and her mother visit London for her audition for Marie Lambert ballet school, and although given a scholarship, she had a lack of funds. Later that year, Audrey and her mother move to London. Hepburn studies dance at Rambert Ballet School for six months (www.audrey1.org).

After all of Hepburn’s work, she realized that she was too tall and did not have enough training to be a ballerina. Hepburn’s debuted as a chorus girl in High Button Shoes in 1948. She is then cast in Sauce Piquante (1950), Wild Oat (1951), Young Wives’ Tales (1951), and The Lavender Hill Mob (1951). From there, she was invited to the New York Stage to perform in Gigi, her first broadway musical.

Along with many of her roles, she met famous male leads. In 1952 she was engaged to James Hanson, which was later called off. On September 25,1954, she married Mel Ferrer, her co-star in Ondine,  in Switzerland. Hepburn had a two miscarriages which affected her work in films as she took time off to grieve. Finally, Hepburn gives birth to her son, Sean Ferrer. They later separated and divorced in 1968. She met Andrea Dotti, an Italian psychiatrist, soon after and married in 1969. She gave birth to Luca Dotti in 1970. She suffers another miscarriage and beings to reject many scripts. Hepburn’s main goal in life was to be a mother. She cared so much for her family and after the multiple miscarriages, I believe it made her think about what she was doing with her life. She became less involved with film and provided her work to UNICEF. She spent her year traveling with UNICEF on mission trips, spending 1982-1993 with Robert Wolders, widow Dutch actor, who gave her some of the happiest years of her life. After her trip to Somalia she had a stomach pain which ended up being colon cancer (youtube.com/watch?v=8hFDt77eFF8). She died January 20, 1993 in her home in Tolochenaz, Switzerland at age 63 (biography.com).

Hepburn’s life was significant because she demonstrated grace and elegance in all aspects of her life. Although she was famous, she was humble as she spent her time with children in Africa. She was well-liked because of her ability to dis-reguard all her accomplishments and act as if she wasn’t idolized.