Stills from Roman Holiday
Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993), Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), originally known as Audrey Hepburn Ruston, was born in Brussels, Belgium. A well-known stage and film actress, she served as a special envoy of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in her later years.
His father was a British banker and his mother was a Dutch aristocrat. Audrey Hepburn has staged countless films and received numerous honors in her lifetime. For example, she has won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Venice Film Festival award several times. Her film career spanned 60 years and was a glorious evergreen in Hollywood history.
Hepburn childhood
Audrey Hepburn was born in Brussels, Belgium, the son of Joseph Victor Anthene Hepburn-Ruston, a British banker, and her mother, Ella van Hemstra, a descendant of the Dutch nobility, with the title of Baron, and the family lineage can even be traced back to King Edward III.
At the age of six, Hepburn began attending an aristocratic boarding school in London, England (1935-1938), but his parents divorced and his father left the family, after which Hepburn left England to return to his mother's home in the Netherlands. In 1939 she entered the Arnhem Conservatory to study ballet before World War II broke out and declared neutral Netherlands under Nazi occupation. Most of the identity documents at the time were handwritten, and to avoid trouble with her originally very British name, her mother tampered with her identity documents to create a Dutch pseudonym for her, Eddavan Heemstra (Edda and Ella were only a difference in letters, easy to forge), but the name was never legally registered.
When the Nazis invaded Anheng, due to rumors that the mother's family had Jewish blood, the originally wealthy Baron family was regarded as the enemy of the empire, not only was the property confiscated by the occupying forces, But Hepburn's uncle was also arrested in the concentration camp, and the mother and daughter were forced to live in poverty. During the famine of the war, Hepburn often fed his stomach with tulip bulbs and "green bread" made from baked grass, and drank a lot of water to fill his stomach. Chronic malnutrition contributed to her later thinning. Nevertheless, Hepburn continued to exercise her favorite ballet, even if she was poor enough to wear the most difficult wooden dancing shoes. During this time, Hepburn worked clandestinely for dutch underground guerrillas (including performing ballet to collect donations, passing on intelligence, etc.) and contributing to the anti-fascist war. In the Battle of Anheng in 1944, when the 16-year-old Audrey became a volunteer nurse, during which many wounded Allied soldiers were taken to Hepburn's hospital, and one of the wounded British paratroopers recovered with the help and care of Hepburn and other nurses, and this paratrooper was the future director Terence Young, who directed Hepburn's "Blind Girl Horror" in 1967.
Step into the film world
After World War II, in 1948, Hepburn and his mother (Hepburn's parents divorced in 1938) moved to London, England, with the £100 saved. She works here while looking for opportunities for further education. In 1948, Hepburn entered the prestigious Marie Rambert's school to study ballet, during which time he returned to the Netherlands because he did not have money to pay for school fees, and played a flight attendant, a dragon runner, in a Dutch film "Seven Lessons in holland". After months of training, Hepburn was told she was not suitable to be a ballet dancer. In order to face the financial pressure of her family, she turned to a part-time model and participated in the song and dance troupe performance; That year, Hepburn beat most of the candidates and became a choir member of the musical HighButton Shoe. Due to her outstanding performance, she officially participated in another musical, Sauce Tartare. In 1951, Hepburn made his debut in the British film Heaven's Laughter, officially becoming a film actor and playing a lesser role in some films. She then performed her dance skills in the film "Double Sisters" and took over another film, Monte Carlo Baby. In order to shoot the latter's French remake of "Nousironsà MonteCarlo", Audrey went out on location in France, during which the performance was unexpectedly recognized by the famous French female writer Mrs. Gaulette sitting on the stage as the embodiment of the role of "Ji Ji" in her work "Gigi"), and invited her to Hollywood in New York to star as the heroine of the musical "Gold Powder World", and then opened the opportunity for Hepburn to develop in the United States; At the same time, she was also recommended to William Wheeler by the director of "Double Sisters" and participated in the audition for her new film "Roman Holiday", which received very good praise, thus getting the heroine role of the film.
In 1952, Audrey Hepburn went to the United States to officially participate in the stage play "Gold Powder World". She was so well received that she won the TheatreWorldAward Award for Best Actress. But in order to rush to make "Roman Holiday", her performance in "Gold Powder World" was forced to end after eight months of touring. Unable to juggle her career and marriage that year, she cancelled her marriage with her fiancé, James Hanson, but the two remained on a good friendship.
In 1953, the film "Roman Holiday", starring with the famous Hollywood film star Gregory Pike, was officially released, and due to the successful portrayal of the plot, the film quickly swept the world after screening. Hepburn played the charming Princess Anne in the film, showing the princess's noble and elegant atmosphere, beautiful appearance, light and slim posture, a short black hair, in the era of blonde sexy girls, suddenly attracted the attention of the audience. In particular, the innocence of the hepburn head cut made her successfully win the admiration of the majority, and the "Hepburn head" suddenly became an international popular hairstyle. For a time, Hepburn became an international celebrity, the whole world was broadcasting her newsreels, and television stations praised her in prime time. A large number of newspapers were ecstatic to praise her beauty, vitality, charm, and elegance, and people praised her as the best actress after Garbo and Bergman. Many newspaper reviews praised Hepburn for saying, "A new garbo is born!". Ingrid Bergman is said to have let out a scream while watching Roman Holiday in Italy, and her husband Rossellini asked her, "Why are you shouting?" Bergman said: "I was deeply touched by Audrey Hepburn. Not only did Hepburn capture the hearts of hundreds of millions of teenagers around the world, but even critics were unconsciously attracted to her. On March 25, 1954, Hepburn won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and three days later, he won the Tony Award for his wonderful performance in "The Mermaid".
In 1954, she performed with Humphrey Bogart and William Horton in Billy Wilder's romance film Dragon and Phoenix. Due to the performance of "The Mermaid" and the excessive smoking, Hepburn went to Switzerland to recuperate on the advice of a doctor, and soon accepted the marriage proposal of MelFerrer, an actor who also participated in the performance of "The Mermaid", and the two stepped onto the red carpet on September 24.
In 1955, Audrey Hepburn was again nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, but unfortunately did not win, and in the same year she suffered her first miscarriage due to an accident. In the following years, her starring films such as "War and Peace", "Sweet Sister", "Twilight Love" and other films received good reviews, and the momentum soared. But her husband, Mel's acting, suffered setbacks and gradually turned to the background. In 1959, Hepburn became pregnant three times, and in order to prevent the miscarriage from happening again half a year earlier, she pushed down the film contract for films including "West Side Story" and did not agree to star in "Breakfast at Tiffany" until after giving birth to her first son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer.
transformation
Although the author of "Breakfast at Tiffany" originally belonged to Marilyn Monroe as the heroine Holly Golightly, Hepburn also clashed with the studio over whether the theme song adopted Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's "Moon River". It was in hindsight that her performance and persistence proved right: in 1961 the Academy Awards won two awards for musicality, and Audrey Hepburn was nominated for best actress for the fourth time. In this film, her acting career reached its peak again, but she began to challenge works that were more difficult to act.
At the end of the same year, Hepburn took over the performance of "Double Sisters", but the evaluation was mediocre; Later, "Mystery In Mystery" tried to challenge the role of suspense films. But her most successful work was the 1964 starring role in The Lady of the, a song and dance film adapted from the musical of the same name that won 8 Oscars, but the lead Hepburn could not be nominated because of the relationship behind the scenes.
old age
In the winter of 1980, Hepburn met Robert Wards, a man she later called "soul mate" who influenced Hepburn's already crisis marriage. After Hepburn and André Dotty divorced, the two eventually became permanent life partners.
In his later years, Hepburn was still old and prosperous, shining and heating up for public welfare. In 1988, she became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In this position, she has held some concerts and fundraising activities from time to time, and from time to time visited children in poor areas, covering Ethiopia, Sudan, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bangladesh and other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and was widely loved and welcomed by the local people. At the end of 1992, she also travelled to Somalia as a serious illness to visit children facing death from starvation. Her love and personality are as splendid as her films. In 1993, when Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa learned of Audrey Hepburn's critical illness, she ordered all the nuns to pray all night for Audrey Hepburn so that she could miraculously recover, and prayers spread around the world. On January 20 of the same year, Hepburn died of appendicitis at his residence in Tolochenaz, Switzerland. In recognition of her efforts for the world's less fortunate children, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded her the 1993 Academy Award for Humanitarianism, when Hepburn had passed away and was taken over by her son, Sean Hepburn Feller.
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was one of the most admired and imitated women of the twentieth century, encouraging women to discover and emphasize their own strengths, changing not only the way women dressed, but also the way women perceive themselves. Audrey Hepburn's ability to understand and grasp fashion. Hepburn understood her shortcomings and strengths, and she developed her own style. The trend she led, the avant-garde style has been popular for decades, and it has lasted for a long time. Maybe her only rule is not to blindly follow the trend and flock to it. In fact, she always followed her own tastes and stuck to her own pace. Any clothes worn on her body will never appear to be noisy, which is what the fashion industry calls "Audrey wearing clothes, not clothes on Audrey".
Not superstitious and sexy
Audrey Hepburn was emerging in the post-World War II period of optimism and economic boom, a time of glory and dreams for the United States and the world. Audrey Hepburn was born in response to social trends and the needs of women of the times. With her European elegance and American vitality, maturity and sophistication and innocence and purity, she has established a new standard of modern aesthetics with her innate sensitivity, insight and understanding of fashion. In the 20th century and today, it was Audrey Hepburn who changed the world's accepted definition of beauty with her radical gesture and absolute courage. Her maverick flat figure, short hair, flat shoes, well-tailored simple pants, shirts, etc., liberated women from the shackles of Jane Russell-style fluffy curls, tight sweaters, tight narrow skirts and high heels, and liberated women from their almost paranoid or masochistic self-preconceived notions about plump breasts or bodies——— "She was the first person not to win with sexiness".
"Roman Holiday" allows fans to see a brilliant and beautiful new star; Let film critics appreciate the fragrance of a film industry acting miracle; Hepburn became famous in one fell swoop, and won the 1953 New York Film Critics Association Best Actress Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress for this film; At the same time, because the princess played by Hepburn cut a hair short in the film, it made this short hair popular, and women around the world rushed to imitate it, so this hairstyle was naturally called "Hepburn Head".
Audrey Hepburn is a rare gem in the film world: her appearance is pure and beautiful, both vulgar and attractive, and many photographers like to take pictures of her to capture the "incomparable beauty". In the 2004 fashion celebrity vote of vogue, a fashion magazine known as the "fashion bible", Hepburn topped the women's list with 29% of the vote. A vogue magazine spokesperson said: "Everyone thinks audrey Hepburn is noble and temperamental, and her beauty is eternal! When it comes to Style, everyone immediately thinks of her!". In June 2004, Hepburn was voted the world's most beautiful woman no. 1 by the famous fashion magazine ELLE, with 76% of the vote. "She is the embodiment of nature and beauty, her skin is delicate, her temperament is gentle and lively, and her smile exudes a unique charm and inner beauty," says Rosie Green, editor-in-chief of ELLE magazine. In April 2006, the British magazine "New Women" surveyed more than 5,000 readers to select the top 100 beautiful women in ancient and modern times, and Hepburn once again topped the list.
"Audrey is outstanding, don't expect to take those ready-made clichés to trap her." ——Time magazine
"The only person who can overshadow the jewelry of Tiffany is Audrey." —Henry Pratt
"Audrey. Hepburn presents some long-lost qualities. For example: nobility, grace and etiquette... God is willing to kiss her on the cheek, she is such a pleasing person."
（“Audrey was known for something which has disappeared, and that is elegance, grace and manners . . . God kissed her on the cheek, and there she was.” ）
Bumpy feelings
first love
Hepburn's first love occurred in the early days of her career, with British entrepreneur James Hans. With the global success of Roman Holiday, Hepburn's life changed dramatically, with rifts and contradictions inevitably arising. After thinking about it, Hepburn painfully gave up his first love.
First marriage
At the London premiere of Roman Holiday, Hepburn met filmmaker Mel Feller. Ferrer was fourteen years older than Hepburn, and his mature temperament captured Hepburn's heart, and the two soon collaborated on "The Mermaid" and held a wedding. The princess had a satisfactory home, and the two gave birth to a son, Sean. But after that, Hepburn's career was smooth sailing, and Feller always struggled with second-rate works. After 10 years of marriage, they finally had a rift during the filming of "The Lady". In the autumn of 1968, the couple met in Switzerland, during which Time Hepburn experienced another miscarriage that hung over their marriage like an ominous omen, and by this time, Hepburn's marriage with Feller was completely over.
Married
In 1968, Hepburn met the psychiatrist André Doti during a trip to Greece. Dotty was An Italian and had been an admirer of Hepburn since he was a teenager, when he infected Hepburn with the enthusiasm characteristic of Italians. The two held a lightning wedding despite the age gap and gave birth to a son, Luca. After her marriage, Dotty often caused many scandals, and even got involved with the most infamous and charming beauty in Rome at that time. The blow to Hepburn was severe, her dream of a happy life was shattered again, and her marriage once again ended in tragedy. Hepburn had no choice but to prepare for divorce.
Three marriages
In 1980, Hepburn met Robert Waters, a man she later became a soul mate who was suffering from the loss of his wife, and the two wounded hearts were slowly but firmly approaching. The two then fell in love for more than ten years, until Hepburn died of illness. Because of Robert, Hepburn spent his old age of peace and beauty.
Trivial anecdotes
Before Hepburn became famous, she trained as a dentist assistant.
Hepburn once revealed to People magazine that she was ashamed that her shoe size was 10.
In the biography "The Intimate Portrait of Audrey Hepburn", it is mentioned that Hepburn swore that he would never weigh more than 103 pounds. In fact, except during her pregnancy, she did succeed in keeping her vows.
In 1990 there was a tulip variety named after Audrey Hepburn.
In 1992, Hepburn was diagnosed with breast cancer cells that had spread to the cecum, ileum and colon. Later, the 1-foot-long site of infection was removed through the first surgical operation and chemotherapy was started; But during the second surgery, doctors decided that the cancer cells were too large to be cured.
In 2006, Hepburn's famous long black dress "Little Black Dress", designed by Givenchy in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", was auctioned by Christie Auction House in London for a public charity auction, estimated at 50,000 to 70,000 pounds. But on December 5, the day of the auction, a mysterious buyer who bid over the phone eventually bought the dress for £467,200 ($920,000), setting a new auction record for film costumes. According to the only information revealed by the auction house - "the buyer is a European", the British media speculated that the buyer was either David Beckham's wife "Hot Sister" Victoria, or Manchester United star Wayne Rooney's fiancée, Colleen McLoughlin. The reason is that Victoria and Colleen are both fans of Hepburn, and the slender Hepburn skirt can only be worn by a slender woman like Victoria and Colleen. Victoria already owned a diamond necklace that Hepburn had worn, and Colleen had a "beauty room" in her mansion, decorated in the style of an old Hollywood movie star.
Hepburn was the most numerous actress in 1955, 1960, 1966 and 1975 at the Academy Awards for Best Picture.
Five of the 100 love classics selected by the Motion Picture Association of America were starring Hepburn (the same number as Humphrey Bogart), namely: "Roman Holiday" (No. 4), "Lady Of the Flowers" (No. 12), "The Dragon and the Phoenix" (No. 54), "The Couple" (No. 57) and "Breakfast at Tiffany' House" (No. 61).
Audrey hepburn
As of 2007, Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn were the only people with the same surname in the Oscars.
Hepburn is the 5th winner of the "Quadruple Crown" of the four major U.S. arts awards and the 13th winner of the "Triple Crown" of the Academy Awards, Tony Awards and Emmy Awards.
The 1953 Oscar winner was awarded to Hepburn by Joan Herschott; 40 years later, Hepburn won the 1993 Oscar Joan Herchott Humanitarian Prize, by which time they were both deceased.
Hepburn's character in Sweet Sister is based on the real-life character Suzy Parker, who made a cameo appearance as a hipster dancer in the "Think Pink" scene in the film.
Hepburn was invited to star in the film Sayonara with Marlon Brando to play the role of the Japanese bride in the film. Hepburn later explained that she was unlikely to play an Asian because no one would believe it and would only attract ridicule. "Although the script was interesting, I knew I couldn't act. If you try to convince me, it's a pity, I'm going to be angry. ”
Hepburn had rejected the film "World of Gold Powder" in order to shoot "Sweet Sister" (Hepburn had played the main role in the stage play "World of Gold Powder"), but interestingly, her agent initially rejected "Sweet Sister", but Hepburn made a new decision after reading the script, and her mother made a cameo appearance as a café guest on the sidewalk in the film, and the puppy in the "Anna Karenina" train scene was her pet "famous".
Hepburn rejected the role in the film Anne's Diary, because during World War II, when she was young in the Netherlands, she witnessed Nazi soldiers publicly executing prisoners in the streets and driving Jews to concentration camps in droves, which would bring her many painful memories.
If Hepburn had known at the time that the producer of "Lady" Jack When Jack L. Warner will take out all of her original songs, she will not take on the role of Eliza Doolittle.
Not getting the role of Anne Bancroft in "The Turning Point" was Hepburn's biggest on-screen regret. "It was that movie," Hepburn later confessed, "a movie that slipped out of my fingers." ”
The beautiful and kind "Princess Anne" was not forgotten, and unICEF commemorated Audrey Hepburn's contribution by erecting a 7-foot-tall bronze statue named after her at her headquarters in New York, "The Spirit of Audrey," which was unveiled in May 2002. On the 10th anniversary of Hepburn's death, the U.S. Postal Administration issued her commemorative stamp.