Friday, November 23, 2012

A Week of Musicals: Audrey Hepburn

I can't believe we're onto our last featured musical star already! But we are, and here she is. :)



Audrey Hepburn was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston on May 4, 1929, in Belgium. She grew up during World War II, becoming proficient at ballet. She danced to raise money for the Dutch resistance. Her family wasn't rich -- they and the people around them had to resort to grinding tulip bulbs into flour during a large food shortage in 1944. In 1945, Audrey moved to Amsterdam and took more ballet.






In 1951, she starred in Gigi on Broadway, a show that ran 219 times. And then...Audrey received her first starring role in a movie in 1953. The movie: Roman Holiday. She was billed with Gregory Peck.





Roman Holiday was a huge success, and in 1954, she was Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart, among others. Also in 1954, she married Mel Ferrer. In 1956, Audrey was in War and Peace (see picture below), and in Love in the Afternoon with Gary Cooper. She was definitely becoming a big name in the movies.


It was in 1960/1961 that she starred in her possibly best known movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's. I have yet to see it. She started work on it just three months after her son was born.





In 1964, Audrey starred in the one film I have seen by her: My Fair Lady.





Like so many other actors, her personal life was not very happy. After 14 years of marriage, she divorced Mel Ferrer and eventually married Andrea Dotti. Their son, Luca, was born in 1970. She didn't act much after that. Audrey died on January 20, 1993.


4 comments:

Miss Dashwood said...

Audrey Hepburn was so beautiful and stylish! I've only seen three of her movies but she was gorgeous in each one. The picture you labeled as being from "War and Peace" is actually from "Roman Holiday"-- I highly recommend that movie!

Rhoswen Faerie Wrose said...

A couple more of her movies that I really like are Funny Face, with Fred Astaire, and Charade, with Carey Grant. :-)

Hamlette (Rachel) said...

"Roman Holiday" and "Charade" are two of my favorite movies ever -- please see them! "How to Steal a Million" is really fun too.

I am not a fan of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The ending bugs me. But a lot of people love it, and Audrey's look and character are so iconic that everyone seems to see it eventually.

Charity U said...

Thank you for the correction, Miss Dashwood! :)

Hamlette, I will see Roman Holiday and Charade someday. :)