Audrey Hepburn
May 4, 1929 — January 20, 1993 — Tolochenaz, Switzerland
Audrey Kathleen Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian who became one of the greatest screen legends of the 20th century, ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend in classical Hollywood cinema.
Wartime Childhood
Born on May 4, 1929 in Ixelles, Brussels, Hepburn endured the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II as a child. She witnessed deportations, experienced near-starvation, and danced in secret recitals to raise money for the Dutch resistance. These experiences left a mark that later shaped her humanitarian work. After the war, she trained seriously as a ballet dancer in Amsterdam and later London, but her slight build — diminished by wartime malnutrition — led her instructors to counsel that she would never become a prima ballerina.
Roman Holiday to Breakfast at Tiffany's
Hepburn's transition from supporting roles to leading lady came with Roman Holiday (1953), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress at just 24. A string of iconic roles followed: Sabrina (1954), Funny Face (1957), and then the role that defined her for a generation — Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Her performance transformed the novella's complicated protagonist into one of cinema's most enduring images of stylish vulnerability, and the little black Givenchy dress she wore became one of the most famous garments in fashion history. Like Ella Fitzgerald in jazz, Hepburn set a standard in her medium that absorbed all comparison.
Did You Know?
Audrey Hepburn is one of only a handful of entertainers to achieve EGOT status — winning competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. She won her Grammy posthumously in 1993 for best spoken word album for children. She remains one of the few people ever to complete the EGOT with all four awards being competitive rather than honorary.
UNICEF and Legacy
In the second half of her life, Hepburn channeled her wartime memories into action, becoming a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1988. She traveled to Ethiopia, Sudan, Bangladesh, and other countries in crisis, using her fame to draw attention to child hunger and poverty. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992, months before her death from appendiceal cancer on January 20, 1993. A biography could not do full justice to a life that spanned a continent's worst war and its most glamorous decades in equal measure.