Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, Hepburn was active during Hollywood's Golden Age. She was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third greatest female screen legend in the history of American cinema and has been placed in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. She is regarded by many to be the most naturally beautiful woman of all time.[1][2][3][4]
Born in Ixelles, a district of Brussels, Hepburn spent her childhood between Belgium, England and the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem during the Second World War. In Amsterdam, she studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell before moving to London in 1948 to continue ballet training with Marie Rambert and perform as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions.
After appearing in several British films and starring in the 1951 Broadway play Gigi, Hepb
urn played the Academy Award-winning lead role in Roman Holiday (1953). Later performing in successful films like Sabrina (1954), The Nun's Story (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Charade (1963), My Fair Lady (1964) and Wait Until Dark (1967), Hepburn received Academy Award, Golden Globeand BAFTA nominations and accrued a Tony Award for her theatrical performance in the 1954 Broadway play Ondine. Hepburn remains one of few people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards. Hepburn was the first actress to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for a single performance: Roman Holiday in 1954.
She appeared in fewer films as her life went on, devoting much of her later life to UNICEF. Although contributing to the organization since 1954, she worked in some of the most profoundly disadvantaged communities of Africa, South America and Asia between 1988 and 1992. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in late 1992. A month later, Hepburn died of appendiceal cancer at her home in Switzerland in early 1993 at the age of 63.
Early life[edit]
Audrey Hepburn was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston on 4 May 1929 at number 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, a municipality inBrussels, Belgium.[8] Her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston (1889–1980), was born in Úžice, Bohemia,[9] to Anna Ruston née Wels of Austrian descent[10] and Victor John George Ruston of British and Austrian descent.[11] Ruston had earlier been married to Cornelia Bisschop, a Dutch heiress he met in the Dutch East Indies.[12] Although born Ruston, he later double-barrelled the surname to the more "aristocratic" Hepburn-Ruston, mistakenly[11] believing himself descended from James Hepburn, third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.[12]
Her mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra (1900–1984), was a Dutch aristocrat and the daughter of Baron Aarnoud van Heemstrablond, who was mayor of Arnhem from 1910 to 1920 and served as Governor of Suriname from 1921 to 1928. Ella's mother was Elbrig Willemine Henriette, Baroness van Asbeck (1873–1939), who was a granddaughter of jurist Dirk van Hogendorp.[13] At age nineteen, Ella had married Jonkheer (Esquire) Hend
rik Gustaaf Adolf Quarles van Ufford, but they divorced in 1925. Hepburn had two half-brothers from this marriage who were both born in the Dutch East Indies: Jonkheer Arnoud Robert Alexander Quarles van Ufford (1920–1979) and Jonkheer Ian Edgar Bruce Quarles van Ufford (1924–2010).[12][14] Ella, Baroness van Heemstra, was named Dame of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem by Queen Elizabeth II on 7 September 1971.[15][16]
Ruston and van Heemstra married in the Dutch-Colonial Batavia, Dutch East Indies in September 1926. They moved back to Europe, to Ixelles in Belgium, where Hepburn was born in 1929. In January 1932 the family moved on to Linkebeek, a nearby Brussels municipality.[17] Although born in Belgium, Hepburn had British citizenship through her father.[8]
Because of her mother's family in the Netherlands and her father's British background and job with a British company,[18] the family often travelled between the three countries. With her multinational background, she went on to speak fluent English, Dutch, French, S
panish and Italian. Hepburn participated in ballet by the age of 5.
Childhood and adolescence during World War II[edit]
Hepburn's parents were members of the British Union of Fascists in the mid-1930s,[19] with her father becoming a true Nazi sympathiser.[20] After her mother discovered him in bed with the nanny of her children,[21] Hepburn's father left the family abruptly. In the 1960s, Hepburn would finally locate him again in Dublin through the Red Cross. Although he remained emotionally detached, his daughter remained in contact and supported him financially until his death.[22]
After Joseph had left in 1935, Ella van Heemstra took her children home to Arnhem, though her sons frequently stayed in The Hague with their father, Ella's first husband, Hendrik Gustaaf Adolf Quarles van Ufford. In 1937, Ella and young Audrey moved to Kent, where Hepburn was educated at a tiny independent school in Elham, run by two sisters, known as The Mesdamoiselles Smith; the school was attended by about 14 childr
en.[23][24] In September 1939, Hepburn's mother relocated with her daughter back to Arnhem, in the belief that (as during World War I) the Netherlands would remain neutral and be spared a German attack. Whilst there, Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to 1945 where, in addition to the standard school curriculum, she trained in ballet with Winja Marova. After the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Hepburn adopted the pseudonym Edda van Heemstra, because an "English sounding" name was considered dangerous during the German occupation. In 1942, Hepburn's uncle, Otto van Limburg Stirum (husband of mother Ella's older sister, Miesje), was executed in retaliation for a sabotage by the resistance movement, whilst Hepburn's half-brother Ian was deported to Berlin to work in a German labour camp. Hepburn's other half-brother Alex went into hiding to avoid the same fate.[25]

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