Audrey Hepburn

I would like to tell you something about an icon of style – Audrey Hepburn
whose life style inspire a lot of people.

Audrey was born on 4th may 1929, in Brussels Belgium. She is the only child of the Englishman Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston and his second wife, the former Dutch Baroness Ella van Heemstra.

Because of her mother's family in the Netherlands and her father's British background and job with a British company, the family often travelled between the three countries. With her multinational background, she went on to speak fluent English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian. When Audrey was five, her mother sent her to a boarding school in England, so she could spend time in the country side and study ballet. But when England declared war on Germany in 1939, Ella sent for Audrey to live with her family again in Holland, a neutral country. Joeseph, Audrey's father was in England at the time and put Audrey on one of the last planes out of England. Then in 1940, Germany invaded Holland and Audrey's childhood changes forever. It would be nearly 25 years until Audrey saw her father again.

In 1940, Hepburn adopted the pseudonym Edda van Heemstra, because an "English sounding" name was considered dangerous during the German occupation.

After the divorce of her parents, in 1937, Ella and Audrey moved to Kent, South East England. By 1944, Hepburn had become a proficient ballet dancer. She had secretly danced for groups of people to collect money for the Dutch resistance. She was also occasionally delivering messages and packages.

Because of the World War and occupation Audrey Hepburn suffered from malnutrition and respiratory problems. Hepburn's war-time experiences sparked her devotion to UNICEF, an international humanitarian organization.

 After the war ended in 1945, Ella and Audrey moved to Amsterdam, where Hepburn took ballet lessons for three years. In 1948, she appeared for the first time on film, as an air stewardess. Hepburn had big talent, but her tallness and weak constitution (the after effect of wartime undernutrition) would make the status of prima ballerina unattainable.

She decided to concentrate on acting.

Audrey Hepburn married twice, first to Mel Ferrer and then to an Italian doctor, Andrea Dotti. She probably had a son with each husband — Sean and Luca.

On the evening of 20 January 1993, Hepburn died at home in her sleep of cancer.

What's more Hepburn played the lead role in Roman Holiday, for which she was the first actress to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. The same year, she won a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play forOndine.

Roman Holiday