by Anglncrow

Created on: October 10, 2008

Audrey Hepburn Screen Sweetheart

English Academy Award, Emmy Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award Winning actress, fashion icon and humanitarian. The gracefully petite actress with pleasant screen presence was born Edda Kathleen Van Heemstra Hepburn Ruston on May 4, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. Daughter of Joseph Anthony Hepburn-Ruston an English banker and her mother Ella Van Heemstra a Dutch baroness. Two half-brothers Jonkheer Arnoud Robert Alexander and Jonkheer Ian Edgar Bruce Quarles Van Ufford. Hepburn is a descendant of King Edward III of England and Mary Queen of Scots consort. By 1935, Hepburn's parents had divorced and her father had left the family.

In 1939, Ella Van moves Audrey and her two half brothers to their grandfather's home in Amhem in the Netherlands, a place that would be safe from Germans. Hepburn would attend the Arnhem Conservatory where she trained in ballet dancing on a scholarship. The Nazi invasion of the Netherlands wasn't able to let Hepburn leave the country until the late 1940's. At this time, Hepburn's father is imprisoned for being associated with pro-Nazi activist.

In 1944, Hepburn became a proficient ballerina dancing for groups of people to collect money for the Dutch resistance. However, during the winter Dutch famine grew when the Germans confiscated the Dutch people's food and fuel supply. The Dutch people starved and froze to death in the streets. Perhaps, this is why Hepburn suffered malnutrition, acute anemia, respiratory problems and oedema. Then tragically, Hepburn's family members, her mother's cousin and her uncle were shot infront of her for being part of the resistance. After the war, Hepburn leaves the Arnhem Conservatory and moved to Amsterdam, where she took ballet lessons with teacher Sonia Gaskell.

In 1948, Hepburn goes to London and takes dance lessons with the renowned Marie Rambert. Rambert would give her the advice that Audrey was relatively tall, her height 5'7" and malnourish that would keep her from becoming a ballerina and pursue an acting career instead. Her acting career started with the educational film Dutch in Seven Lessons and then a musical theatre in productions such as 1949's High Button Shoes, her first London chorus stage debut and Sauce Piquante.

In 1951, Hepburn lands a role in Nous Irons a` Monte Carlo, during the filming, author and screenwriter Sidonie Gabrielle Colette selected her for the role in her Broadway production Gigi, where she said "Voila! There's our Gigil." The Broadway production

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