Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993) was an Anglo-Dutch actress, fashion model, and humanitarian. Born Audrey Kathleen Ruston in Brussels, Belgium, she was the only child of Joseph Anthony Ruston, a Slovakian-born Anglo-Irish banker, and Baroness Ella van Heemstra, a Dutch aristocrat descended from French and English kings. Her father appended the name Hepburn to his surname, and Audrey became Audrey Hepburn-Ruston at the same time. She had two half-brothers, Alexander and Ian Quarles van Ufford, by her mother's first marriage to a Dutch nobleman.

Trivia

• According to Sean Ferrer, Audrey's favorite movies of her own were The Nun's Story and Funny Face, which she had fun filming. Incidentally, those are Sean's favorite movies as well.
• After Audrey told Sean that she would be divorcing Mel Ferrer, she took him to see The Jungle Book. He felt much better afterwards.
• Audrey spoke French, Italian, English, and Dutch/Flemish. Possibly also Spanish and Portuguese (unconfirmed).
• Suffered several miscarriages in her lifetime which led to some depression. While filming The Unforgiven, Audrey broke her back while riding a horse and spent weeks in the hospital. She later had a miscarriage that was probably induced by the physical and mental stress.
• Audrey loved the Harrison Ford film Witness (1985 film). According to Robert Wolders, before her death Audrey said she had dreams of Amish people building houses and constructing farms.
• Opera diva Maria Callas reportedly loved Hepburn's look so much that she adopted it for herself in the 1950s.
• Despite the similar career choices, Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn were neither sisters nor even closely related in any way despite occasional, and mistaken, press reports to the contrary. A related legend holds that Audrey chose the last name Hepburn in honor of Katharine when she became an actress, however the record shows that it was part of her family name for some time before she entered show business.
• Hepburn is considered by many in Japan as a model for feminine beauty, a theme explored in Alan Brown's novel Audrey Hepburn's Neck (ISBN 0671526723).
• Audrey only flew coach in airplanes. She never desired to live glamourously. Her houses, though big, were never enormously or wastefully so (except for her gardens, which she loved).