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.

Work for UNICEF

From 1967 onward, after fifteen highly successful years in film, Hepburn acted only occasionally and her last role as an angel in Steven Spielberg's Always was filmed in 1988 just before she was appointed a special ambassador to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Grateful for her own good fortune after being a victim of the Nazi occupation as a child, she dedicated the remainder of her life to helping impoverished children in the world's poorest nations. Visiting countries in Africa and South Asia, Audrey witnessed the horrors of the third world. She dedicated herself to spreading awareness of the conditions of these nations and doing what she could to help directly. In one interview, she mentions buying camels and solar boxes so that medicines could be delivered to a village in the middle of a desert.

Related Topics:
Always - United Nations Children's Fund - Nazi

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In 1992, President George Bush presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work with UNICEF. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded her The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her contribution to humanity. Her son accepted the award shortly after her death. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1652 Vine Street.

Related Topics:
George Bush - Presidential Medal of Freedom - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award - Hollywood Walk of Fame

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