Little fact-explorers, let me tell you about Audrey Kathleen Hepburn.
She was a British actress, recognized as a film and fashion icon.
The American Film Institute ranked Hepburn as the third-greatest female screen legend from Classical Hollywood Cinema😯!
She even won many significant awards, including Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, and even Tony Awards.
So, let us discuss a few fascinating facts about the life and works of this fascinating and world-famous actress!
Interesting Audrey Hepburn Facts
Hepburn was born in Ixelles, Brussels
Hey there, little fact-enthusiasts, did you know that Audrey was born at number 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium?
She was born on May 4, 1929.
Her mom, Baroness Ella van Heemstra, 👩was a Dutch noblewoman, while her dad was Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, a British subject.
Hepburn was a trained ballerina
Originally, Hepburn trained as a dancer and even dreamt of becoming a prima ballerina🩰.
When Hepburn was just 15, she moved to London from the Netherlands and studied ballet.
As per Helena Coan, who was the director of the documentary Audrey in 2020, her malnutrition during the war made dancing almost impossible.
As Coan said to Harper’s Bazaar, “She didn’t have the strength.”
Hepburn was almost starved to death during WW II
It is long been rumored that Hepburn was suffering from disordered eating🥣.
However, her family has insisted that her slim figure was a result of growing up during the war.
Hepburn, as a teenager during the Nazi occupation, almost faced death.
In 2017, Dotti, Hepburn’s son, told People, “By the end of the war, she was very close to death.” He also added that she had “jaundice and edema,” which her family believes caused lifelong complications.
He further added, “She suffered from anemia the rest of her life.”
Hepburn’s first role was in an educational movie
I am really surprised to explore this amazing secret about Hepburn! Want to know?
Though the film Dutch in Seven Lessons of 1948 is classified as a ‘documentary’ on IMDB, it is actually more of an educational travel movie.
In this, Hepburn appears as an airline attendant✈️!
If you don’t speak or understand Dutch, it might not make a whole lot of sense to you; however, you can watch it at least once anyway.
Audrey Hepburn joined the Dutch resistance
Hepburn lived in The Netherlands’ Arnhem with her mother. In 1940, when the Nazi occupation started, she resided there throughout World War II.
According to historian Robert Matzen’s book Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II, Audrey was only 14 when she was recruited by the Resistance.
Due to living in England for years, she was quite fluent in English and was reportedly asked to bring food to British and American pilots 🧑✈️and “tell them where to go and who would help them.”
At a Roman Holiday premiere, Hepburn met her first husband
Audrey met actor cum director Mel Ferrer in 1953 at the British opening of Roman Holiday.
The two went on to act in a production of Ondine on Broadway together and got married💒 in 1954.
At the time, Hepburn wrote to a friend, Sir Felix Aylmer, “We want to keep it a dark secret in order to have it without the ‘press.’”
The couple remained for 14 years, despite news of infidelities on both sides!
The couple even had one son together, named Sean Hepburn Ferrer. However, in 1968, they divorced, and later Hepburn married Andrea Dotti.
With Dotti, Hepburn had another son named Luca Dotti.
Hepburn performed on stage
She did this because of the blacked-out windows🪟 that concealed the going ons from the soldiers of Germany.
She did that to raise money for the Resistance!
According to Matzen, Hepburn said of those performances, “I danced 💃 at recitals, designing the dances myself, I had a friend who played the piano, and my mother made the costumes.”
Gregory Peck was afraid of Hepburn
When Hepburn got the role of Princess Ann in 1953’s Roman Holiday 🎥opposite Gregory Peck, she was actually an unknown actress.
As such, Peck was going to be the only star listed, with Audrey getting a smaller font and an ‘introducing’ credit.
However, Peck insisted, “You’ve got to change that because she’ll be a big star, and I’ll look like a big jerk.”
Later, Hepburn ended up winning her first and only Oscar for the role, while Gregory didn’t get nominated.
Hepburn had the same singing double as Natalie Wood
In My Fair Lady, the singing voice of Hepburn was dubbed by Miami Nixon.
Nixon also dubbed the singing voice of Natalie Wood in the film West Side Story and Deborah Kerr in The King and I.
Also, Nixon recorded the part of Marilyn Monroe in “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
She even sang 🎤the voice of Grandmother Fa in Mulan, an animated film by Disney!
Hepburn’s relationship with Givenchy: It led to her most famous looks
I am really amazed to learn this surprising fact about Hepburn!
Throughout her career, Audrey had a very close friendship with designer Hubert de Givenchy. So, she wore his designs starting in 1953, both off-screen and on-screen.
Givenchy helped dress 👗her for seven movies, according to The New York Times.
Those included Sabrina, Funny Face, and obviously, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, for which the two worked on the well-known little black dress. Really interesting, isn’t it?
Hepburn is an EGOT
In 1954, Hepburn accepted a Tony Award for her role in Ondine or Broadway. It was a little role.
Hepburn is one of the only 16 EGOTS, meaning that she received all four major creative awards. Those were a Grammy, Emmy, Tony, and Oscar!
Unfortunately, Hepburn got this honor posthumously.
Both her 1993 Emmy for Gardens of the World and 1994 Grammy for the children’s album Audrey Hepburn’s Enchanted Tales were awarded following her death in early 1993.
Hepburn was nominated for five Oscars
Five Oscar nominations!! Really impressive, isn’t it??
Over the course of her career, Hepburn won many award nominations. She won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role on her first nomination.
She won it for her performance in Roman Holiday, and in the next 15 years, she picked up more nominations in the same category.
Also, she was posthumously awarded the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in the year 1993!
The iconic little black dress sold for almost $1 million
In the year 2003, Christie’s auctioned off the iconic little black dress designed by Givenchy.
It was the dress that Hepburn wore in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The dress was sold for a whopping $923,187.
It was a record-setting amount at that time until the white “subway dress” of Marilyn Monroe from The Seven Year Itch was sold in 2006 for $5.6 million.
Truman Capote didn’t like Hepburn as Holly Golightly
Blake Edward’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s may be one of the most famous movies in the history of Hollywood, but it is still a miracle that the movie ever got made at all! Surprised, right?
Yes, particularly, if you listen to the writer of the novella, on the movie which was based, Truman Capote, then you will know.
Actually, Capote only had one actress in mind; Marylin Monroe.
When questioned about what he didn’t like about the film📽️, which downplayed the fact that Golightly is a call girl, Capote answered, “Oh, God, just everything. It was the most miscast film I’ve ever seen.”
In 1963, Hepburn sang “Happy Birthday” to JFK
Like me, if you are a fan of Audrey Hepburn, then you will surely love this amazing secret about her!
Just one year after Marylin Monroe’s sultry birthday serenade to John. F. Kennedy, in the year 1962, Audrey paid a musical tribute to the president.
It was in 1963, at a private party, on what later proved to be his final birthday🎂!
Hepburn did sing in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Though Hepburn’s singing voice was dubbed in My Fair Lady, she still sang “Moonriver” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Reportedly, the actor did record a few demos as Eliza Doolittle.
It was for the 1964 musical adaptation. Later, it was restored and released with a special edition of the movie in the year 1994.
According to Billy Wilder, Hepburn was one-of-a-kind
Billy Wilder, who directed Audrey in both Love In The Afternoon, and Sabrina, praised her a lot in an interview with Vanity Fair in 1999.
He said, “Again, that’s the element X that people have or don’t have.” He further added, “You can meet somebody, and you can be enchanted, and then you photograph them, and it’s nothing. But she had it. And there will not be another.”
Hepburn could speak five languages
Audrey Hepburn was a true polyglot. She could reportedly speak at least five languages fluently🗣️!
Those were English, Dutch, Italian, French, and Spanish. She would even conduct interviews with all five of them!
Hepburn was a UNICEF Special Ambassador
In 1988, Audrey Hepburn became a UNICEF Special Ambassador! She was even named a Goodwill Ambassador the following year!
She traveled to Turkey, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, and Sudan with UNICEF!
She was also interested in helping get resources to those in need, something that had helped her after the war.
According to her son, Luca Dotti, her experience in WWII inspired her to work with UNICEF.
Luca told People, “My mother always said that there is no greater evil than war because it affects the children.”
There is a rare tulip named after Hepburn
Little friends, did you know that there is an interesting connection between the flower tulip🌷 and Hepburn? No? Let me explain.
In the year 1990, a rare white tulip hybrid was named after this amazing actress and humanitarian!
Also, it was dedicated to her at her family’s former estate in Holland! Interesting, isn’t it?
At the headquarters of UNICEF, there is a statue of Hepburn
“The Spirit of Audrey” sculpture by John Kennedy was unveiled in the year 2002 at New York’s James P. Grant Plaza.
The sculpture is reportedly 7 feet tall and has a female silhouette holding a child. It was actually meant to reflect Hepburn’s remarkable work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Harry Belafonte, a fellow Ambassador of UNICEF, said at the ceremony, “I think that Audrey Hepburn was the best example of what to do with herself.”
He further added, “I loved her dearly, and I am very glad to be here to celebrate.”
Hepburn was an introvert
Like me, you will definitely be surprised to know this interesting secret about Hepburn!
Unlike most celebrities, Hepburn didn’t crave being surrounded by groups of entourages and fans! She even expressed herself as an introvert!
Once, she even said, “I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.”
Hepburn suffered five miscarriages
Audrey wanted to have kids, but she went through miscarriage after miscarriage as she kept trying to conceive.
Not having enough fat on her body and being overstressed from work played a large part in the miscarriages!
However, she was so determined that she took time off her work to prepare to give birth!
Eventually, she had two sons🧒, Sean and Luca.
Hepburn was really afraid of water
In the film “Two for the Road” with Albert Finny, Hepburn had to be thrown into the pool.
However, Hepburn was extremely afraid of drowning🏊♀️, so outside the shot, a few persons from the crew were in the pool, ready to catch her if something were to happen!
This was the only Hepburn would do the scene!
So, if you watch the scene today, the fear that you see on her face is completely real!
Hepburn was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
In the year 1992, President George Bush honored Hepburn, an actor, and activist, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom🥇!
It is the highest civilian honor in the U.S.
During the ceremony, the president declared that Hepburn’s “work with the International Children’s Emergency Fund put her in our hearts.”
However, Hepburn couldn’t attend the ceremony because of health reasons.
Death of Hepburn
On the evening of January 20, 1993, Audrey Hepburn passed away in her sleep at home.
Her funeral services ⚰️were held on January 24, 1993, at the village church of Tolochenaz.
Later, she was interred at the Tolochenaz Cemetery.
Summing up
So, little knowledge lovers, now you know a lot about Audrey Hepburn! 😯!
We will be eagerly waiting for your answers…as only after knowing your views can we start thinking about our future content!
See you soon!!
I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. Here to help you with play-based learning activities for kids. ( Check my Next startup Cledemy.Com)
