Audrey Hepburn, original name Audrey Kathleen Ruston (see Researcher’s Note), (born May 4, 1929, Brussels, Belgium—died January 20, 1993, Tolochenaz, Switzerland), Belgian-born British actress known for her radiant beauty and style, her ability to project an air of sophistication tempered by a charming innocence, and her tireless efforts to aid children in need.

Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953). © 1953 Paramount Pictures Corporation

Top Questions What is Audrey Hepburn known for? Audrey Hepburn was a Belgian-born British actress and humanitarian. She is best known for her roles in films such as Roman Holiday (1953), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), and My Fair Lady (1964). Hepburn devoted the final years of her life to humanitarian work. In 1992 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Where is Audrey Hepburn from? Although born in Belgium, Audrey Hepburn had British citizenship through her father and attended school in England as a child. At the onset of World War II, Hepburn’s mother moved her to the Netherlands, where she believed they would be safe. Hepburn endured hardships in Nazi-occupied Holland. Still, she managed to study ballet in Amsterdam. How did Audrey Hepburn become an actress? As a teenager, Audrey Hepburn studied ballet in Amsterdam and London. During her early 20s, she studied acting and worked as a model and dancer. Her big break came after she caught the eye of French novelist Colette, who insisted that Hepburn be cast in the title role in the stage adaptation of Gigi (1944). What were some of Audrey Hepburn’s most famous films? Audrey Hepburn starred in her first major American film, Roman Holiday, in 1953. After winning an Academy Award for her role as the (fictional) Princess Ann, she appeared in Sabrina (1954), War and Peace (1956), The Nun’s Story (1959), and, perhaps most famously, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). When did Audrey Hepburn retire? After starring in the thriller Wait Until Dark (1967), Audrey Hepburn went into semi-retirement. She nonetheless appeared in a few films after 1975, including Robin and Marian (1976). In 1988 she started a new career as a special goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. She worked for the organization until her death in 1993.

Her parents were the Dutch baroness Ella Van Heemstra and Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, who later adopted the more aristocratic surname Hepburn-Ruston, believing himself to be descended from James Hepburn, 4th earl of Bothwell. Although born in Belgium, Audrey had British citizenship through her father and attended school in England as a child. In 1939, however, at the onset of World War II, her mother (Audrey’s father left the family when she was six years old) moved the child to the Netherlands, thinking that neutral country to be safer than England. Throughout World War II, Audrey endured hardships in Nazi-occupied Holland. She still managed to attend school and take ballet lessons, however. During this time her mother temporarily changed Audrey’s name to Edda Van Heemstra, worried that her birth name would reveal her British heritage. After the war, she continued to study ballet in Amsterdam and in London. During her early 20s, she studied acting and worked as a model and dancer. She also began to get some small film roles, credited as Audrey Hepburn.

While making a film in Monte-Carlo, Hepburn caught the eye of the French novelist Colette, who felt that Hepburn would be ideal for the title role in the stage adaptation of her novel Gigi. Despite her inexperience, Hepburn was cast, earning rave reviews when the play opened on Broadway in 1951. Her next project took her to Rome, where she starred in her first major American film, Roman Holiday (1953). As a young princess who exchanges the burden of royalty for a day of adventure and romance, Hepburn demonstrated her ability to combine a regal bearing with a tomboyish winsomeness that utterly charmed audiences, and she won an Academy Award for best actress.

Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (1953). © 1953 Paramount Pictures Corporation; photograph from a private collection

Hepburn returned to the stage early in 1954 as a water nymph in Ondine, costarring Mel Ferrer, whom she married later that year. She won a Tony Award for her performance, which turned out to be her last on Broadway. She continued to enchant movie audiences, however, in such light romantic comedies as Sabrina (1954; this role provided her first occasion to appear in designs by Hubert de Givenchy, with whose fashions she became identified) and Funny Face (1957), as well as in major dramatic pictures such as War and Peace (1956) and The Nun’s Story (1959).

scene from Funny Face (From left) Kay Thompson, Fred Astaire, and Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face (1957). © 1957 Paramount Pictures Corporation; photograph from a private collection

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By the 1960s, Hepburn had outgrown her ingenue image and begun playing more sophisticated and worldly, albeit often still vulnerable, characters, including the effervescent and mysterious Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), a chic young widow caught up in a suspenseful Charade (1963), and a free-spirited woman involved in a difficult marriage in Two for the Road (1967). Her most controversial role was perhaps that of Eliza Doolittle in the motion picture musical My Fair Lady (1964). Although Hepburn gave an admirable performance as the Cockney flower girl who is transformed into an elegant lady, many viewers had trouble accepting Hepburn in a role they felt belonged to Julie Andrews, who had created the part onstage.

scene from Breakfast at Tiffany's (From left to right) George Peppard, Audrey Hepburn, and Patricia Neal in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), directed by Blake Edwards. © 1961 Paramount Pictures Corporation; all rights reserved

Charade Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Charade (1963), directed by Stanley Donen. © 1963 Universal Pictures Company, Inc.

Audrey Hepburn with Rex Harrison (left) in My Fair Lady (1964). © 1964 Warner Brothers, Inc.; photograph from a private collection

After appearing in the thriller Wait Until Dark (1967), Hepburn went into semiretirement. Having divorced Ferrer in 1968, she married a prominent Italian psychiatrist and chose to focus on her family rather than her career. She did not return to acting until 1976, when she costarred in the nostalgic love story Robin and Marian. She appeared in a few more films, and in 1988 she began a new career as a special goodwill ambassador for United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). She devoted herself to humanitarian work, visiting famine-stricken villages in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, until shortly before her death of cancer in 1993.