Audrey Hepburn

(born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; Ixelles, Belgium;4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993)

She was a British actress and idol.

She was the only child of an English banker, Joseph Victory Ruston and a Dutch aristocrat, Ella van Heemstra. Her parents divorced in 1935, after her father left the family.This was a large trauma for her.

Audrey grew up in the Netherlands, but 1935-1938 she studied at Miss Ridgen’s school, an independent girls’ school in England. She studied ballet at the Arnhem Conservatory, then she moved to London in 1948, where she was working as a model and continued her studies in ballet.

Her first role was as a stewardess, in a short tourism film for KLM (KLM Royal Dutch Airlines), before she moved to London with her mother.

After that she got some small roles in some films.

She also played in musical theatre productions like High Button Shoes(1948), Sauce Tartare(1949) and Sauce Piquante (1950).

Her first starring-role was in the Roman Holiday (1953) as Princess Ann, a bored European princess, who falls in love with Gregory Peck, the American newsman.

After Roman Holiday, she starred in a romantic comedy, Sabrina (1954).

For her performance, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

By the mid-1950s, she became a fashion icon. She was the covergirl of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar. Her style was the result of meeting with the designer Hubert de Givenchy, in 1954, who created her style in Sabrina. This meeting was the beginning of a life-long lasting friendship, and Audrey became the muse of Givenchy.

Her most famous role was in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.(1960). She played Holly Golightly, an extrovert, young, beautiful girl, which became an iconic character in American cinema. Her memorable style in this film was also designed by Givenchy. This film is one of the most dominant films in fashion.

Her last starring role in a cinematic film was in the 1981 comedy They All Laughed, directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

She also was a humanitarian: she was the goodwill ambassador to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).