Audrey Hepburn - movie star - heroine

September 13, 2019

Audrey Hepburn - movie star - heroine - extraordinary woman -

Audrey Hepburn - born 4th May 1929 - died 20th January 1993

Audrey Hepburn, is one of those women that the world never forgets. Not only because she was an incredibly beautiful movie star, but because of the person she was.

She was born in Belgium to a Dutch aristocratic mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra, and an English father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston.

When she was six years old her father abandoned her. Many years later she traced him through the Red Cross, forgave him, and financially supported him for the rest of his life.

In 1939, when WW2 broke out, Audrey Hepburn was ten years old. She, and mother were living in London at the time. Her mother, Baroness van Heemstra believed that as Holland was a neutral country, they would be saver there, so she took Audrey to Arnhem, believing that the Germans wouldn't invade. She was wrong.

Audrey was in grave danger. If the Nazis had discovered she was half English, as young as she was, chances were she would have been shipped off to a concentration camp, so used her mother's name, and became, Edda van Heemstra.

She lived a relatively normal life, if you can call Nazis occupation normal, training to be a ballet dancer at the Arnhem School of Music.

Things soon changed as the occupying forces confiscated fuel and food for the German troops, leaving the Dutch people to starve, Audrey Hepburn included.

In 1944 not only was Audrey and her family hungry, they were also without somewhere to live in Arnhem, when Nazi officers seized the Van Heemstra mansion. With most of their wealth confiscated, her grandfather, Baron van Heemstra, took his daughter and granddaughter to his villa in the town of Velp, three miles outside of Arnhem.

An incredibly brave woman, she wasn't going to give in to the Nazis. Instead she raised money for the Dutch resistance by staging silent ballet performances in houses behind closed curtains. As German soldiers were patrolling the streets outside, after her performance the audiences didn't clap, so as not to be discovered. She later said, "The best audience I ever had made not a single sound at the end of my performances."

Her uncle Otto, was shot to death for attempting to blow up a railroad, and her half-brother Ian was deported to work in a munitions factory in Berlin. Her other half-brother Alexander joined the underground Dutch resistance.

When the Germans took away all the radios, she stuffed secret messages, in her shoes, bravely walking passed German soldiers, and delivered them to the resistance. She continued to give her ballet performances to help the resistance, until too weak from malnutrition she had to stop.

image courtesy of - https://pixels.com/

Although she starred in many films, Breakfast at Tiffany's is my most favourite film. She played the part of Holly Golightly. And was nominated for an Oscar.

She began her acting career in 1948 - taking on stage roles, until she starred in her first film in 1958, Roman Holiday, for which she won an Oscar.

An incredible achievement for a first film, but then she was an incredible woman.

Audrey Hepburn's last screen role was Always, directed by Steven Spielberg, in 1989.

This amazing woman became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF in the late 1980's, travelling the world to raise awareness of the needs of hungry and impoverished children.

If anyone knew what it was like to be hungry, she did. Her tiny, almost skeletal frame was due to her childhood malnutrition.

During her time working for UNICEF, she travelled to Asia, Africa, Central and South America. In 1993, she won a special Academy Award for her humanitarian work, sadly she did not live to receive it. In 1993, after a battle with colon cancer, she died at her home in Tolochenaz, Switzerland.

Even after death, she continues to help children around the world. Her sons, Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti, together with her companion Robert Wolders, in 1994 established the Audrey Hepburn Memorial Fund at UNICEF. Now known as the Audrey Hepburn Society at the US Fund for UNICEF.

At the time of her death, she was only 63 - a tragic loss to the world -

R.I.P - Audrey Hepburn