Audrey: The Life of Audrey Hepburn by: Charles Higham

1. Audrey: The Life of Audrey Hepburnby: Charles Higham PowerPoint by: Audrey Scanlon

2. Introduction • Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929 • Born in Brussels, Belgium • Audrey Died on January 21,1993 • She was most famous for being a wonderful actress and her work with UNICEF • The reason I picked her was because I love her movies and I was named after her, so I wanted to know more about her.

3. Child hood/Adolescence Audrey’s parents were Joseph Hepburn-Ruston. He worked with the bank of England. Joseph was Dutch and British. Audrey’s mom was the baroness of the royal court of Holland. Her name was Ella van Heemstra. In 1935, her parents divorced. Audrey loved her dad, so she went to live with him. Audrey has two step brothers, Jan and Alexander. When she was a little girl, she loved the compositions of Beethoven and Bach. She often dreamed of being an actress or a prima ballerina. In 1938, Audrey enrolled in ballet lessons. She had a very hard time at the barre, the warm ups, and was stiff when it came to flexibility. She was sort of plump and did not look like what a ballerina should. Yet Audrey kept pursuing her dream of being a prima ballerina. Audrey went to school at the Arnhem Conservatory of Music and Dance. She never gossiped of giggled with the other girls because she was not brought up like that. She worked for all of the poses and routines while the other girls just did it. From all of her hard work, she decided that she would be a soloist and a star. Her mother never went to see her perform or rehearse. She had great reasoning not to. The baroness did not want to put any pressure on Audrey while she danced. In 1943, the war started heading into the town of Arnhem. Audrey and her step brothers hid in her basement and lived off of watered down cabbage soup. One day, the older of the brothers was taken off to some army camp. Then, the younger was brought from their home into the fight above them. The school that she went to was helping out the British soldiers. One of her missions was to go into the woods to tell a soldier where to hide. When she came out, a German soldier stopped Audrey. She then handed him a flower and skipped away.

4. Adulthood Audrey got her first audition to be in a movie in 1947 with H.M. Josephson. Audrey’s first publicity was in 1951 when she was in the British magazine named Dance. When Audrey was in Gigi, they had to rehearse in French but the script was in English. They had to do that because the director only knew French. After she was done shooting Gigi, Paramount had Audrey sign a seven year contract with them. When shooting Roman Holiday, there were actual gunfights and bombings going on around them. They had to stop shooting whenever a mob of terrorists came running by. When they were in the middle of shooting Sabrina, the King and Queen of Greece came and visited. The crew found two extra thrones that used to be props, so that the royalty could sit. While shooting Roman Holiday, Audrey fell in love with her co-star, Mel Ferrer. They liked each other so much, that Mel decided to direct a movie where Audrey and he could star together. It was called Ondine. The movie was originally a great Broadway play. It turned out that the twosome did a great job with that movie. Audrey won a Tony on March 25, 1954 for Roman Holiday. She suddenly fell ill afterwards. Audrey went to Switzerland to revive from that. She ended up liking the place so much, she decided to live there. Mel Ferrer could not wait to get married so he flew to be with Audrey and married on Sept. 25, 1954. Audrey needed all of the comforts of home with her when she traveled. To do this, she ordered that her things be brought to her hotel room and the hotel’s things be put in the basement. Many of Audrey's movies had extra experiences needed to play the parts. In Love in the Afternoon, Audrey needed to learn how to play the cello. When she shot Nun’s Story, she had to go to Africa. She also needed to attend a Christian church to get into character of a nun. Audrey attended surgeries also because she had to use the tools in the movie.

5. Adult hood Cont. Audrey also had some bad experiences. When she had tried to drive a car because taxis were getting expensive, she crashed. Audrey was trying to swerve from a car coming at her, but crashed into another car instead. Another bad experience happened when she was shooting The Unforgivin. When she was a child she got bucked off a horse, but now she had to ride one for a movie. Audrey tried and when she got on, the horse bucked her right off. After, in many x-rays they found that she had broken many vertebrae. Audrey had to wear a very annoying back brace while shooting the rest of the movie. After two miscarriages, Audrey finally had her first child, whom she had named Sean, in March 1959. Audrey had very child like behavior after that. She needed all of her family and pets watching in the audience when she rehearsed films. Audrey married Dr. Andrea Dotti on Jan. 18, 1969. Sean was old enough to understand why his mom married another man. She had her second child on Feb. 8, 1970. She named him Luca. Awhile later, Audrey met Wolders and fell instantly in love. Audrey was worried that her son's wouldn't accept another dad in their lives. She soon realized that Sean and Wolders got along fine together. Luca was a whole different story. He didn't want another daddy and couldn't understand why his mommy was giving away his. Luca was a big obstacle in Audrey's marriage with Wolders so it never happened. When Audrey grew older, she decided to help UNICEF help prevent starvation in Africa. One of my favorite stories that I learned from her experience was a very sweet one. One day Audrey was working on feeding the African children. Every one stood in a line. There was this one little girl who was very impatient to get to the front for some reason. When that little girl reached it, she ran out of the line an jumped into Audrey's arms. No one knew why but they guessed that she just needed the comfort to help her get through this tragedy of a life style. On January 21, 1993, at age 63, Audrey died peacefully in her bed in her house with all of the family she would want around her. On that day, we lost a great actress and a brilliant “mother” to many.

6. Time Line Audrey won a Tony award on March 25, 1954 Had Luca on Feb. 8, 1970 Died on Jan. 21, 1993 Had Sean in March 1959 Audrey was born on May 4, 1929 Married Mel Ferrer on Sep. 25, 1954 Married Dr. Dotti on January 18, 1969 Went to Somalia for the last time in 1992

7. Positive Contributions • Audrey helped many British soldiers in • the war when she was young. • Audrey was a wonderful actress who • gave many great films to the world. • She worked with UNICEF to help stop • starvation and help the heath in Africa.

8. Most Interesting Story While reading this book I found many interesting stories, but this one stood out the most. When Audrey was a little girl, her dance school was secretly helping out the British soldiers during the war. One day, she had to go out and tell a soldier where to stay. He was hiding behind a rock so she had to tell him so it looked like she was picking flowers. Once she got the message across, Audrey walked right into a German soldier. To play innocent, she handed the soldier a flower, curtsied, and then skipped off. Why I like this story is because it was funny and really brave of her to do that.

9. Interesting Facts • *Audrey had 4 miscarriages. • *She was named Edda when she was born. was born • *Is not related to Katharine Hepburn. • *She once lost her Tony Award after receiving it from all of the commotion with the journalists. • *Audrey had 2 Yorkshire terriers. • *She received the New York film critics award in 1959.

10. Bibliography Higham, C. (1984). Audrey: The Life of Audrey Hepburn. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.