Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion

Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Hollywood cinema and was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.

Born in Ixelles, Brussels, to an aristocratic family, Hepburn spent parts of her childhood in Belgium, England, and the Netherlands. She studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell in Amsterdam beginning in 1945, and with Marie Rambert in London from 1948. She began performing as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions and then had minor appearances in several films. She rose to stardom in the romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953) alongside Gregory Peck, for which she was the first actress to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. That year, she also won a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for her performance in Ondine.

She went on to star in a number of successful films such as Sabrina (1954), in which Humphrey Bogart and William Holden compete for her affection; Funny Face (1957), a musical where she sang her own parts; the drama The Nun's Story (1959); the romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); the thriller-romance Charade (1963), opposite Cary Grant; and the musical My Fair Lady (1964). In 1967 she starred in the thriller Wait Until Dark, receiving Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA nominations. After that, she only occasionally appeared in films, one being Robin and Marian (1976) with Sean Connery. Her last recorded performances were in the 1990 documentary television series Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming.

Hepburn won three BAFTA Awards for Best British Actress in a Leading Role. In recognition of her film career, she received BAFTA's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Special Tony Award. She remains one of only seventeen people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards. Later in life, Hepburn devoted much of her time to UNICEF, to which she had contributed since 1954. Between 1988 and 1992, she worked in some of the poorest communities of Africa, South America, and Asia. In December 1992, she received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. A month later, she died of appendiceal cancer at her home in Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland, at the age of 63.

1929–1938: FAMILY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD
Audrey Kathleen Ruston (later, Hepburn-Ruston) was born on 4 May 1929 at number 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. She was known to her family as Adriaantje.

Hepburn's mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra (12 June 1900 to 26 August 1984), was a Dutch noblewoman. Ella was the daughter of Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra, who served as mayor of Arnhem from 1910 to 1920 and as governor of Dutch Suriname from 1921 to 1928, and Baroness Elbrig Willemine Henriette van Asbeck (1873 to 1939), a granddaughter of Count Dirk van Hogendorp. At age 19, she married Jonkheer Hendrik Gustaaf Adolf Quarles van Ufford, an oil executive based in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, where they subsequently lived. They had two sons, Jonkheer Arnoud Robert Alexander Quarles van Ufford (1920 to 1979) and Jonkheer Ian Edgar Bruce Quarles van Ufford (1924 to 2010), before divorcing in 1925, four years before Hepburn's birth.

Hepburn's father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston (21 November 1889 to 16 October 1980), was a British subject born in Auschitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary. He was the son of Victor...

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Hepburn

TAGS: Audrey Hepburn, Women humanitarians, Van Hogendorp (family), Van Heemstra (family), UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors, Tony Award winners, Special Tony Award recipients, Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, Primetime Emmy Award winners, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, People from Ixelles, People from Arnhem, Paramount Pictures contract players, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award winners, Grammy Award winners, Dutch nobility, Deaths from cancer in Switzerland, Deaths from appendiceal cancer, David di Donatello winners, Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners, Burials in Switzerland, British women activists, British stage actresses, British philanthropists, British people of Frisian descent, British people of Dutch descent, British people of Austrian descent, British musical theatre actresses, British humanitarians

#GeneralKnowledge #AudibleWikiFactory #Audible #Wikipedia #AudreyHepburn