Audrey Hepburn
( 1929 - 1993)Added Date: August 06, 2022
Born: May 04, 1929
Died: January 20, 1993
Country: Switzerland
Audrey Hepburn, the beautiful actress, that everyone loved; however, none of her qualities -- innocence, freshness, unspoiled charm, grace, aristocratic bearing -- seem to entirely explain her popularity.
Certainly not innocence, since she often played rather sophisticated and knowing young women. The fresh beauty that everyone responded to was not quite it, either. Elegance comes closer -- that joyous lightness of touch and piquant slenderness that contrasted so tellingly with the heavier, more voluptuous actresses. She was perfection.
She was admired for her accomplishments -- poise, grooming, wit, style and a knowledge of foreign languages. She had studied ballet, though she seldom danced. Her allure was not the boring virtue of the girl-next-door type. She was like a true princess – she had an unassailable qualification for our adoration: she was European with an aristocratic grace.
Young women in America knew that they could not ''be'' Audrey Hepburn (and males could not ''have'' her) for one main reason: we were not Continental. Audrey Hepburn focused all our American longing for sophisticated worldliness. Any of us might grow up to be polite and pretty, and we might even become actresses. But nothing could make us into aristocratic Europeans, because we were down-to-earth, everyday Americans.
What's more, she was not tarnished by the sordid ways of Hollywood. She was above that achieving stardom in prized movie roles like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, ''Roman Holiday,'' ''Charade,'' ''Funny Face,'' ''Sabrina,'' ''Love in the Afternoon'' and ''My Fair Lady.'' In these, she played valuable, prized females who prevailed. Sums had been lavished on her education. Sums had been lavished on her clothes by Balenciaga or Givenchy. The most important thing about her was not that she was ''radiant'' or ''untouched,'' it was that she was valuable and treasured and we loved her.
She died in Switzerland at the age of 63 from appendicular cancer.
She will always be our goddess, forever remembered In Heaven with the Stars.
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