Audrey Hepburn, born Audrey Kathleen Ruston was born on May 4, 1929, in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium, and became one of the most celebrated actresses of the 20th century. Her parents were the Dutch baroness Ella Van Heemstra and Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston.
Her mother was a Dutch noblewoman named Baroness Ella van Heemstra. Her father, Joseph, was a British citizen who was born in Austria-Hungary. Hepburn grew up in safety and privilege because of her parents’ backgrounds and because they traveled a lot. She learned to speak Dutch, English, French, and Italian fluently.
But when Hepburn was six years old, her father left the family and moved to London, where he joined Fascist efforts before World War II. After living on a family estate in Arnhem, Netherlands, for a while, Hepburn was sent to Kent, England in 1937 to go to school. The following year, her parents got a divorce.
Hepburn was relocated to Arnhem during the onset of World War II, where she attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 and 1945. During the German invasion of the Netherlands, Hepburn’s uncle Otto van Limburg Stirum was killed and her half-brother Ian was transported to a work camp in Berlin.
Hepburn helped at a hospital and danced to collect money for the Dutch resistance when the family moved from Arnhem to Velp to live with his grandpa. Hepburn experienced respiratory issues, anemia, and malnutrition-related edema as a result of the Dutch famine of 1944.
Her mother was afraid that Audrey’s real name might disclose her British ancestry, so she temporarily changed her name to Edda Van Heemstra at this period. She continued her ballet training in Amsterdam and London after the war. She began her career as a model and dancer in her early twenties, and then studied acting. As Audrey Hepburn, she started to appear in a few tiny parts in films, which she was credited with.
On the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest female film legends in American history, she was rated third in the “most naturally beautiful” category. She was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame as a fashion and cinema legend.
She is known for her roles in Charade, My Fair Lady, Wait Until Dark, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Nun’s Story, and Sabrina, all of which were big hits.
Hepburn started experiencing stomach discomfort in 1992, soon after her return to Switzerland from Somalia. A laparoscopy done in the United States showed a long-standing malignancy. Her last days were spent in hospice care in Switzerland after she had surgery and began chemotherapy, then she returned to her native country.
On January 20, 1993, at the age of 63, while she was in bed in 1993, Hepburn died. She passed away from appendiceal cancer. Robert Wolders was her long-term boyfriend from the early 1980s till the time of her death. She had previously been married to Mel Ferrer and Andrea Dotti.
