1956, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Audrey Hepburn seems impossibly lovely to me. Her charm, humility (she didn’t like to speak about herself) and her electric screen presence always grabbed me. She remains one of only 12 special performers who have won an Academy Award, Emmy Award, Grammy, and Tony Award, and she is only one of three actors to win a Tony and Oscar on the same year.
My favorite Hepburn performance was in Robin And Marion (1976), opposite Sean Connery. I also have a soft spot for one of her last films, the charming They All Laughed (1981), with Ben Gazzara, directed by Peter Bogdanovich.
Other favorite Hepburn films include:
Dutch In Seven Lessons (1948), is her first film, and already her appeal cannot be denied. This Dutch production is a sort of documentary, just over an hour long and is more of a travelogue promoting the Netherlands. Hepburn plays a flight attendant, or as they were known in the era, stewardess in the movie.
Young Hepburn was routinely paired with older actors during her career, and Love In The Afternoon is just one example. Gary Cooper, handsome still as he aged, plays a private detective trying to dig up dirt on a man and then he falls in love with that man’s daughter, played by Hepburn, who shows off her worldly charm and spirit by playing something of a detective herself, following Cooper to Paris and playing the part of a wealthy socialite.
In Two for the Road (1967), a couple in the south of France non-sequentially spin down the highways of infidelity in their troubled 10-year marriage. An architect (Albert Finney) and his wife, (Hepburn), travel to meet one of his clients (Claude Dauphin). While on the trip, the couple reflects on how they met, their courtship, and their road trips around the French countryside.
Hepburn only has a small part in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), which stars Alec Guinness as a bank clerk named Holland overseeing a transfer of gold bullion and tries to steal them with a neighbor of his. Hepburn plays “Chiquita”, a young woman who may or may not be attached to Holland. Despite her limited screen time, she sizzles.
I am just crazy for a nun flick and in the drama The Nun’s Story (1959), Hepburn plays the willful and outspoken the daughter of a prominent Belgian surgeon (Dean Jagger). She shocks everyone when she leaves her sophisticated upper-class life to become a nun.
As Sister Luke, she is sent to the Belgian Congo, where she works as a nurse for a doctor played by Peter Finch. However, when her father is killed by the Nazis during World War II, she no longer feels she can be a nun. This film is one of Hepburn’s most overlooked, yet powerful, performances. She uses only her face to express anguish, fear, disappointment, and exhaustion. Hepburn received an Oscar nomination.
How To Steal A Million (1966) is a stylish heist comedy with Hepburn playing the daughter of a major art forger. One of his fakes is about to be discovered, ruining him and her, so she enlists a thief to try and steal it back before the truth comes out. Hepburn stars alongside actor Peter O’Toole in this funny and charmingly light comedy that holds up pretty well today.
Wait Until Dark (1967) is unique in the Hepburn filmography. She rarely starred in thrillers or dark projects. She made an exception here. Hepburn plays a woman who recently lost her sight. She struggles with her blindness, and then burglars break into her home. This film is a taut, twist game of cat and mouse between the blind Hepburn and the thieves–including Alan Arkin, who are looking for a doll they think is stuffed with heroin.
Anytime Hepburn took chances in her career, it was exciting. In this stylish, modern comedy-mystery-thriller Charade (1963) Hepburn plays a woman who falls for the charming Cary Grant while on a ski trip in the French Alps. However, she must return to Paris after her husband has been murdered. Together, they work to get to the bottom of this mystery. They’re onto three of her late husband’s World War II associates. Everything is going well, but she is skeptical about why Grant’s character is always changing his name. What’s going on? This Is a delightful break from Hepburn’s usual film roles.
Hepburn’s first starring role was in the romance Roman Holiday (1953). She plays a European princess who takes off for a night in Rome, ends up falling asleep on a park bench, and is found by an American reporter played by Gregory Peck. He takes her back to his apartment for safety. The next day, he finds out her regal status. He bets his editor he can get an exclusive interview with her, but romance soon complicates everything. Hepburn and Peck are both charming and charismatic as a pair. Hepburn won her first (and only) Academy Award for this performance. What a way to begin a career!
In her private life, Hepburn preferred to wear casual and comfortable clothes, and not the Hubert de Givenchy haute couture she wore on screen and at events. Despite being greatly admired for her beauty, she didn’t think of herself as attractive, stating in a 1959 interview:
”You can even say that I hated myself at certain periods. I was too fat, or maybe too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly… you can say my definiteness stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority. I couldn’t conquer these feelings by acting indecisive. I found the only way to get the better of them was by adopting a forceful, concentrated drive.”
In 1989, she claimed:
“My look is attainable. Women can look like Audrey Hepburn by flipping out their hair, buying the large glasses and the little sleeveless dresses.”
Hepburn was taken from us by that damn cancer in 1993. She was only 63 years old.
