Biography of Audrey Hepburn

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BACKGROUND
Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) considered a fashion icon, gifted actress and a natural beauty. She had a difficult childhood, which culminated in her parents’ divorce. According to her son, Audrey’s abandonment by her father was a wound that never healed. It led her to unhealthy marriages that resulted in divorce. Due to family tension and possibly her extreme introverted nature, at the age of six she was sent to a boarding school in London. There, she is believed to have become more outgoing, which would be necessary for her future career. In 1939, at the start of the war in England, Audrey’s mom (Ella) moved the family to Holland. Fearing that London would be bombed, she decided that Holland would be safer because “Germany would never attack a neutral Holland” (Spoto, 2006, p. 18). In 1940, this was a natural assumption that resonated with the Dutch during the war until the Nazis invaded Denmark and Norway on April 9 (Spoto, 2006, p. 19). To further preserve their lives, Ella changed Audrey’s name to a less English sounding “Edda van Heemstra” which was Audrey’s christening name (Spoto, 2006, p. 21). They no longer spoke English; instead, they limited themselves to speaking only Dutch. It is interesting to note that most likely because of her childhood experiences in Belgium, Holland, and England that Audrey Hepburn formed her unique accent.
During the war, Audrey studied at Arnhem Conservatory in Holland. She had always dreamed of being a ballerina (Harris, 1994, p. 32). Fellow classmates remembered Audrey as a serious student who wanted to become a ballerina and showed great dedication to her studies (Higham, 1984, p. 22). She continued dancing until she was too weak and malnutritioned to continue. After the war (194...

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Maychick, D. (1993). Audrey Hepburn: An intimate portrait. New York: Carol.
Moseley, R. (2002). Trousers and tiaras: Audrey Hepburn, a woman’s star. Feminist Review, 71, 37-51. doi:0141-7789/02
Moseley, R. (2005). Dress, class and Audrey Hepburn: The significance of the Cinderella story. In R. Moseley (Ed.), Fashioning film stars: Dress, culture, identity (pp. 110-120). London: BFI Pub.
Podolsky, J. D. (1994). Life with Audrey, People, 42(18), 100-109. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost
Spoto, D. (2006). Enchantment: The life of Audrey Hepburn. New York: Harmony Books.
Smith, D. M. (2002). Global Cinderella: “Sabrina” (1954), Hollywood, and Postwar Internationalism. Cinema Journal, 41 (4), 27-51. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA160418974&v=2.1&u=csuf_main&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&asid=e7a62ef11eaa6df90cef01c0ee336d8b

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