birth date	May 09, 1936
birth place	Salford, Lancashire, England, UK
occupation	Actor
years active	1958–present
spouse	Jane Wenham (1957–61)Anouk Aimée (1970–78)Pene Delmage (2006–present)
children	Simon }}

Albert Finney (born 9 May 1936) is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television.

A recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards, Finney has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor four times, for ''Tom Jones'' (1963), ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1974), ''The Dresser'' (1983), and ''Under the Volcano'' (1984); and was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''Erin Brockovich'' (2000).

Career[link]

Finney is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His career began in the theatre; he made his first appearance on the London stage in 1958 in Jane Arden's ''The Party'', directed by Charles Laughton, who starred in the production along with his wife, Elsa Lanchester. Then in 1959 he appeared at Stratford in ''Coriolanus'' opposite Laurence Olivier (as Coriolanus), Edith Evans and Vanessa Redgrave.

His first film appearance was a role in Tony Richardson's ''The Entertainer'' (1960), with Laurence Olivier, but he made his breakthrough with his portrayal of a disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film version of Alan Sillitoe's ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning''. This led to a series of "Angry Young Man" roles in kitchen sink dramas, before he starred in the Academy Award-winning 1963 film ''Tom Jones''. Prior to this, Finney had been chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's production of ''Lawrence of Arabia'', but the actor quit after four days of shooting.

After ''Charlie Bubbles'' (1968), which he also directed, his film appearances became less frequent as he focused more on acting on stage. During this period, one of his high-profile film roles was as Agatha Christie's Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot in the 1974 film ''Murder On The Orient Express''. Finney became so well known for the role that he complained that it typecast him for a number of years. "People really do think I am 300 pounds with a French accent" he said.

While being known for his dramatic roles, Finney appeared and sang in two musical films: ''Scrooge'' and the Hollywood film version of ''Annie'', which was directed by John Huston, who would direct him once again in ''Under The Volcano'' two years later. He also sings in Tim Burton's ''Corpse Bride''.

Finney made several television productions for the BBC in the 1990s, including ''The Green Man'' (1990), based on a story by Kingsley Amis, the acclaimed drama ''A Rather English Marriage'' (1998) (with Tom Courtenay), and the lead role in Dennis Potter's final two plays, ''Karaoke'' and ''Cold Lazarus'' in 1996 and 1997. In the latter he played a frozen, disembodied head.

Finney also made an appearance at Roger Waters' ''The Wall Concert in Berlin'', where he played "The Judge" during the performance of "The Trial".

In 2002 his critically acclaimed portrayal of Winston Churchill in ''The Gathering Storm'' won him BAFTA and Emmy awards as Best Actor.

He also played the title role in the television series ''My Uncle Silas'', based on the short stories by H. E. Bates, about a roguish but lovable poacher-cum-farm labourer looking after his great-nephew. The show ran for two series from 2000 until 2003.

A lifelong supporter of Manchester United, Finney narrated the documentary ''Munich'', about the aircrash that killed most of the Busby Babes in 1958, which was shown on United's TV channel MUTV in February 2008.

Personal life[link]

Finney was born in Pendleton, Salford, Lancashire, to Alice Hobson and Albert Finney, Sr., a bookmaker. He was educated at Tootal Drive Primary School, Salford Grammar School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

He has a son by his first wife, Jane Wenham: Simon, who works in the film business as a camera operator.

From 1970 to 1978 he was married to French actress Anouk Aimée.

Awards and honors[link]

Albert Finney turned down the offer of a CBE in 1980 and a Knighthood in 2000. He has criticised the honours system for "perpetuating snobbery".

He has five Oscar nominations but has never won. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor four times, for ''Tom Jones'' (1963), ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1974), ''The Dresser'' (1983), and ''Under the Volcano'' (1984); and was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''Erin Brockovich'' (2000).

Julia Roberts mentioned Albert Finney in her Oscar acceptance speech for Best Actress in ''Erin Brockovich'', thanking him and sharing the Oscar with him.

Finney received a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles in 1961 for ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' (1960). He was also nominated for Best British Actor for the same film. He was nominated nine more times before he finally won again, for the telefilm ''The Gathering Storm'' (2002). He has 13 BAFTA nominations in total, and also received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2001.

He won an Emmy Award, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Made for TV Movie, for his performance as Winston Churchill in HBO's ''The Gathering Storm''. He had previously been nominated for the HBO telefilm ''The Image'' (1990).

He has received Golden Globe nominations for:

Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

''Shoot the Moon''

''The Dresser''

''Under the Volcano''

Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical

''Tom Jones (he received two nominations, winning for "Most Promising Newcomer". See below.)

''Scrooge'', WINNER. His portrayal of both the old miser and the young Ebenezer Scrooge earned him "The Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical/Comedy" for 1971.

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

''Erin Brockovich''

''Big Fish''

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television

''The Gathering Storm'', WINNER.

Most Promising Newcomer - Male.

''Tom Jones'', WINNER.

For his work on Broadway, Finney has been nominated for two Tony Awards, both for Best Actor in a Play, for ''Luther'' in 1964, and ''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' in 1968. For the London stage, he won two Olivier Awards, both for Best Actor, for ''A Flea in Her Ear'' and ''Orphans''.

Other awards include: a Golden Laurel for his work on ''Scrooge'' (1970) and for his work on ''Tom Jones'', for which he was the 3rd Place Winner for the "Top Male Comedy Performance" for 1964. He was honoured by the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association as Best Actor for ''Under the Volcano'' (which he tied with F. Murray Abraham for ''Amadeus''), the National Board of Review Best Actor award for ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'', and the New York Film Critics' Circle Best Actor award for ''Tom Jones''.

Finney has won two Screen Actors' Guild Awards, for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, for ''Erin Brockovich'', and as a member of the acting ensemble in the film ''Traffic''. He was also nominated for ''The Gathering Storm'', for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries, but did not win.

He won the Silver Berlin Bear award for Best Actor, for ''The Dresser'', at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival in 1984.

He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, for ''Tom Jones'', at the Venice Film Festival.

Filmography[link]

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1960		Mick Rice
1960		Arthur Seaton
1963		Tom Jones
1964		Danny
1967		Mark Wallace
1968	''Charlie Bubbles''	Charlie Bubbles	Also director
1970		Ebenezer Scrooge	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1971		Eddie Ginley	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1974		Hercule Poirot
1975	''The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother''	Man In Opera Audience	Uncredited Cameo
1977	''The Duellists''	Fouche
	''Looker''	Dr. Larry Roberts
	Dewey Wilson	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
	Daniels
		Daddy Warbucks
	George Dunlap	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleNominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1983	''The Dresser''	Sir	Silver Bear for Best ActorNominated — Academy Award for Best ActorNominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleNominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1984		Geoffrey Firmin	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorLondon Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActorNominated — Academy Award for Best ActorNominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1987		Harold
		Jason Cromwell
''The Green Man''	Maurice Allington	Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
''Miller's Crossing''	Leo O'Bannon
	The Judge
1992		Hegarty
1993	''Rich in Love''	Warren Odom
		Andrew Crocker-Harris	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
	Alfred Byrne
1996		Dr. Monyghan
1997		Dr. Austin Sloper
1999		Kilgore Trout
		Ed Masry	Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActorLondon Film Critics' Circle
	[[White House Chief of Staff	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2002		Winston Churchill	British Academy Television Award for Best ActorBroadcasting Press Guild
2003	''[[Big Fish''	older Edward Bloom	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting RoleNominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion PictureNominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
2004	''Ocean's Twelve''	Gaspar LeMarque
2005	''Tim Burton's Corpse Bride''	Finis Everglot
	''A Good Year''	Uncle Henry Skinner
	John Newton
		Dr. Albert Hirsch
''Before the Devil Knows You're Dead''	Charles Hanson	Gotham Awards
		Dr. Albert Hirsch	Post-Production
''[[Skyfall''	Kincade	Post-Production

References[link]

;Notes

External links[link]

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe winners Category:English actors Category:English film actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:English voice actors Category:English film directors Category:English film producers Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Salford, Greater Manchester Category:Royal National Theatre Company members Category:Hercule Poirot Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:People educated at Salford Grammar School Category:Volpi Cup winners

an:Albert Finney cs:Albert Finney da:Albert Finney de:Albert Finney es:Albert Finney eu:Albert Finney fr:Albert Finney id:Albert Finney it:Albert Finney he:אלברט פיני la:Albertus Finney hu:Albert Finney nl:Albert Finney ja:アルバート・フィニー no:Albert Finney pl:Albert Finney pt:Albert Finney ro:Albert Finney ru:Финни, Альберт sr:Алберт Фини sh:Albert Finney fi:Albert Finney sv:Albert Finney tl:Albert Finney tr:Albert Finney zh:亞伯特·芬尼

name	Erin Brockovich
birth date	June 22, 1960
birth place	Lawrence, Kansas, United States
occupation	President, Brockovich Research & Consulting
spouse	Eric L. Ellis(1999-present) }}

Erin Brockovich-Ellis (born June 22, 1960) is an American legal clerk and environmental activist who, despite the lack of a formal law school education, or any legal education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E;) of California in 1993. Since the release of the film that shares her story and name, she has hosted ''Challenge America with Erin Brockovich'' on ABC and ''Final Justice'' on Zone Reality. She is the president of Brockovich Research & Consulting, a consulting firm. She is currently working as a consultant for Girardi & Keese, the New York law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which has a focus on personal injury claims for asbestos exposure, and Shine Lawyers in Australia.

Early life[link]

She was born Erin Pattee in Lawrence, Kansas, to Frank Pattee, an industrial engineer and Betty Jo O'Neal-Pattee, a journalist. She attended Lawrence High School then Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, and graduated with an Associate in Applied Arts Degree from Wades Business College in Dallas, Texas. She worked as a management trainee for Kmart in 1981 but quit after a few months and entered a beauty pageant. After winning Miss Pacific Coast in 1981, she gave up pageant life. She has lived in California since 1982.

Pacific Gas and Electric litigation[link]

The case alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium(VI), in the southern California town of Hinkley. At the center of the case was a facility called the Hinkley Compressor Station, part of a natural gas pipeline connecting to the San Francisco Bay Area and constructed in 1952. Between 1952 and 1966, PG&E; used hexavalent chromium to fight corrosion in the cooling tower. The wastewater dissolved the hexavalent chromium from the cooling towers and was discharged to unlined ponds at the site. Some of the wastewater percolated into the groundwater, affecting an area near the plant approximately . The case was settled in 1996 for US$333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in US history.

A study released in 2010 by the California Cancer Registry showed that cancer rates in Hinkley "remained unremarkable from 1988 to 2008." An epidemiologist involved in the study said that "the 196 cases of cancer reported during the most recent survey of 1996 through 2008 were less than what he would expect based on demographics and the regional rate of cancer."

Average Cr-6 levels in Hinkley were recorded as 1.19ppb with a peak of 3.09ppb. The PG&E; Topock Compressor Station averaged 7.8ppb and peaks at 31.8ppb based on the PG&E; Background Study. California's Public Health Goal (PHG), circa 2011, for hexavalent chromium is 0.02ppb.

Other litigation[link]

Working with Thousand Oaks, California-based lawyer Edward L. Masry, Brockovich went on to participate in other anti-pollution lawsuits. One accuses Whitman Corporation of chromium contamination in Willits, California. Another lawsuit, which lists 1,200 plaintiffs, alleges contamination near PG&E;'s Kettleman Hills Compressor Station in Kings County, California, along the same pipeline as the Hinkley site. The Kettleman suit settled for $335 million in 2006. After experiencing problems with mold contamination in her own home in the Conejo Valley, Brockovich became a prominent activist and educator in this area as well.

Brockovich and Masry filed suit against the Beverly Hills Unified School District in 2003, in which the district was accused of harming the health and safety of its students by allowing a contractor to operate a cluster of oil wells on campus. Brockovich and Masry alleged that 300 cancer cases were linked to the oil wells. Subsequent testing and epidemiological investigation failed to corroborate substantial link, and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Wendell Mortimer granted summary judgment against the plaintiffs. In May 2007, the School District announced that it was to be paid $450,000 as reimbursement for legal expenses.

Brockovich assisted in the filing of a lawsuit against Prime Tanning Corp. of St. Joseph, Missouri in April 2009. The lawsuit claims that waste sludge from the production of leather, containing high levels of hexavalent chromium, was distributed to farmers in northwest Missouri to use as fertilizer on their fields. It is believed to be a potential cause of an abnormally high number of brain tumors (70 since 1996) around the town of Cameron, Missouri, which is currently being investigated by the EPA.

In June 2009, Brockovich began investigating a case of contaminated water in Midland, Texas. "Significant amounts" of hexavalent chromium were found in the water of more than 40 homes in the area, some of which have now been fitted with state-monitored filters on their water supply. Brockovich said "The only difference between here and Hinkley, is that I saw higher levels here than I saw in Hinkley."

Awards[link]

Honorary Doctor of Laws, and Commencement Speaker at Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland in May 2005 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, and Commencement Speaker at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles on May 5, 2007 Honorary Master of Arts, Business Communication from Jones International University

Movies[link]

Brockovich's work in bringing litigation against Pacific Gas and Electric is the focus of the 2000 feature film, ''Erin Brockovich'', starring Julia Roberts in the title role. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing in a Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich. Erin Brockovich herself had a cameo role as a waitress named Julia R.

Brockovich has a more extensive role in the 2012 documentary ''Last Call at the Oasis'', which focuses not only on water pollution but also on the overall state of water scarcity as it relates to water policy in the United States.

Book[link]

Brockovich's book, entitled ''Take It From Me: Life's a Struggle But You Can Win'', was published in October 2001, and was on the NYT Business Bestseller's List.

References[link]

External links[link]

Official Site of Erin Brockovich

The Brockovich Report - BrockovichBlog.com

Brockovich I-Village

Official MySpace of Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich biography on the Biography Channel

'' Evening with Erin Brockovich'' in Sydney, hosted by the ''Climate Change Coalition'' 2007

Detail about Hinkley case at AwesomeStories.com

Did Hinkley Residents Really Win? at salon.com

Weitz & Luxenberg PC

Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:American activists Category:Kansas State University alumni Category:People from Lawrence, Kansas Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area

ar:إيرين بروكوفيتش bn:এরিন ব্রকোভিচ ca:Erin Brockovich de:Erin Brockovich es:Erin Brockovich fr:Erin Brockovich (personne) ko:에린 브로코비치 id:Erin Brockovich it:Erin Brockovich la:Erin Brockovich mn:Эрин Брокович nl:Erin Brockovich ja:エリン・ブロコビッチ no:Erin Brockovich pl:Erin Brockovich simple:Erin Brockovich sh:Erin Brockovich fi:Erin Brockovich sv:Erin Brockovich uk:Ерін Брокович

Name	James Coburn
Birth date	August 31, 1928
Birth place	Laurel, Nebraska
Death date
Death place	Beverly Hills, California
Death cause	Heart Attack
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Nationality	American
Residence	Beverly Hills, California
Home town	Compton, California
Education	Compton Junior College
Alma mater	Los Angeles City College
Spouse	Beverly Kelly (1959–1979) Paula Murad (1993–2002)
Children	James Coburn IV
Parents	James Harrison Coburn, Jr.Mylet S. Coburn
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1958–2002 }}

James Harrison Coburn III (August 31, 1928 – November 18, 2002) was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in ''Affliction''.

A capable, rough-hewn leading man, his toothy grin and lanky body made him a perfect tough-guy in numerous leading and supporting roles in Westerns and action films, such as ''The Magnificent Seven'', ''Hell Is for Heroes'', ''The Great Escape'', ''Major Dundee'', ''Our Man Flint'', ''Duck, You Sucker'', ''Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'' and ''Cross of Iron''.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s he would cultivate an image synonymous with "cool", and along with such contemporaries as Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson, became one of the prominent "tough-guy" actors of his day.

Early life[link]

Coburn was born in Laurel, Nebraska, the son of Mylet S. (née Johnson) and James Harrison Coburn, Jr., who had a garage business that was wiped out by the Great Depression. Coburn was of Scotch-Irish and Swedish descent. He was raised in Compton, California, attended Compton Junior College and enlisted in the United States Army in 1950, serving as a truck driver and an occasional disc jockey on an Army radio station in Texas. Coburn also narrated Army training films in Mainz, Germany. He attended Los Angeles City College, where he studied acting alongside Jeff Corey and Stella Adler, then made his stage debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in ''Billy Budd''. Coburn was selected for a Remington Products razor commercial in which he was able to shave off 11 days of beard growth in less than 60 seconds, while joking that he had more teeth to show on camera than the other 12 candidates for the part.

Career[link]

Coburn's film debut came in 1959 as the sidekick of bad guy Pernell Roberts in the Randolph Scott western ''Ride Lonesome''. Coburn also appeared in dozens of television roles including, with Roberts, several episodes of ''Bonanza''. He appeared at least twice on John Payne's NBC western ''The Restless Gun'' in episodes entitled "The Pawn" and "The Way Back", the latter with ''Bonanza'''s Dan Blocker. Coburn and Ralph Taeger co-starred with Joi Lansing in ''Klondike'' on NBC in the 1960–1961 season. When ''Klondike'', set in the Alaskan gold rush town of Skagway, was cancelled, Taeger and Coburn were regrouped as detectives in Mexico in NBC's equally short-lived ''Acapulco''.

Coburn became well known in the 1960s and the 1970s for his roles in several action and western films, first primarily with Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson in two John Sturges films: ''The Magnificent Seven'' and ''The Great Escape''. Playing the parts of a villainous Texan in the hugely successful ''Charade'' (1963), a glib naval officer in ''The Americanization of Emily'' (1964) and a one-armed Indian tracker in ''Major Dundee'' (1965) gained him much notice. In 1966 Coburn became a bona fide star with the release of ''Our Man Flint'', a James Bond spoof released by 20th Century-Fox. In 1971 he starred in the spaghetti western ''Duck, You Sucker!'', directed by Sergio Leone, as an Irish explosives expert and revolutionary who has fled to Mexico during the time of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. He teamed with director Sam Peckinpah for the 1973 film ''Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid'' (they had worked together in 1965 on ''Major Dundee''; the film's producer, Jerry Bresler, took editing responsibilities away from Peckinpah during post-production, resulting in Peckinpah's becoming furious over what he claimed was the producer's deliberate sabotage of his film, and he threatened the studio with a lawsuit. Columbia relented--mainly because of a promise made to them by star Charlton Heston that he would never work for the studio again if they didn't let Peckinpah edit the film the way he wanted--and acceded to some of Peckinpah's demands, but the finished product was still not satisfactory to him and he disowned it). Peckinpah and Coburn were greatly disappointed and turned next to ''Cross of Iron'', a critically acclaimed war epic that performed poorly in the U.S. but was a huge hit in Europe. They remained close friends until Peckinpah's death on December 28, 1984. In 1973 Coburn was one of the featured celebrities dressed in prison gear on the cover of the album ''Band On The Run'' made by Paul McCartney and his band Wings.

Coburn returned to television in 1978 to star in a three-part mini-series version of a Dashiell Hammett detective novel, ''The Dain Curse'', tailoring his character to bear a physical resemblance to the author. Due to severe rheumatoid arthritis, Coburn appeared in very few films in the 1980s. Although his hands were visibly gnarled in film appearances within the final two decades of his career, Coburn continued working. He spent much of his time writing songs with British singer-songwriter Lynsey De Paul and doing television series as his work on ''Darkroom''. He claimed to have healed himself with pills containing a sulfur-based compound. Coburn returned to film in the 1990s, and appeared in supporting roles in ''Young Guns II'', ''Hudson Hawk'', ''Sister Act 2'', ''Maverick'', ''Eraser'', ''The Nutty Professor'', ''Affliction'' and ''Payback''. Coburn's performance in ''Affliction'' earned him an Academy Award, and he was also nominated for the Screen Actors Guild and the Independent Spirit Awards.

Cars[link]

Coburn’s interest in fast cars began with his father’s garage business and continued throughout his personal life, as he exported rare cars to Japan. He's credited with turning Steve McQueen on to Ferraris, and in the early 1960s owned two at that time. One was a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, the other the Ferrari 250 GT Spyder California SWB. His Spyder was the thirteenth of just fifty-six built. Coburn imported the pre-owned car in 1964, shortly after completing ''The Great Escape.'' The car was restored and sold for $10,894,400.00 to English broadcaster Chris Evans, setting a new world record for the highest price ever paid for an automobile at auction.

Cal Spyder #2377 was repainted several times during Coburn's ownership; it has been black, silver and possibly burgundy. He kept the car at his Beverly Hills-area home, where it was often serviced by Max Balchowsky, who also did the suspension and frame modifications on those Mustang GTs used in the filming of McQueen’s "Bullitt." Coburn sold the Spyder in 1987 after 24 years of ownership. Over time he also owned the above-noted Lusso, a Ferrari Daytona, at least one Ferrari 308 and a 1967 Ferrari 412P sports racer.

Death[link]

Coburn died of a heart attack on November 18, 2002, while listening to music in his Beverly Hills, California, home. He was survived by his widow Paula (née Murad), son James IV and a stepdaughter. His ashes were interred in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, and marked by a stone bench inscribed with his name. By the time of his death, Coburn was the voice of the "Like a Rock" Chevrolet television ad campaign. James Garner succeeded Coburn for the remainder of the campaign.

Critical analysis[link]

In his New Biographical Dictionary Of Film, American-based British Film critic David Thomson stated that "Coburn is a modern rarity: an actor who projects lazy, humorous sexuality. It is the lack of neurosis, an impression of an amiable monkey, that makes him seem rather dated: a more perceptive Gable, perhaps, or even a loping Midwest Grant. He has made a variety of flawed, pleasurable films, the merits of which invariably depend on his laconic presence. Increasingly, he was the best thing in his movies, smiling privately, seeming to suggest that he was in contact with some profound source of amusement".

Legendary film critic Pauline Kael remarked on Coburn's unusual characteristics, stating that "he looked like the child of the liaison between Lt Pinkerton and Madame Butterfly". George Hickenlooper, who directed Coburn in ''The Man From Elysian Fields'' called him "the masculine male". Andy Garcia called him "the personification of class, the hippest of the hip", and Paul Schrader noted "he was of that 50's generation. He had that part hipster, part cool-cat aura about him. He was one of those kind of men who were formed by the Rat Pack kind of style."

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

{| class="wikitable" |- ! Year !! Movie !! Role !! Director !! Notes |- | rowspan="2" |1959 || ''Ride Lonesome'' || Whit || Budd Boetticher ||align="center"| |- | ''Face of a Fugitive'' || Purdy || Paul Wendkos ||align="center"| |- | 1960 || ''The Magnificent Seven'' || Britt || John Sturges ||align="center"| |- | 1961 || ''The Murder Men'' || Arthur Troy || John Peyser ||align="center"| |- | 1962 || ''Hell Is for Heroes'' || Cpl. Frank Henshaw || Don Siegel ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="4" |1963 || ''The Great Escape'' || Louis Sedgwick || John Sturges ||align="center"| |- | ''Charade'' || Tex Panthollow || Stanley Donen ||align="center"| |- | ''The Man from Galveston'' || Boyd Palmer || William Conrad ||align="center"| |- | ''Kings of the Sun'' || Narrator || J. Lee Thompson ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="2" |1964 || ''Action on the Beach'' || Himself || Unknown || Documentary |- | ''The Americanization of Emily'' || Lt. Cmdr. Paul "Bus" Cummings || Arthur Hiller ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="3" |1965 || ''Major Dundee'' || Samuel Potts || Sam Peckinpah ||align="center"| |- | ''A High Wind in Jamaica'' || Zac || Alexander Mackendrick ||align="center"| |- | ''The Loved One'' || Immigration Officer || Tony Richardson ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="3" |1966 || ''Our Man Flint'' || Derek Flint || Daniel Mann ||align="center"| |- | ''What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?'' || Lieutenant Christian || Blake Edwards ||align="center"| |- | ''Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round'' || Eli Kotch || Bernard Girard ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="3" |1967 || ''In Like Flint'' || Derek Flint || Gordon Douglas ||align="center"| |- | ''Waterhole #3'' || Lewton Cole || William A. Graham ||align="center"| |- | ''The President's Analyst'' || Dr. Sidney Schaefer || Theodore J. Flicker || Also Produced |- | rowspan="2" |1968 || ''Duffy'' || Duffy || Robert Parrish ||align="center"| |- | ''Candy'' || Dr. A.B. Krankheit || Christian Marquand ||align="center"| |- | 1969 || ''Hard Contract'' || John Cunningham || S. Lee Pogostin ||align="center"| |- | 1970 || ''Last of the Mobile Hot Shots'' || Jeb || Sidney Lumet ||align="center"| |- | 1971 || ''Duck, You Sucker!'' || John H. Mallory || Sergio Leone || Renamed ''A Fistful of Dynamite'' for U.S. release |- | rowspan="3" |1972 || ''The Carey Treatment'' || Dr. Peter Carey || Blake Edwards ||align="center"| |- | ''The Honkers'' || Lew Lathrop || Steve Ihnat ||align="center"| |- | ''A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die'' || Colonel Pembroke || Tonino Valerii || Renamed ''Massacre At Fort Holman'' for U.S. release |- | rowspan="4" |1973 || ''Bruce Lee: The Man and the Legend'' || Himself ''(uncredited)'' || Shih Wu || Documentary |- | ''Harry in Your Pocket'' || Harry || Bruce Geller ||align="center"| |- | ''Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'' || Pat Garrett || Sam Peckinpah ||align="center"| |- | ''The Last of Sheila'' || Clinton || Herbert Ross ||align="center"| |- | 1974 || ''The Internecine Project'' || Robert Elliot || Ken Hughes ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="2" |1975 || ''Bite the Bullet'' || Luke Matthews || Richard Brooks ||align="center"| |- | ''Hard Times'' || Speed || Walter Hill ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="3" | 1976 || ''Sky Riders'' || Jim McCabe || Douglas Hickox ||align="center"| |- | ''The Last Hard Men'' || Zach Provo || Andrew V. McLaglen ||align="center"| |- | ''Midway'' || Capt. Vinton Maddox || Jack Smight ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="2" |1977 || ''White Rock'' || Narrator || Tony Maylam ||align="center"| |- | ''Cross of Iron'' || Sergeant Rolf Steiner || Sam Peckinpah ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="2" |1978 || ''California Suite'' || Pilot || Herbert Ross || Uncredited |- | ''The Dain Curse'' || Hamilton Nash || E.W. Swackhamer ||TV Mini-series |- | rowspan="4" |1979 || ''Speed Fever'' || Narrator || Ottavio Fabbri ||align="center"| |- | ''Firepower'' || Fanon || Michael Winner ||align="center"| |- | ''The Muppet Movie'' || Owner of El Sleezo Cafe || James Frawley || Cameo appearance |- | ''Goldengirl'' || Jack Dryden || Joseph Sargent ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="3" |1980 || ''The Baltimore Bullet'' || Nick Casey || Robert Ellis Miller ||align="center"| |- | ''Loving Couples'' || Walter || Jack Smight ||align="center"| |- | ''Mr. Patman'' || Patman || John Guillermin ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="2" |1981 || ''High Risk'' || Serrano || Stewart Raffill ||align="center"| |- | ''Looker'' || John Reston || Michael Crichton ||align="center"| |- | 1984 || ''Draw!'' || Sam Starret || Steven Hilliard Stern ||align="center"| |- | 1985 || ''Martin's Day'' || Lt. Lardner || Alan Gibson ||align="center"| |- | 1986 || ''Death of a Soldier'' || Maj. Patrick Dannenberg || Philippe Mora ||align="center"| |- | 1988 || ''Walking After Midnight'' || Himself || Jonathon Kay ||align="center"| |- | 1989 || ''Call from Space'' || || Richard Fleischer ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="2" |1990 || ''Train to Heaven'' || Gregorius || Torgny Anderberg || |- | ''Young Guns II'' || John Chisum || Geoff Murphy ||align="center"| |- | 1991 || ''Hudson Hawk'' || George Kaplan || Michael Lehmann ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="2" |1992 || ''Mastergate'' || Major Manley Battle || Michael Engler ||align="center"| |- | ''The Player'' || Himself || Robert Altman || Cameo |- | rowspan="3" |1993 || ''Deadfall'' || Mike Donan/Lou Donan || Christopher Coppola ||align="center"| |- | ''Curse of the Dragon'' || Himself || Tom Khun, Fred Weintraub || Documentary |- | ''Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit'' || Mr. Crisp || Bill Duke ||align="center"| |- | 1994 || ''Maverick'' || Commodore Duvall || Richard Donner ||align="center"| |- | 1995 || ''The Set-Up'' || Jeremiah Cole || Strathford Hamilton ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="4" | 1996 || ''Skeletons'' || Frank Jove || David DeCoteau ||align="center"| |- | ''Eraser'' || WitSec Chief Arthur Beller || Chuck Russell ||align="center"| |- | ''The Nutty Professor'' || Harlan Hartley || Tom Shadyac ||align="center"| |- | ''Ben Johnson: Third Cowboy on the Right'' || Himself || Tom Thurman || Documentary |- | rowspan="2" |1997 || ''Keys to Tulsa'' || Harmon Shaw || Leslie Greif ||align="center"| |- | ''The Disappearance Of Kevin Johnson'' || Himself || Francis Megahy ||align="center"| |- | 1998 || ''Affliction'' || Glen Whitehouse || Paul Schrader || Won The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor |- | 1999 || ''Payback'' || Fairfax || Brian Helgeland ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="2" |2000 || ''The Good Doctor'' || Dr. Samuel Roberts || Kenneth Orkin || Short Subject |- | ''Intrepid'' || Captain Hal Josephson || John Putch ||align="center"| |- | rowspan="6" |2001 || ''Proximity'' || Jim Corcoran || Scott Zheil ||align="center"| |- | ''Texas Rangers'' || Narrator || Steve Miner ||align="center"| |- | ''The Yellow Bird'' || Rev. Increase Tutwiler || Faye Dunaway ||align="center"| |- | ''The Man from Elysian Fields'' || Alcott || George Hickenlooper ||align="center"| |- | ''Monsters, Inc.'' || Henry J. Waternoose III || Peter Docter ||align="center"| |- | ''Kurosawa'' || Himself || Adam Low || Documentary |- | rowspan="2" |2002 || ''Snow Dogs'' || James "Thunder Jack" Johnson || Brian Levant ||align="center"| |- | ''American Gun (2002 film)'' || Martin Tillman || Alan Jacobs ||align="center"|

Television[link]

''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' — "The Jokester" (1958)

''State Trooper'' — as Dobie in "Hard Money, Soft Touch" (1959)

''The DuPont Show with June Allyson'' — as Floyd in "The Girl" (1959)

''Perry Mason'' — "The Case of the Envious Editor" (1960); "The Case of the Angry Astronaut" (1962)

''The Rifleman'' — "Young Englishman" (1958); "The High Country" (1961)

''Tales of Wells Fargo'' — "Butch Cassidy" (1958); "The Wayfarers" (1962)

''Trackdown'' — "Hard Lines" (1959)

''Tombstone Territory'' — "The Gunfighter" (1959)

''Bat Masterson'' — "The Black Pearls" (1959); "Six Feet of Gold" (1961)

''Wanted: Dead or Alive'' — "Reunion For Revenge", "The Kovack Affair" (1959); "The Trial" (1960)

''Bronco'' — "Payroll of the Dead" (1959); "Shadow of Jesse James" (1960)

''Have Gun Will Travel'' — "One Came Back" (1959); "The Gladiators" (1960)

''Klondike'' (1960–1961)

''Peter Gunn'' — "The Murder Clause" (1960)

''Lawman'' — "The Catcher", "The Showdown" (1960)

''The Deputy'' — "The Truly Yours" (1960)

''Acapulco'' (1961) (canceled after 8 episodes)

''The Brothers Brannagan'' as Dell in "Death is Not Deductible" (1961)

''The Outlaws'' — "Culley" (1961)

''Laramie'' — "The Mark of the Maneaters" (1961)

''Cheyenne'' — "Trouble Street" (1961)

''Bonanza'' — "The Truckee Strip" (1959); "The Dark Gate" (1961)

''The Untouchables (1959 TV series)'' — "The Jamaica Ginger Story - S2E44" (1961)

''Perry Mason'' — "The Case of the Envious Editor" (1961); "The Case of the Angry Astronaut" (1962)

''Checkmate (TV series)'' — "A Chant of Silence" (1962)

''Rawhide'' — "The Hostage Child" (1962)

''Combat!'' — "Masquerade" (1963)

''The Twilight Zone'' — "The Old Man in the Cave" (1963)

''The Greatest Show On Earth'' (1963) — "Uncaged"

''The Eleventh Hour'' (1963) — as Steve Kowlowski in "Oh, You Shouldn't Have Done It"

''Stoney Burke'' — "The Test" (1963)

''Route 66'' — "Kiss the Monster, Make Him Sleep" (1964)

''The Defenders'' — "The Man Who Saved His Country" (1964)

''Bracken's World'' — "Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon" (1970)

''The Dain Curse'' (1978) (miniseries)

''The Muppet Show'' (1980)

''Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls'' (1981)

''Darkroom'' (1981–1982)

''Explorer, 13 one-Hour co-hosted with producer, director by Douchan Gersi'' (1981)

''Malibu'' (1983)

''Draw!'' (1984)

''Faerie Tale Theatre'' — "Pinocchio" (1984) - The Gypsy

''Sins of the Father'' (1985)

''The Edge and Beyond'' (1988–1990) (narrator)

''The Infinite Voyage'' (host from 1990–1991)

''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'' (voice-over cast member from 1990–1993)

''Silverfox'' (1991) (pilot)

''Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232'' (1990)

''Hollywood Stuntmakers'' [1991] host

''Murder, She Wrote'' — "Day of the Dead" (1992)

''National Lampoon's True Facts'' (1992)

''The Fifth Corner'' (1992) (canceled after 2)

''Christmas Reunion'' (1993)

''The Hit List'' (1993)

''Mike & Spike'' (1994-) as Horsecup

''Greyhounds'' (1994) (pilot)

''The Avenging Angel'' (1995)

''Picket Fences'' — "Upbringings" (1995)

''Ray Alexander: A Menu for Murder'' (1995)

''The Cherokee Kid'' (1996)

''The Second Civil War'' (1997)

''Profiler'' — "Shadow of Angels" (1997)

''Mr. Murder'' (1998)

''Noah's Ark'' (1999)

''Vengeance Unlimited'' — "Judgment" (1999)

''Shake, Rattle & Roll: An American Love Story'' (1999)

''Missing Pieces'' (2000)

''Walter and Henry'' (2001)

''Arli$$'' (2002) — "The Immortal"

''Shark Chronicles'' (1991) (Narrator; re-broadcast in 1995 for Discovery Channel's "Shark Week")

References[link]

External links[link]

James Harrison Coburn III - Swedish ancestors (Family tree and text in Swedish).

Category:Actors from Nebraska Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:People from Compton, California Category:Spaghetti Western actors Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:Western (genre) film actors Category:1928 births Category:2002 deaths Category:Stella Adler Studio of Acting alumni

an:James Coburn bn:জেমস কোবার্ন bg:Джеймс Кобърн bs:James Coburn ca:James Coburn cs:James Coburn da:James Coburn de:James Coburn et:James Coburn es:James Coburn eu:James Coburn fa:جیمز کابرن fr:James Coburn hr:James Coburn id:James Coburn it:James Coburn he:ג'יימס קובורן hu:James Coburn nl:James Coburn ja:ジェームズ・コバーン no:James Coburn nds:James Coburn pl:James Coburn pt:James Coburn ro:James Coburn ru:Кобурн, Джеймс simple:James Coburn sk:James Coburn sr:Џејмс Коберн sh:James Coburn fi:James Coburn sv:James Coburn tl:James Coburn th:เจมส์ โคเบิร์น yo:James Coburn zh:詹姆士·柯本

name	Diane Venora
birth name
birth date
birth place	East Hartford, Connecticut
education	The Juilliard School (1977)
occupation	actress
years active	1980–present
spouse	}}

Diane Venora (born August 10, 1952) is an American stage, television, and film actress.

Early life and education[link]

Venora was born in East Hartford, Connecticut, one of six children of Marie (Brooks) and Robert P. Venora, who owned a dry cleaning establishment. Diane graduated from East Hartford High School (class of 1970), during which she was active in musicals and plays. She studied at Boston Conservatory of Music and two years later won a scholarship to The Juilliard School in New York City, where she graduated in 1977. At Juilliard she was a member of the Drama Department's (1973–1977), which also included Kelsey Grammer, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Robin Williams.

Career[link]

After graduation, Venora performed extensively on the stage, particularly in Shakespearean plays.

She made her film debut alongside Albert Finney and Gregory Hines in ''Wolfen'' (1981). In 1983, she starred in Joseph Papp's production of ''Hamlet'' at the New York Shakespeare Festival in the lead role, the first woman to play the role at the prestigious showcase. She has a long history with Hamlet, having played the title role, having played Ophelia opposite Kevin Kline, and having played Gertrude onscreen opposite Ethan Hawke.

In 1988, her critically acclaimed performance in Clint Eastwood's biographical feature of jazz great Charlie Parker, ''Bird'', as Chan Parker, his wife, earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination and the New York Film Critics Circle Award.

In 1994, after taking five years off to care for her daughter, Venora landed a starring role in the ABC TV series ''Thunder Alley'' (playing Ed Asner's character's daughter), followed by a recurring role as plastic surgeon Geri Infante in the Emmy-winning TV series ''Chicago Hope''.

In 1995, she starred opposite Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in ''Heat'', earning high regard from both critics and audiences for her portrayal of Justine Hanna, the Pacino character's troubled wife. That performance and her follow-up as Juliet's mother, Gloria Capulet, in ''Romeo + Juliet'' (1996) earned her supporting roles in ''The Jackal'' (1997), ''The 13th Warrior'' (1999), and ''The Insider'' (1999). She was most recently seen in the 2010 film, ''All Good Things''.

Personal life[link]

Venora was married to cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak in 1980; the couple divorced in 1989. She quit show business in 1989 to spend more time with her daughter Madzia, then eight years old. During her hiatus, Venora lived in New York, teaching disadvantaged children and acting in an occasional play. In 1994, Venora and her daughter moved to Los Angeles.

References[link]

External links[link]

Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:American film actors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:Actors from Connecticut Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:People from Hartford County, Connecticut

de:Diane Venora fr:Diane Venora gl:Diane Venora it:Diane Venora he:דיאן ונורה ja:ダイアン・ヴェノーラ pt:Diane Venora fi:Diane Venora

name	Audrey Hepburn
birth name	Audrey Kathleen Ruston
birth date	May 04, 1929
birth place
death date	January 20, 1993
death place
death cause	Appendiceal cancer
resting place	Tolochenaz Cemetery, Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland
occupation	Actress, humanitarian
years active	1948–1992
nationality	British
other names
website
spouse
partner
children
parents
awards	List of awards and honours
signature	Audrey Hepburn signature.svg }}

Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time who was ranked as the third greatest female screen legend in the history of American cinema. Remembered as both a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century, Hepburn redefined glamour with "elfin" features and a gamine waif-like figure that inspired designs by Givenchy and earned her place in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.

Born in Ixelles, a district of Brussels, Hepburn spent her childhood between Belgium, England and the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem during the Second World War, where she studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell in Amsterdam before moving to London in 1948 to continue ballet training with Marie Rambert and perform as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions.

After appearing in several British films and starring in the 1951 Broadway play ''Gigi'', Hepburn gained instant Hollywood stardom for playing the Academy Award-winning lead role in ''Roman Holiday'' (1953). Later performing in ''Sabrina'' (1954), ''The Nun's Story'' (1959), ''Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961), ''Charade'' (1963), ''My Fair Lady'' (1964) and ''Wait Until Dark'' (1967), Hepburn became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age who received Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations and accrued a Tony Award for her theatrical performance in the 1954 Broadway play ''Ondine''. Hepburn remains one of few people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards.

She appeared in fewer films as her life went on, devoting much of her later life to UNICEF. Her war-time struggles inspired her passion for humanitarian work and, although contributing to the organisation since 1954, she worked in some of the most profoundly disadvantaged communities of Africa, South America and Asia between 1988 and 1992. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in late 1992, but a month later, aged 63, Hepburn died of appendiceal cancer at her home in Switzerland in early 1993.

Early life [link]

Audrey Hepburn was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston on 4 May 1929 on Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, a municipality in Brussels in Belgium. Her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston (1889–1980), was born in Úžice, Bohemia to a father of British Isles and Austrian descent and an Austrian mother. Ruston had earlier been married to Cornelia Bisschop, a Dutch heiress he met in the Dutch East Indies. Although born Ruston, he later double-barrelled the surname to the more "aristocratic" Hepburn-Ruston, mistakenly believing himself descended from James Hepburn, third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Her mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra (1900–1984), was a Dutch aristocrat and the daughter of Aarnoud van Heemstra, who was mayor of Arnhem from 1910 to 1920 and served as Governor of Suriname from 1921 to 1928. Ella's mother was Elbrig Willemine Henriette, Baroness van Asbeck (1873-1939), who was a granddaughter of Dirk van Hogendorp. At age nineteen, Ella had married the knight Hendrik Gustaaf Adolf Quarles van Ufford, but they divorced in 1925. Hepburn had two half-brothers from this marriage: Jonkheer Arnoud Robert Alexander "Alex" Quarles van Ufford (1920–1979) and Jonkheer Ian Edgar Bruce Quarles van Ufford (1924–2010).

Ruston and van Heemstra married in Batavia in September 1926. They moved back to Europe, to Ixelles in Belgium, where Hepburn was born in 1929. In January 1932 the family moved on to Linkebeek, a nearby Brussels municipality. Although born in Belgium, Hepburn had British citizenship through her father. Because of her mother's family in the Netherlands and her father's job with a British company, the family often travelled between the three countries. With her multinational background, she had a talent for languages ​​and went on to speak fluent English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian. Hepburn was a playful and imaginative child who discovered a passion for ballet by the age of 5, loved to read and was nicknamed "Monkey Puzzle" by her father.

Childhood and adolescence in World War II [link]

Hepburn's parents were members of the British Union of Fascists in the mid-1930s, with her father becoming a true Nazi sympathiser. After her mother discovered him in bed with the nanny of her children, Hepburn's father left the family abruptly. In the 1960s, Hepburn would finally locate him again in Dublin through the Red Cross. Although he remained emotionally detached, his daughter remained in contact and supported him financially until his death.

After Joseph had left in 1935, Ella van Heemstra took her children home to Arnhem, though her sons spent much time with their father in The Hague. Ella and Audrey moved to Kent in 1937, where Hepburn was educated at a tiny independent girls' school in the village of Elham, run by the sisters Rigden and then attended by about 14 children. In September 1939, her mother relocated her back home in Arnhem, in the belief that, like in the First World War, the Netherlands would remain neutral and be spared a German attack. Whilst there, Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to 1945 where, in addition to the standard school curriculum, she trained in ballet with Winja Marova. After the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Hepburn adopted the pseudonym Edda van Heemstra, a derivative of her mother's name Ella, because an "English sounding" name was considered dangerous during the German occupation. In 1942, her uncle Otto van Limburg Stirum, husband of Ella's older sister Miesje, was executed in retaliation for a sabotage by the resistance movement, while her half-brother Jan was deported to Berlin to work in a German labour camp (Alex went into hiding to avoid the same fate). After this, Ella, Miesje and Audrey moved in with Baron van Heemstra in nearby Velp. During her wartime struggles, Hepburn suffered from malnutrition, developed acute anæmia, respiratory problems, and œdema. Hepburn, in a retrospective interview, commented, "I have memories. More than once I was at the station seeing trainloads of Jews being transported, seeing all these faces over the top of the wagon. I remember, very sharply, one little boy standing with his parents on the platform, very pale, very blond, wearing a coat that was much too big for him, and he stepped on to the train. I was a child observing a child."

Notwithstanding such strife, by 1944, Hepburn had become a proficient ballerina. She had secretly danced for groups of people to collect money for the Dutch resistance. "The best audience I ever had made not a single sound at the end of my performances," she remarked. After the Allied landing on D-Day, living conditions grew worse and Arnhem was subsequently devastated by Allied artillery fire under Operation Market Garden. During the Dutch famine that followed in the winter of 1944, the Germans had blocked the resupply routes of the Netherlands' already-limited food and fuel supplies as retaliation for railway strikes that were held to hinder German occupation. People starved and froze to death in the streets; Hepburn and many others resorted to making flour out of tulip bulbs to bake cakes and biscuits. One way that Hepburn passed the time was by drawing; some of her childhood artwork can be seen today. When the country was liberated, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration trucks followed. Hepburn said in an interview that she fell ill from putting too much sugar in her oatmeal and eating an entire can of condensed milk. Hepburn's war-time experiences sparked her devotion to UNICEF, an international humanitarian organisation, in her later career.

Career [link]

Career beginnings and early roles [link]

After the war ended in 1945, Ella and Audrey moved to Amsterdam, where Hepburn took ballet lessons for three years with Sonia Gaskell, arguably the leading figure in Dutch ballet. In 1948 she appeared for the first time on film, as an air stewardess in an educational travel film made by Charles van der Linden and Henry Josephson, ''Dutch in Seven Lessons''. Gaskell provided an introduction to Marie Rambert, and in 1948 Hepburn traveled with her mother to London to study ballet at the Ballet Rambert. She supported herself with part-time work as a model. Around that time she decided to drop "Ruston" from her double-barreled surname. When Hepburn asked Rambert about her future, Rambert assured her that she could continue to work there and have a great career, but her relatively tall height of coupled with her poor nutrition during the war would keep her from becoming a prima ballerina. Hepburn trusted Rambert's assessment and decided to pursue acting: a career in which she at least had the chance to excel. After becoming a star, Rambert said of Hepburn, "She was a wonderful learner. If she had wanted to persevere, she might have become an outstanding ballerina."

Hepburn's mother worked menial jobs in order to support them but Hepburn needed to find employment. Since she had trained in theatre all her life, working as a London chorus girl seemed sensible. "I needed the money; it paid ₤3 more than ballet jobs." She performed in the musical theatre revues ''High Button Shoes'' (1948) at the London Hippodrome and Cecil Landeau's ''Sauce Tartare'' (1949) and ''Sauce Piquante'' (1950) at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End. Her theatrical work, however, revealed that her voice was not strong and needed to be developed. Hepburn, therefore, took elocution lessons with the actor Felix Aylmer. After being spotted by a scout for Paramount Pictures on stage, Hepburn registered with the casting officers of British film studios while working in the West End and appeared in minor roles in the 1951 films ''One Wild Oat'', ''Laughter in Paradise'', ''Young Wives' Tale'' and ''The Lavender Hill Mob''. Hepburn's first significant film performance was in Thorold Dickinson's ''The Secret People'' (1952), in which she played a prodigious ballerina and performed all of her own dancing sequences. Noticed by the French novelist Colette when on the set of ''Monte Carlo Baby'' (1951), Hepburn was also chosen to play the title character in the Broadway play ''Gigi''. Upon first sight of Hepburn, Colette whispered, "Voilà," indicating Hepburn, "there's your Gigi." Opening on 24 November 1951 at the Fulton Theatre, the play ran for 219 performances finishing on 31 May 1952. Hepburn's debut on Broadway earned her a Theatre World Award.

''Roman Holiday'' and increased popularity [link]

In the Italian-set ''Roman Holiday'' (1953), a film she would later call her dearest movie, Hepburn had her first starring role as Princess Ann, an incognito European princess who, escaping the reins of royalty, falls in love with an American newsman (Gregory Peck). While producers initially wanted Elizabeth Taylor for the role, director William Wyler was so impressed by Hepburn's screen test that he cast her in the lead. Unbeknownst that she was still being filmed after the screen test, Hepburn displayed her ability as she candidly answered questions, relaxed and completely unaware. Wyler later commented, "She had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence and talent. She also was very funny. She was absolutely enchanting and we said, 'That's the girl!'" Originally, the film was to have had only Gregory Peck's name above its title in large font while she would receive "Introducing Audrey Hepburn" beneath though Peck suggested to Wyler that he elevate her to equal billing so her name appeared before the title and in type as large as his: "You've got to change that because she'll be a big star and I'll look like a big jerk."

Peck was correct. Hepburn garnered critical and commercial acclaim for her portrayal and supplemented the unexpected Academy Award for Best Actress with her first BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and only Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama in 1953. A. H. Weiler noted in ''The New York Times'' that although "she is not precisely a newcomer to films, [Hepburn] the British actress who is being starred for the first time as Princess Ann, is a slender, elfin and wistful beauty, alternately regal and childlike in her profound appreciation of newly found, simple pleasures and love. Although she bravely smiles her acknowledgement of the end of that affair, she remains a pitifully lonely figure facing a stuffy future." Due to the instant celebrity that came with the film, she was signed to a seven-picture contract with Paramount with twelve months in between films to allow her time for stage work while spawning what became known as the Audrey Hepburn "look" after her illustration was placed on the September 1953 cover of ''TIME'' magazine.

Following her success in ''Roman Holiday'', she starred in Billy Wilder's romantic Cinderella-story comedy ''Sabrina'' (1954) in which wealthy brothers (Humphrey Bogart and William Holden) compete for the affections of their chauffeur's innocent daughter (Hepburn). For her performance, she was nominated for the 1954 Academy Award for Best Actress while winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role the same year. Bosley Crowther of ''The New York Times'' labeled Hepburn "a young lady of extraordinary range of sensitive and moving expressions within such a frail and slender frame" concluding that "she is even more luminous as the daughter and pet of the servants' hall than she was as a princess last year." The uncredited Hubert de Givenchy was responsible for many of Hepburn's outfits in the film. Initially disappointed, Givenchy noted that, upon being told that the actress would be "Miss Hepburn", he had expected Katharine Hepburn. When faced with this actress, he told Hepburn he had little time to spare. Nevertheless, she knew exactly how she wanted to look and asked to view his latest collection. Their collaboration in ''Sabrina'' formed a life-long friendship and partnership; she was often a muse for many of his designs and her style became renowned internationally.

Beginning another collaboration that year, this time with actor Mel Ferrer, she starred in the fantasy play ''Ondine'' on Broadway. With her lithe and lean frame, Hepburn made a convincing water spirit named Ondine in this sad story about love found and lost with a human (Ferrer). A ''New York Times'' critic commented, "Somehow Miss Hepburn is able to translate [its intangibles] into the language of the theatre without artfulness or precociousness. She gives a pulsing performance that is all grace and enchantment, disciplined by an instinct for the realities of the stage." While the leading characters in the play grow apart, the actors found themselves becoming closer. Hepburn and Ferrer got married on September 25, 1954, in Switzerland; their sometimes tumultuous partnership would last for the better part of the next fifteen years. Her performance won her the 1954 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, the same year she won the Academy Award for ''Roman Holiday''. Hepburn, therefore, stands as one of three actresses to receive the Academy and Tony Awards for Best Actress in the same year (the others being Shirley Booth and Ellen Burstyn). By the mid-1950s, Hepburn was vastly becoming one of the biggest motion picture stars in Hollywood and received the Golden Globe for World Film Favorite – Female in 1955, but also a major fashion influence. Her gamine and elfin appearance and widely recognised sense of chic were both admired and imitated. Hepburn was asked to play Anne Frank's counterpart in both the Broadway and film adaptations of Frank's life. Hepburn, however, who was born the same year as Frank, found herself "emotionally incapable" of the task, and at almost thirty years old, too old. The role was eventually given to Susan Strasberg and Millie Perkins in the play and film respectively.

Having become one of Hollywood's most popular box-office attractions, she went on to star in a series of successful films during the remainder of the decade, including her BAFTA- and Golden Globe-nominated role as Natasha Rostova in ''War and Peace'' (1956), an adaptation of the Tolstoy novel set during the Napoleonic wars with Henry Fonda and husband Mel Ferrer. In 1957, she exhibited her dancing abilities in her debut musical film ''Funny Face'' (1957) where Fred Astaire, a fashion photographer, discovers a beatnik bookstore clerk (Hepburn), who, lured by a free trip to Paris, becomes a beautiful model. The same year Hepburn starred in another romantic comedy, ''Love in the Afternoon'', alongside Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier. Yet, she stepped away from lighthearted fare when she played Sister Luke in ''The Nun's Story'' (1959), which focuses on the character's struggle to succeed as a nun alongside co-star Peter Finch. The role accrued her third Academy Award nomination and earned her a second BAFTA Award. A review in ''Variety'' said "Hepburn has her most demanding film role, and she gives her finest performance." ''Films in Review'' stated that her performance "will forever silence those who have thought her less an actress than a symbol of the sophisticated child/woman. Her portrayal of Sister Luke is one of the great performances of the screen." Reportedly, she spent hours in convents and with members of the Church to bring truth to her portrayal: "I gave more time, energy and thought to this than to any of my previous screen performances." Following this, she received lukewarm reception for starring with Anthony Perkins in the romantic adventure ''Green Mansions'' (1959) where she plays – "with grace and dignity" – the "ethereal" Rima, a jungle girl, who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller played by Perkins and ''The Unforgiven'' (1960), her only western film, where she appears "a bit too polished, too fragile and civilized among such tough and stubborn types" of Burt Lancaster and Lillian Gish in a story of racism against a group of Native Americans.

''Breakfast at Tiffany's'' and continued stardom [link]

Three months after the birth of her son, Sean, in 1960, Hepburn began work on Blake Edwards' ''Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961), a film very loosely based on the Truman Capote novella. The film was drastically changed from the original version. Capote disapproved of many changes and proclaimed that Hepburn was "grossly miscast" as Holly Golightly, a quirky New York call girl, a role he had envisioned for Marilyn Monroe. Hepburn's portrayal of Golightly was adapted from the original: "I can't play a hooker," she admitted to Marty Jurow, co-producer of the film. Despite the lack of sexual innuendo in her character, her portrayal was nominated for the 1961 Academy Award for Best Actress and became an iconic character in American cinema. Often considered her defining role, Holly Golightly, Hepburn's high fashion style and sophistication within the film became synonymous with her. She named the role "the jazziest of my career" yet admitted that, "I'm an introvert. Playing the extroverted girl was the hardest thing I ever did." The little black dress which is worn by Hepburn in the beginning of the film is cited as one of the most iconic items of clothing in the history of the twentieth century and perhaps the most famous little black dress of all time.

Playing opposite Shirley MacLaine and James Garner, her next role in William Wyler's lesbian-themed drama ''The Children's Hour'' (1961) saw Hepburn and MacLaine play teachers whose lives become troubled after a student accuses them of being lesbians. The film was one of Hollywood's earliest treatments of the subject of lesbianism, and perhaps due to the illiberal state of society, the film and Hepburn's performance went seemingly unnoticed both critically and commercially. Bosley Crowther of ''The New York Times'', however, noted that "it is not too well acted" with the exception of Hepburn who "gives the impression of being sensitive and pure" of its "muted theme" while ''Variety'' magazine also complimented Hepburn's "soft sensitivity, marvellous projection and emotional understatement" adding that Hepburn and MacLaine "beautifully complement each other."

Her only film with Cary Grant came in the comic thriller ''Charade'' (1963). Hepburn, who plays Regina Lampert, finds herself pursued by several men who chase the fortune her murdered husband had stolen. The role earned her third and final competitive BAFTA Award and accrued another Golden Globe nomination though critic Bosley Crowther was less kind: "Hepburn is cheerfully committed to a mood of how-nuts-can-you-be in an obviously comforting assortment of expensive Givenchy costumes." Grant (59 years old at the time), who had previously withdrawn from the starring male lead roles in ''Roman Holiday'' and ''Sabrina'', was sensitive about the age difference between Hepburn (at age 34) and him, making him uncomfortable about the romantic interplay. To satisfy his concerns, the filmmakers agreed to change the screenplay so that Hepburn's character would be the one to romantically pursue his. Grant, however, loved to humour Hepburn and once said, "All I want for Christmas is another picture with Audrey Hepburn."

''Paris When It Sizzles'' (1964) reteamed Hepburn with William Holden nearly ten years after ''Sabrina''. The Parisian-set screwball comedy, called "marshmallow-weight hokum", was "uniformly panned" but critics were kind to Hepburn's creation of Gabrielle Simpson, the young assistant of a Hollywood screenwriter (Holden) who aids his writer's block by acting out his fantasies of possible plots, describing her as "a refreshingly individual creature in an era of the exaggerated curve." Critical reception was worsened by a number of problems that plagued the set behind the scenes. Holden tried, without success, to rekindle a romance with the now-married actress; that, combined with his alcoholism made the situation a challenge. Hepburn, after principal photography began, demanded the dismissal of cinematographer Claude Renoir after seeing what she felt were unflattering dailies. Superstitious, she also insisted on dressing room 55 because that was her lucky number (she had dressing room 55 for ''Roman Holiday'' and ''Breakfast at Tiffany’s'') and required that Givenchy, her long-time designer, be given a credit in the film for her perfume.

"Not since ''Gone with the Wind'' has a motion picture created such universal excitement as ''My Fair Lady''," wrote ''Soundstage'' magazine in 1964, yet Hepburn's landing the role of Eliza Doolittle in the 1964 George Cukor film adaptation of the stage musical sparked controversy. Julie Andrews, who had originated the role in the stage show, had not been offered the part because producer Jack Warner thought Hepburn or Elizabeth Taylor more "bankable" propositions. Initially refusing, Hepburn asked Warner to give it to Andrews but, eventually, Hepburn was cast. Further friction was created when, although non-singer Hepburn had sung with "throaty charm" in ''Funny Face'' and had lengthy vocal preparation for the role in ''My Fair Lady'', her vocals were dubbed by Marni Nixon. A dubber was required because Eliza Doolittle's songs were not transposed down to accommodate Hepburn's "low-mezzo voice" (as Nixon referred to it). Upset, when first informed, she walked out. She returned the next day and apologized to everybody for her "wicked behavior". Although Hepburn had lip synced to her recorded tracks during filming, Nixon looped her vocals in post-production and was given multiple attempts to match Hepburn's lip movements precisely. Overall, about 90% of her singing was dubbed despite being promised that most of her vocals would be used. Hepburn's voice remains in one line in "I Could Have Danced All Night", in the first verse of "Just You Wait", and in the entirety of its reprise in addition to sing-talking in parts of "The Rain in Spain" in the finished film. When asked about the dubbing of an actress with such distinctive vocal tones, Hepburn frowned and said, "You could tell, couldn't you? And there was Rex, recording all his songs as he acted ... next time —" She bit her lip to prevent her saying more. She later admitted that she would have never have accepted the role knowing that Warner intended to have nearly all of her singing dubbed. The controversy reached its height when, despite the film's accumulation of eight out of a possible twelve awards at the 37th Academy Awards, Hepburn was left nomination-less in the Best Actress category. Julie Andrews, however, was nominated for her efforts in ''Mary Poppins'' (1964), and won it. The media tried to play up a rivalry between the two actresses, even though both women denied any such bad feelings existed and got along well. Despite such strife, many critics greatly applauded Hepburn's "exquisite" performance. "The happiest thing about [''My Fair Lady'']," wrote Bosley Crowther in The New York Times "is that Audrey Hepburn superbly justifies the decision of Jack Warner to get her to play the title role." Her co-star Rex Harrison, who played Professor Higgins, also called Hepburn his favourite leading lady and Gene Ringgold of ''Soundstage'' also commented that "Audrey Hepburn is magnificent. She is Eliza for the ages," while adding, "Everyone agreed that if Julie Andrews was not to be in the film, Audrey Hepburn was the perfect choice."

As the decade carried on, Hepburn appeared in an assortment of genres including the heist comedy ''How to Steal a Million'' (1966) where she played Nicole, the daughter of a famous art collector whose collection consists entirely of forgeries. Fearing her father's exposure, Nicole sets out to steal one of his priceless statues with the help of Simon Dermott (Peter O'Toole). In 1967, she starred in two films; the first being ''Two for the Road'', a non-linear and innovative British dramedy that traces the course of a couple's troubled marriage. Director Stanley Donen said that Hepburn was more free and happy than he had ever seen her, and he credited that to co-star Albert Finney. The second, ''Wait Until Dark'', is a suspense thriller in which Hepburn demonstrated her acting range by playing the part of a terrorised blind woman. Filmed on the brink of divorce, it was a difficult film considering husband Mel Ferrer was its producer and she lost fifteen pounds under the stress, but she found solace in co-star Richard Crenna and director Terence Young. Hepburn earned her fifth and final competitive Academy Award nomination for Best Actress; Bosley Crawther affirmed, "Hepburn plays the poignant role, the quickness with which she changes and the skill with which she manifests terror attract sympathy and anxiety to her and give her genuine solidity in the final scenes."

Final entertainment-related projects [link]

From 1967 onward, after fifteen highly successful years in film, Hepburn decided to devote more time to her family and acted only occasionally. She attempted a comeback in 1976, co-starring with Sean Connery, in the period piece ''Robin and Marian'', which was moderately successful. In 1979, Hepburn took the lead role of Elizabeth Roffe in the international production of ''Bloodline'', re-teaming with director Terence Young (''Wait Until Dark''). She shared top billing with co-stars Ben Gazzara, James Mason and Romy Schneider. Author Sidney Sheldon revised his novel when it was reissued to tie into the film, making her character a much older woman to better match the actress's age. The film, an international intrigue amid the jet-set, was a critical and box office failure. Hepburn's last starring role in a cinematic film was with Ben Gazzara in the 1981 comedy ''They All Laughed'', directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film was overshadowed by the murder of one of its stars, Bogdanovich's girlfriend, Dorothy Stratten; the film was released after Stratten's death but only in limited runs. In 1987, she co-starred with Robert Wagner in a tongue-in-cheek made-for-television caper film, ''Love Among Thieves'', which borrowed elements from several of Hepburn's films, most notably ''Charade'' and ''How to Steal a Million''.

After finishing her last role in a motion picture in 1988, a cameo appearance as an angel in Steven Spielberg's ''Always'', Hepburn completed only two more entertainment-related projects, both critically acclaimed. ''Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn'' was a PBS documentary television series, her final performance before cameras filmed on location in seven countries in the spring and summer of 1990. A one-hour special preceded the series, debuting in March 1991, while the series commenced the day after her death (21 January 1993). For the series's debut, Hepburn was posthumously awarded the 1993 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming. Recorded in 1992, her spoken word album, ''Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales'', features readings of classic children's stories and earned her a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. She remains one of the few entertainers to win Grammy and Emmy Awards posthumously.

Contributions to UNICEF [link]

Hepburn was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. Then-United States president George H. W. Bush presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work with UNICEF, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences posthumously awarded her the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her contribution to humanity, with her son accepting on her behalf. Grateful for her own good fortune after enduring the German occupation as a child, she dedicated the remainder of her life to helping impoverished children in the poorest nations. Hepburn's travels were made easier by her wide knowledge of languages; besides being naturally bilingual in English and Dutch, she also was fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, and German.

Though she had done work for UNICEF in the 1950s, starting in 1954 with radio presentations, this was a much higher level of dedication. Those close to her say that the thoughts of dying, helpless children consumed her for the rest of her life. Her first field mission was to Ethiopia in 1988. She visited an orphanage in Mek'ele that housed 500 starving children and had UNICEF send food. Of the trip, she said, "I have a broken heart. I feel desperate. I can't stand the idea that two million people are in imminent danger of starving to death, many of them children, [and] not because there isn't tons of food sitting in the northern port of Shoa. It can't be distributed. Last spring, Red Cross and UNICEF workers were ordered out of the northern provinces because of two simultaneous civil wars... I went into rebel country and saw mothers and their children who had walked for ten days, even three weeks, looking for food, settling onto the desert floor into makeshift camps where they may die. Horrible. That image is too much for me. The 'Third World' is a term I don't like very much, because we're all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering."

In August 1988, Hepburn went to Turkey on an immunisation campaign. She called Turkey "the loveliest example" of UNICEF's capabilities. Of the trip, she said, "the army gave us their trucks, the fishmongers gave their wagons for the vaccines, and once the date was set, it took ten days to vaccinate the whole country. Not bad." In October, Hepburn went to South America. In Venezuela and Ecuador, Hepburn told the United States Congress, "I saw tiny mountain communities, slums, and shantytowns receive water systems for the first time by some miracle – and the miracle is UNICEF. I watched boys build their own schoolhouse with bricks and cement provided by UNICEF." Hepburn toured Central America in February 1989, and met with leaders in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. In April, she visited Sudan with Wolders as part of a mission called "Operation Lifeline". Because of civil war, food from aid agencies had been cut off. The mission was to ferry food to southern Sudan. Hepburn said, "I saw but one glaring truth: These are not natural disasters but man-made tragedies for which there is only one man-made solution – peace." In October, Hepburn and Wolders went to Bangladesh. John Isaac, a UN photographer, said, "Often the kids would have flies all over them, but she would just go hug them. I had never seen that. Other people had a certain amount of hesitation, but she would just grab them. Children would just come up to hold her hand, touch her – she was like the Pied Piper." In October 1990, Hepburn went to Vietnam in an effort to collaborate with the government for national UNICEF-supported immunisation and clean water programmes.

In September 1992, four months before she died, Hepburn went to Somalia. Calling it "apocalyptic", she said, "I walked into a nightmare. I have seen famine in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, but I have seen nothing like this – so much worse than I could possibly have imagined. I wasn't prepared for this." "The earth is red – an extraordinary sight – that deep terracotta red. And you see the villages, displacement camps and compounds, and the earth is all rippled around them like an ocean bed. And those were the graves. There are graves everywhere. Along the road, around the paths that you take, along the riverbeds, near every camp – there are graves everywhere." Though scarred by what she had seen, Hepburn still had hope. "Taking care of children has nothing to do with politics. I think perhaps with time, instead of there being a politicisation of humanitarian aid, there will be a humanisation of politics." "Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist. I have seen the miracle of water which UNICEF has helped to make a reality. Where for centuries young girls and women had to walk for miles to get water, now they have clean drinking water near their homes. Water is life, and clean water now means health for the children of this village." "People in these places don't know Audrey Hepburn, but they recognise the name UNICEF. When they see UNICEF their faces light up, because they know that something is happening. In the Sudan, for example, they call a water pump UNICEF."

Personal life [link]

Romances, marriages, children and miscarriages [link]

In 1952, Hepburn was engaged to the young James Hanson, whom she had known since her London dancing days. She called it "love at first sight"; however, after having her wedding dress fitted and the date set, she decided the marriage would not work because the demands of their careers would keep them apart most of the time. She issued a statement about her decision, saying, "When I get married, I want to be ''really'' married." In the early 1950s, she also dated future ''Hair'' producer Michael Butler. Hepburn and Gregory Peck bonded during the filming of ''Roman Holiday'' (1953) and there were rumours that they were romantically involved; both denied it. Hepburn, however, added, "Actually, you have to be a little bit in love with your leading man and vice versa. If you're going to portray love, you have to feel it. You can't do it any other way. But you don't carry it beyond the set." They did however become lifelong friends. During the filming of ''Sabrina'' (1954), Hepburn and the already-married William Holden became romantically involved. She hoped to marry him and have children, but she broke off the relationship when Holden revealed that he had undergone a vasectomy. Although a common perception that Bogart and Hepburn (both starred in ''Sabrina'' together) did not get along, Hepburn commented that, "Sometimes it's the so-called 'tough guys' that are the most tender hearted, as Bogey was with me."

At a cocktail party hosted by Gregory Peck, Hepburn met American actor Mel Ferrer. Ferrer recalled that, "We began talking about theatre; she knew all about the La Jolla Playhouse Summer Theatre, where Greg Peck and I had been co-producing plays. She also said she'd seen me three times in the movie ''Lili''. Finally, she said she'd like to do a play with me, and she asked me to send her a likely play if I found one." Ferrer, vying for Hepburn to take the title role, sent her the script for the play ''Ondine''. She agreed and rehearsals started in January 1954. Eight months later, on 25 September 1954, after meeting, working together and falling in love, the pair were married while preparing to star together in the film ''War and Peace'' (1955). Before having their only son, Hepburn had two miscarriages in March 1955 and in 1959. The latter occurred when filming ''The Unforgiven'' (1960) where breaking her back after falling off a horse and onto a rock resulted in hospital stay and miscarriage induced by physical and mental stress. Hepburn, therefore, took a year off work in order to successfully have a child. Sean Hepburn Ferrer, their son, whose godfather was the novelist A. J. Cronin who resided near Hepburn in Lucerne, was born on 17 July 1960. Despite the insistence from gossip columns that the marriage would not last, Hepburn claimed that she and her husband were inseparable and very happy together yet admitting that he had a bad temper. Ferrer was rumoured to be too controlling of Hepburn and had been referred to by others as being her Svengali – an accusation that Hepburn laughed off. William Holden was quoted as saying, "I think Audrey allows Mel to think he influences her." After a 14 year marriage, the couple divorced on 5 December 1968. Their son believed that Hepburn had stayed in the marriage too long. In June 2008, Mel Ferrer died of heart failure at the age of ninety.

She met Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti on a cruise and fell in love with him on a trip to Greek ruins. She believed she would have more children, and possibly stop working. She married him on 18 January 1969 at age 40, she gave birth to their son Luca Dotti on 8 February 1970. When pregnant with Luca in 1969, Hepburn was more careful, resting for months and passing the time by painting before delivering him by caesarean section. Hepburn had her final miscarriage in 1974. Although Dotti loved Hepburn and was well liked by Sean, who called him "fun", he began having affairs with younger women. As for herself, Hepburn had a romantic relationship with actor Ben Gazzara during the filming of the 1979 movie ''Bloodline''. The Dotti-Hepburn marriage lasted thirteen years and ended in 1982 when Hepburn felt Luca and Sean were old enough to handle life with a single mother. Although Hepburn broke off all contact with Ferrer (she only spoke to him twice more in the remainder of her life), she remained in touch with Dotti for the benefit of Luca. In October 2007, Andrea Dotti died from complications of a colonoscopy.

From 1980 until her death, Hepburn lived and was romantically involved with Dutch actor Robert Wolders, the widower of actress Merle Oberon. She met Wolders through a friend in the later stage of her marriage to Dotti. The divorce from Dotti finalised, Wolders and Hepburn started their lives together, although they never married. In 1989, she called the nine years she had spent with him the happiest years of her life. "Took me long enough," she said in an interview with American journalist Barbara Walters. Walters then asked why they never married; Hepburn replied that they were married, just not formally.

Death [link]

Upon return from Somalia to Switzerland in late September 1992, Hepburn began suffering from abdominal pains. She went to specialists and received inconclusive results, so decided to have herself examined while on a trip to Los Angeles, California in October. On 1 November, Hepburn checked in at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with her family. Doctors performed a laparoscopy and discovered abdominal cancer that had spread from her appendix, a very rare form of cancer belonging to a group of cancers known as pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP). Having grown slowly over several years, the cancer had metastasised, not as a tumour, but as a thin coating over her small intestine. After surgery, the doctors put Hepburn through 5-fluorouracil Leucovorin chemotherapy. A few days later, she had an obstruction and medication was not enough to dull the pain. She underwent further surgery on 1 December. After one hour, the surgeon decided that the cancer had spread too far to be removed fully, and was inoperable.

After coming to terms with the gravity of Hepburn's illness, her family decided to return home to Switzerland in order to celebrate her last Christmas. Because Hepburn was still recovering from surgery, she was unable to fly on commercial aircraft. Hubert de Givenchy offered to help and arranged for Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon to send her private Gulfstream jet, filled with flowers, to take Hepburn from Los Angeles to Geneva. On the evening of 20 January 1993, at her home in Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland, Hepburn died in her sleep of appendiceal cancer. After her death, Gregory Peck went on camera and tearfully recited her favourite poem, "Unending Love" by Rabindranath Tagore.

Funeral services were held at the village church of Tolochenaz, Switzerland, on 24 January 1993. Maurice Eindiguer, the same pastor who wed Hepburn and Mel Ferrer and baptised her son Sean in 1960, presided over her funeral while Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, of UNICEF, delivered a eulogy. Many family members and friends attended the funeral, including her sons, partner Robert Wolders, brother Ian Quarles van Ufford, ex-husbands Andrea Dotti and Mel Ferrer, Hubert de Givenchy, executives of UNICEF, and fellow actors Alain Delon and Roger Moore. Flower arrangements were sent to the funeral by Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor and the Dutch royal family. The same day as her funeral, Hepburn was interred at the Tolochenaz Cemetery, a small cemetery that sits atop a hill overlooking the village.

Legacy [link]

Hepburn's legacy as an actress and a personality has endured long after her death. The American Film Institute named Hepburn third among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time. Even in her last years, she remained a visible presence in the film world. She received a tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 1991 and was a frequent presenter at the Academy Awards. She was the recipient of four posthumous awards including the 1993 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and competitive Grammy and Emmy Awards. She has been the subject of many biographies since her death and the 2000 dramatisation of her life titled ''The Audrey Hepburn Story'' which starred Jennifer Love Hewitt and Emmy Rossum as the older and younger Hepburn respectively. The film concludes with footage of the real Audrey Hepburn, shot during one of her final missions for UNICEF.

Hepburn's image is widely used in advertising campaigns across the world. In Japan, a series of commercials used colourised and digitally enhanced clips of Hepburn in ''Roman Holiday'' to advertise Kirin black tea. In the United States, Hepburn was featured in a Gap commercial which ran from 7 September 2006, to 5 October 2006. It used clips of her dancing from ''Funny Face'', set to AC/DC's "Back in Black", with the tagline "It's Back – The Skinny Black Pant". To celebrate its "Keep it Simple" campaign, the Gap made a sizeable donation to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund.

Hepburn has been considered a gay icon.

Style [link]

Hepburn's reverence as a fashion icon has continued long since her death, proved by accruing the titles "most beautiful woman of all time" and "most beautiful woman of the 20th century" in polls by Evian and QVC respectively. Despite her physique being far from the Hollywood preference of bosomy actresses like Marilyn Monroe, Martine Carol, Kim Novak and Lana Turner. "This girl, singlehanded, may make bosoms a thing of the past," said director Billy Wilder maliciously, adding that she was very feminine by her grace, huge eyes and long legs, but even against the gender stereotypes of the time, the natural thickness of her brown eyebrows makes her "funny face unforgettable."

Her style was partially the result of meeting the couturier Hubert de Givenchy, who designed her dresses for ''Sabrina'' in 1954. Hepburn revealed, "[Givenchy] gave me a look, a kind, a silhouette. He has always been the best and he stayed the best. Because he kept the spare style that I love. What is more beautiful than a simple sheath made an extraordinary way in a special fabric, and just two earrings?" The designer created her outfits for many other films, including ''Funny Face'', ''Love in the Afternoon'', ''Breakfast at Tiffany's'', ''Paris When It Sizzles'', ''Charade'' and ''How to Steal a Million''. In the latter, Peter O'Toole's character tells Hepburn's to "give Givenchy the night off", persuading her to dress as a cleaning lady. Givenchy was always amazed that, even after thirty five years of collaboration, "her measurements [had] not changed an inch." Givenchy remained Hepburn's friend and ambassador, and she his muse, throughout her life. Hepburn observed, "I have many things in common with Hubert. We like the same things." She agreed to model, on occasions, the creations of her friend. In 1988, when he presented his summer collection in Paris, she said, "Wherever I am in the world, he is always there. He is a man who does not disperse into worldliness. He has time for those he loves." Givenchy subsequently created a perfume for her titled L'Interdit (French for "Forbidden"). She equally inspired fashion photographer Richard Avedon, who captured an intentionally overexposed close-up of Hepburn's face in which only her famous features – her eyes, her eyebrows, and her mouth – are visible. "I am, and forever will be, devastated by the gift of Audrey Hepburn before my camera. I cannot lift her to greater heights. She is already there. I can only record. I cannot interpret her. There is no going further than who she is. She has achieved in herself her ultimate portrait."

Italian shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo created a shoe for her and made her ambassador of his fashion house while honouring her in a 1999 exhibition dedicated to the actress titled Audrey Hepburn, a woman, the style. She also popularised the Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses after the film ''Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961) in addition to being on the cover of many fashion magazines like ''Vogue'' and ''Harper's Bazaar''. She exercised fashion in her lifetime and continues to influence fashion. Fashion experts affirmed that Hepburn's longevity as a style icon results from her sticking with a look that suited her: "clean lines, simple yet bold accessories, minimalist palette." One of her many costars, Shirley Maclaine, wrote in her 1996 memoir ''My Lucky Stars'', "[Hepburn] had very rare qualities and I envied her style and taste. I felt clumsy and old fashioned when I was with her." Hepburn's fashion styles continue to be popular among women today. Although Hepburn enjoyed fashion, she did not place much importance on it, preferring casual and comfortable clothes contrary to her image. In addition, she never considered herself attractive. She stated 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."

The "little black dress" from ''Breakfast at Tiffany's'', designed by Givenchy, was sold at a Christie's auction on 5 December 2006 for £467,200 (approximately $920,000), almost seven times its £70,000 pre-sale estimate. This was the highest price paid for a dress from a film, until it was surpassed by the $4.6 million paid in June 2011 for the Marilyn Monroe "subway dress" from ''The Seven Year Itch''. The proceeds went to the City of Joy Aid charity to aid underprivileged children in India. The head of the charity said, "there are tears in my eyes. I am absolutely dumbfounded to believe that a piece of cloth which belonged to such a magical actress will now enable me to buy bricks and cement to put the most destitute children in the world into schools." However, the dress auctioned by Christie's was not the one that Hepburn wore in the film. Of the two dresses that Hepburn did wear, one is held in the Givenchy archives while the other is displayed in the Museum of Costume in Madrid. A subsequent London auction of Hepburn's film wardrobe in December 2009 raised £270,200 ($437,000), including £60,000 for the black Chantilly lace cocktail gown from ''How to Steal a Million''. Half the proceeds were donated to All Children in School, a joint venture of The Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund and UNICEF.

Credits [link]

+ List of film credits
Title	Year	Role	Notes
''Dutch in Seven Lessons''	1948	KLM stewardess
''One Wild Oat''	1951	Hotel receptionist	Minor role
''Young Wives' Tale''	1951	Eve Lester	Minor role
''Laughter in Paradise''	1951		Minor role
''''	1951	Chiquita	Minor role
''''	1952	Nora Brentano	First major role
''Monte Carlo Baby''	1952	Linda Farell (Melissa Walter in French version)	Two versions were made: an English and a French entitled ''Nous irons à Monte Carlo''
''Roman Holiday''	1953	Princess Ann	Academy Award for Best ActressBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
! scope="row"	1954	Sabrina Fairchild	Nominated–Academy Award for Best ActressNominated–BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated–New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressSoundtrack credits include "La Vie en rose", "Yes! We Have No Bananas"
! scope="row"	1956	Natasha Rostova	Nominated–BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
! scope="row"	1957	Ariane Chavasse / Thin Girl	Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated–New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
''Funny Face''	1957	Jo Stockton	Her first musical filmSoundtrack credits include "How Long Has This Been Going On?", "Bonjour, Paris!", "On How to Be Lovely", "'S Wonderful"
! scope="row"	1959	Rima
''''	1959	Sister Luke (Gabrielle van der Mal)	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNominated–Academy Award for Best ActressNominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
''''	1960	Rachel Zachary
! scope="row"	1961	Holly Golightly	Nominated–Academy Award for Best ActressNominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedySoundtrack credits include "Moon River"
''''	1961	Karen Wright
! scope="row"	1963	Regina "Reggie" Lampert	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
''Paris When It Sizzles''	1964	Gabrielle Simpson / Gaby
! scope="row"	1964	Eliza Doolittle	Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated–New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
''How to Steal a Million''	1966	Nicole Bonnet
! scope="row"	1967	Joanna Wallace	Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
! scope="row"	1967	Susy Hendrix	Nominated–Academy Award for Best ActressNominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated–New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
''Robin and Marian''	1976
! scope="row"	1979	Elizabeth Roffe	Her only R-rated film
''They All Laughed''	1981	Angela Niotes
! scope="row"	1989	Hap

+ List of television credits
Title	Year	Role	Notes
''Sunday Night Theatre''	1951	Celia	Episode entitled "The Silent Village"
''CBS Television Workshop''	1952	Herself	Episode entitled "Rainy Day at Paradise Junction"
! scope="row"	1957
''Love Among Thieves''	1987	Baroness Caroline DuLac	Television movie
''Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn''	1993	Herself	Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming
''Audrey Hepburn: In Her Own Words''	1993	Herself	Documentary

+ List of theatre credits
Title	Year(s)	Role	Venue(s)	Notes
''High Button Shoes''	1948–49	Chorus girl		Opened 22 December 1948 for 291 performances
''Sauce Tartare''	1949	Chorus girl	Cambridge Theatre	Opened 18 May 1949
''Sauce Piquante''	1950	Featured player	Cambridge Theatre	Opened 27 April 1950
! scope="row"	1951–52	Gigi	Fulton Theatre	Opened 24 November 1951; closed 31 May 1952Theatre World Award
''Gigi''	1952–53	Gigi	Various	US tourBegan 13 October 1952 in Pittsburgh; closed 16 May 1953 in San FransciscoAlso visited Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Washington and Los Angeles
! scope="row"	1954			Opened 18 February 1954; closed 26 June 1954Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

Awards[link]

See also [link]

List of persons who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards

White floral Givenchy dress of Audrey Hepburn (Academy Awards, 1954)

References [link]

Further reading [link]

External links [link]

of Hepburn (and the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund)

Audrey Hepburn Quotes Collection of quotes and articles

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