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• Fashion model and actress Audrey Hepburn started her acting career on Broadway before shifting into films. Among her more memorable roles are Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and Princess Ann in Roman Holiday.

  Hepburn was named "the ultimate screen beauty" in a Hollywood actresses through the ages poll in February 2009. Angelina Jolie came in second and Grace Kelly was third.Telegraph: Audrey Hepburn beats Angelina Jolie (February 10, 2009)

• Fast Facts

  1. Born May 4, 1929
  2. Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium
  3. Birth name: Audrey Kathleen van Heemstra Ruston
  4. Descendant of Edward III of England
  5. Grew up amidst the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands
  6. Fluent in English, Spanish, French, Dutch/Flemish and Italian
  7. Studied to be a ballerina as a child
  8. Spouses: Mel Ferrer and Andrea Dotti
  9. Won an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy Award
  10. Variety of white tulip is named after her
  11. Served as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, for which she received a Presidential Medal of Freedom
  12. Died January 20, 1993 from cancer
  13. Named 3rd Greatest Female Star of all time by the American Film Institute
  14. February 2009: Named "The Ultimate Screen Beauty"

• Career Background

  A skilled ballerina, Hepburn first moved to England to study dance in 1948. She had trouble finding work as a dancer and so turned to acting, starting in musical theater and eventually transitioning to films.

  Her breakthrough performance came in the 1952 film Secret People, in which she had an opportunity to do some dancing. This was followed by the smash hit Roman Holiday, in which Hepburn starred opposite Gregory Peck. The film turned her into an international star and got her a seven-picture contract with Paramount Pictures.

  Hepburn followed up Holiday with the title role in Billy Wilder's romantic comedy Sabrina. More popular films followed, including a big-screen adaptation of War and Peace, Love in the Afternoon, My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade, alongside Cary Grant, and Two for the Road.

  Hepburn's final role was a brief cameo in the Steven Spielberg film Always. She died on January 20, 1993, suffering from intestinal cancer.

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Mel Ferrer | UNICEF | Roman Holiday | Breakfast at Tiffanys | My Fair Lady | Richard Dreyfuss | Holly Hunter | John Goodman | Robert Wagner | Jerry Orbach | John Ritter | Sean Connery | Richard Harris | Alan Arkin | Peter O'Toole | Humphrey Bogart | William Holden | Walter Matthau | Cary Grant | Elizabeth Taylor | Grace Kelly | Katharine Hepburn | Ingrid Bergman | Jane Fonda | Julie Andrews | Fred Astaire | Marilyn Monroe | Henry Fonda | Gregory Peck | Gary Cooper | Shirley MacLaine | James Garner | Lillian Gish | Alfred Hitchcock | Judy Garland | Truman Capote | Belgium | Greta Garbo | Ann Savage | Farrahs Story

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