Audrey Hepburn Biography 4

Death

In 1992, when Hepburn returned to Switzerland from her visit to Somalia, she began to feel abdominal pains. She went to specialists and received inconclusive results, so she decided to have it examined while on a trip to Los Angeles in October.

On 1 November, doctors performed a laparoscopy and discovered abdominal cancer that had spread from her appendix.^[49] It had grown slowly over several years, and metastasized not as a tumour, but as a thin coating encasing over her small intestine. The doctors performed surgery and then put Hepburn through 5-fluorouracil Leucovorin chemotherapy. A few days later, she had an obstruction. Medication was not enough to dull the pain, so on 1 December, she had a second surgery. After one hour, the surgeon decided that the cancer had spread too far and could not be removed.

Unable to fly on commercial aircraft, Givenchy arranged for Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon to send her private Gulfstream jet, filled with flowers, to take Hepburn from California to Switzerland.^[50] Hepburn died of the cancer on 20 January 1993, in Tolochenaz,Vaud,Switzerland, and was interred there.

Work for UNICEF

Soon after Hepburn's final film role, she was appointed a goodwill ambassador to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). 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; she spoke French, Italian, English, Dutch, and Spanish.

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 toEthiopia 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] [sic] 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."^[51]

In August 1988, Hepburn went to Turkey on an immunization 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 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, Hepburn 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 immunization and clean water programs.

In September 1992, four months before she died, Hepburn went to Somalia. Hepburn called it "apocalyptic" and 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 terra-cotta 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 politicization of humanitarian aid, there will be a humanization 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 recognize 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 pumpUNICEF."

In 1992, President George Bush presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work with UNICEF, and theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded her The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her contribution to humanity. This was awarded posthumously, with her son accepting on her behalf.

In 2006, the Sustainable Style Foundation inaugurated the Style & Substance Award in Honor of Audrey Hepburn to recognize high profile individuals who work to improve the quality of life for children around the world. The first award was given to Hepburn posthumously and received by the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, a non-profit organization that was started in 1994 in New York and relocated to Los Angeles in 1998 where it remains today.

Enduring popularity

Hepburn has often been called one of the most beautiful women of all time.^[52][53] Her fashion styles also continue to be popular among women.^[54] Contrary to her recent image, although Hepburn did enjoy fashion, she did not place much importance on it. She preferred casual, comfortable clothes.^[55] In addition, she never considered herself to be very attractive. She said 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."^[56]

The 2000 American made-for-television film, The Audrey Hepburn Story, starred Jennifer Love Hewitt in the title role. Hewitt also co-produced the film. It was well received with critics agreeing that Hewitt turned into a great performance ^[57].^{[citation needed]} The film concluded with footage of the real Audrey Hepburn, shot during one of her final missions for UNICEF. Several versions of the film exist; it was aired as a mini-series in some countries, and in a truncated version on America's ABC television network, which is also the version released on DVD in North America. Emmy Rossum, in one of her first film roles, portrayed Hepburn as a young teen in the film.

Hepburn's image is widely used in advertising campaigns across the world. In Japan, a series of commercials used colorized and digitally enhanced clips of Hepburn in Roman Holiday to advertise Kirin black tea. In the US, Hepburn was featured in a Gap commercial which ran from September 7, 2006, to October 5, 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.^[58] The commercial was popular, with approximately 200,000 users viewing it on YouTube.

The "little black dress" from Breakfast at Tiffany's, designed by Givenchy, 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 is the highest price paid for a dress from a film. 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."^[59] The dress auctioned off by Christie's was not the one that Hepburn actually wore in the movie.^[60] 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.^[59]

Notable appearances

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1948	Nederlands in 7 lessen (English: "Dutch in Seven Lessons")	Airline Stewardess	Documentary
1951	One Wild Oat	Hotel receptionist
	Laughter in Paradise	Cigarette Girl
	Monte Carlo Baby	Linda Farell	Discovered by French novelist Colette during filming and cast as Gigi for the Broadway play
	Young Wives' Tale	Eve Lester
	The Lavender Hill Mob	Chiquita
1952	The Secret People	Nora Brentano
	Nous irons à Monte Carlo (English: "We Will Go to Monte Carlo")	Melissa Walter	French version of Monte Carlo Baby
1953	Roman Holiday	Princess Ann	Academy Award win: Best Actress BAFTA win: Best Actress Golden Globe win: Best Drama Actress
1954	Sabrina	Sabrina Fairchild	Academy Award nomination: Best Actress BAFTA nomination: Best Actress
1956	War and Peace	Natasha Rostova	Golden Globe nomination: Best Drama Actress BAFTA nomination: Best Actress
1957	Funny Face	Jo Stockton
	Love in the Afternoon	Ariane Chavasse/Thin Girl	Golden Globe nomination: Best Musical/Comedy Actress
1959	Green Mansions	Rima	Directed by Mel Ferrer
	The Nun's Story	Sister Luke (Gabrielle van der Mal)	Academy Award nomination: Best Actress BAFTA win: Best Actress Golden Globe nomination: Best Drama Actress
1960	The Unforgiven	Rachel Zachary
1961	Breakfast at Tiffany's	Holly Golightly	Academy Award nomination: Best Actress
	The Children's Hour	Karen Wright
1963	Charade	Regina "Reggie" Lampert	Golden Globe nomination: Best Musical/Comedy Actress BAFTA win: Best Actress
1964	Paris, When It Sizzles	Gabrielle Simpson
	My Fair Lady	Eliza Doolittle	Golden Globe nomination: Best Musical/Comedy Actress
1966	How to Steal a Million	Nicole Bonnet
1967	Two for the Road	Joanna Wallace	Golden Globe nomination: Best Musical/Comedy Actress
	Wait Until Dark	Susy Hendrix	Academy Award nomination: Best Actress Golden Globe nomination: Best Drama Actress
1976	Robin and Marian	Lady Marian
1979	Bloodline	Elizabeth Roffe	Her only R-rated film
1981	They All Laughed	Angela Niotes
1989	Always	Hap

Television and theatre

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1949	High Button Shoes	Chorus Girl	Musical Theatre
	Sauce Tartare	Chorus Girl	Musical Theatre
1950	Sauce Piquante	Featured Player	Musical Theatre
1951	Gigi	Gigi	Opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre, 24 November 1951. Hepburn won the 1952 Theatre World Award.
1952	CBS Television Workshop		Episode entitled "Rainy Day at Paradise Junction"
1954	Ondine	Water Nymph	Opened on Broadway, 18 February - 26 June. Tony Award Winner - Best Actress. Costarring Mel Ferrer
1957	Mayerling	Maria Vetsera	Producers' Showcase live production. Costarring Mel Ferrer as Prince Rudolf. Released theatrically in Europe.
1987	Love Among Thieves	Baroness Caroline DuLac	Television movie.
1993	Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn	Herself	PBS miniseries; Emmy Award Winner - Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming

[edit] Awards and honors

The handprints of Audrey Hepburn in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

She won the 1953 Academy Award for Best Actress for Roman Holiday. She was nominated for Best Actress four more times; forSabrina,The Nun's Story, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Wait Until Dark. She was not nominated for her performance as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, one of her most acclaimed performances. For her 1967 nomination, the Academy chose her performance in Wait Until Darkover her critically acclaimed performance in Two for the Road. She lost to Katharine Hepburn (in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner). Audrey Hepburn was one of the few people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award.

• Academy Award: Best Actress for Roman Holiday (1954) and posthumously The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1993).


• Golden Globe award: Best Motion Picture Actress for Roman Holiday (1954).


• Tony Award: Best Actress for Ondine (1954) and Special Achievement award (1968).



• Grammy Award: Best Spoken Word Album for Children (1993) for Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales (posthumous).


• Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming (1993) for the "Flower Gardens" episode of her documentary series, Gardens of the World (posthumous).

In addition, Hepburn won the Henrietta Award in 1955 for the world's favorite actress, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1990 and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1992. Hepburn was posthumously awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award later in 1993.^[61]

In December 1992, one month before her death, Hepburn received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work in UNICEF.^[62] This is one of the two highest awards a civilian can receive in the United States.^[63][64] She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1652 Vine Street

In 2003, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp illustrated by Michael J. Deas^[65] honouring her as a Hollywood legend and humanitarian. It has a drawing of her which is based on a publicity photo from the movie Sabrina. Hepburn is one of the few non-Americans to be so honoured. As well, in 2008, Canada Post issued a series of stamps based on the work of Yousef Karsh, one of which was a portrait of Hepburn.^[66]