Audrey Hepburn

A Photographic Celebration

Suzanne Lander

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781628725650
• eBook ISBN: 9781629142647
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Film & Video

"I never understood what makes me so special, " mused Audrey Hepburn. The daughter of a Dutch baroness, Hepburn first won international acclaim with her role as a princess in the 1953 film Roman Holiday, and she maintained a rare grace and elegance throughout her life that millions have adored and tried to emulate. Audrey Hepburn: A Photographic Celebration showcases the film star, who also worked as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. This book is packed with great quotes from the woman herself and those who admire her (including Hollywood directors and movie stars) as well as engaging trivia and beautiful images of Audrey in all phases of her career.
"I've been in pictures over thirty years, but I've never had a more exciting leading lady than Audrey, " enthused Gary Cooper, her Love in the Afternoon costar. Audrey Hepburn: A Photographic Celebration features everybody's favorite leading lady with her leading men, including such luminaries as Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, George Peppard, Albert Finney, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart, Henry Fonda, Rex Harrison, Peter O'Toole, Sean Connery, Richard Dreyfuss, and Cary Grant along with her real-life costar—her first husband— Mel Ferrer. This lovely book about this classic lady will delight both the casual and die-hard Audrey fan, as well as anyone with an eye for classic elegance.

“You could believe her as a princess.”

—WILLIAM WYLER, DIRECTOR OF ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953)

“I can really take no credit for any talent that Audrey may have. If it’s real talent, it’s God-given. I might as well as be proud of a blue sky or the paintings in the Flemish exhibition at the Royal Academy.”

—BARONESS VON HEEMSTRA, ON THE SUCCESS OF HER DAUGHTER

“My mother always used to say, ‘Good things aren’t supposed to just fall in your lap. God is very generous, but he expects you to do your part first.’ So you have to make that effort. But at the end of a bad time or a huge effort, I’ve always had—how shall I say it?—the prize at the end.”

—AUDREY HEPBURN

During World War II, Audrey danced in secret performances to raise money for the Dutch Resistance. She eventually had to stop dancing, though, because of malnourishment caused by a diet of mostly endive and tulip bulbs.

“This girl, single-handedly, may make bosoms a thing of the past.”

—DIRECTOR BILLY WILDER

Offered the lead in the movie Gigi (1958), Hepburn turned it down to star in Funny Face (1957) instead. Thrilled that she would be putting all those years of dance training to good use, she asked for—and got—famed hoofer Fred Astaire.

“Nothing really happened in the book. All we had was this glorious girl—a perfect part for Audrey Hepburn. What we had to do was devise a story, get a central romantic relationship, and make the hero a red-blooded heterosexual.”

—GEORGE AXELROD, WHO ADAPTED TRUMAN CAPOTE’S BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961) FOR THE SCREEN

“I love Albie! Oh, I really do. He’s so terribly, terribly funny. He makes me laugh like no one else can.”

—AUDREY, ABOUT ALBERT FINNEY, HER COSTAR IN TWO FOR THE ROAD (1967)

“I wish there were a half a dozen women like her …”

—FRED ZINNEMANN, DIRECTOR OF THE NUN’S STORY (1959)

To simulate blindness for her role in Wait until Dark (1967), Audrey wore vision-blocking contact lenses. She also learned to read Braille.

Dean Martin, Audrey, and poet Carl Sandburg make an unlikely trio at a Friars Club banquet at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the 1960s. In the 1954 Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin comedy Living It Up, Martin did a scene in which he sang a love song to a picture of Hepburn.

“One thing is certain. Audrey Hepburn is Natasha.”

—KING VIDOR, DIRECTOR OF WAR AND PEACE (1956)

Paris When It Sizzles (1964), which reunited Audrey with former flame William Holden, was a remake of the 1952 French film La Fête à Henriette (Holiday for Henrietta). The film did not do well. Judith Crist of the New York Herald Tribune dubbed it “Hollyw...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Audrey Hepburn