60 Fun Facts About Audrey Hepburn

In which city was Audrey Hepburn born?

She was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston at 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles on 4 May 1929, and her family called her Adriaantje.

What was Hepburn's surname at birth?

Her father later double-barrelled it to Hepburn-Ruston, wrongly believing he descended from the Earl of Bothwell; she dropped the Ruston in London.

Hepburn's mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra, belonged to which nobility?

Ella's father had been mayor of Arnhem and governor of Dutch Guiana.

What false name did Hepburn use during the German occupation of the Netherlands?

She spent the war years at the Arnhem Conservatory, becoming ballet teacher Winja Marova's star pupil.

During the 1944-45 Dutch famine, Hepburn's family made flour from what?

The malnutrition left her gravely ill with jaundice, anaemia and oedema; her mother's ex-lover Micky Burn sent cigarettes to sell for penicillin.

Which dance company gave Hepburn a scholarship that took her to London in 1948?

Marie Rambert told her that her height and wartime-weakened constitution ruled out being a prima ballerina, so she turned to acting.

Which French novelist spotted Hepburn in Monte Carlo and cast her in Gigi on Broadway?

Hepburn had never spoken a line on stage; the play ran 219 performances and won her a Theatre World Award.

In which 1951 Ealing comedy did Hepburn have a minor role before stardom?

The same year she appeared in One Wild Oat, Laughter in Paradise and Young Wives' Tale.

Which character did Hepburn play in Roman Holiday (1953)?

The producers had originally wanted Elizabeth Taylor, but William Wyler was won over by Hepburn's screen test.

Which co-star insisted Hepburn get equal billing on Roman Holiday, saying otherwise 'I'll look like a big jerk'?

After her death he tearfully recited Tagore's poem 'Unending Love' in tribute.

Which actress had the producers of Roman Holiday originally wanted for the role Hepburn won?

Director William Wyler said Hepburn had 'charm, innocence, and talent... She was absolutely enchanting'.

Hepburn was the first actress to win which three awards for the same performance, in Roman Holiday?

The Oscar win was considered unexpected; she also landed on the cover of Time in September 1953.

For which 1954 Broadway play, in which she played a water nymph, did Hepburn win a Tony Award?

She won it three days after her Roman Holiday Oscar, one of only three actresses to take both in the same year, with Shirley Booth and Ellen Burstyn.

Which two actors played the wealthy brothers competing for Hepburn in Sabrina (1954)?

Billy Wilder directed; Holden later tried and failed to rekindle a romance on Paris When It Sizzles.

Which French designer, first hired for Sabrina, became Hepburn's lifelong collaborator and friend?

He was initially disappointed that 'Miss Hepburn' was not Katharine Hepburn; she later became the face of his first perfume, L'Interdit.

Whom did Hepburn marry in Switzerland in September 1954?

They starred together in Ondine and War and Peace; the marriage lasted 14 years and produced her son Sean.

Which Tolstoy heroine did Hepburn play opposite Henry Fonda in 1956?

War and Peace earned her BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, with husband Mel Ferrer also in the cast.

In Funny Face (1957), who plays the photographer who discovers Hepburn's bookshop clerk?

It was her musical debut and she sang her own songs; a 2006 Gap commercial later set her dancing to AC/DC.

Which role did Hepburn call the most demanding of her career, spending a year researching it?

Variety agreed it was 'her finest performance'; it brought a third Oscar nomination and a second BAFTA.

What was Hepburn's only western?

She starred opposite Burt Lancaster and Lillian Gish in a story about racism against Native Americans.

Which author of the Breakfast at Tiffany's novella would have preferred Marilyn Monroe in the lead?

He disliked the changes made to sanitise the story, but conceded that Hepburn 'did a terrific job'.

How did Hepburn describe playing the extroverted Holly Golightly?

She called herself an introvert, yet the role became the defining one of her career and the dress an icon of the century.

Which coat brand's sales did Hepburn boost by wearing one in Breakfast at Tiffany's?

One of the Givenchy little black dresses from the film sold at Christie's for a record 467,200 pounds in 2006.

In The Children's Hour (1961), Hepburn and which actress play teachers accused of being lesbians?

William Wyler directed it, reuniting with his Roman Holiday star.

Which 59-year-old Charade (1963) star had the script changed to have Audrey Hepburn's character pursue him?

He ended up saying 'All I want for Christmas is another picture with Audrey Hepburn'; the film won her a third BAFTA.

On Paris When It Sizzles, the superstitious Hepburn insisted on which dressing room number?

She also had cinematographer Claude Renoir dismissed after seeing unflattering dailies, and got Givenchy a credit for her perfume.

Who originated Eliza Doolittle on stage but lost the My Fair Lady film role to Hepburn?

Producer Jack Warner thought Hepburn more bankable; Andrews then beat her to the Oscar for Mary Poppins.

Whose voice was dubbed over Hepburn's singing in My Fair Lady?

Hepburn had prepared vocally at length and walked off the set when told; she was not nominated for the Oscar.

In How to Steal a Million (1966), Hepburn's father's art collection consists entirely of what?

Peter O'Toole plays the man who helps her save her father before the fakes are exposed.

In Wait Until Dark (1967), Hepburn earned her fifth Oscar nomination playing a woman who is what?

Her husband Mel Ferrer produced it as their marriage collapsed, and she lost 15 pounds under the strain.

Which director said Hepburn was 'freer and happier than he had ever seen her' on Two for the Road?

The 1967 film traces a marriage in a non-linear structure that was innovative for its time.

Hepburn attempted a comeback in 1976 as Maid Marian opposite which Robin Hood?

Roger Ebert wrote that the pair 'glow. They really do seem in love.'

Hepburn's last starring film role, in They All Laughed (1981), was directed by whom?

The film was overshadowed by the murder of co-star Dorothy Stratten and got only a limited release.

Hepburn's final film appearance was a cameo as an angel in which Steven Spielberg film?

After that she made only a PBS garden series and a spoken-word album, both of which won posthumous awards.

Her posthumous Emmy came for a PBS documentary series about what?

The series premiered nationally on 24 January 1993, the day of her funeral.

Hepburn's posthumous Grammy was for a spoken-word album of what?

Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales, recorded in 1992, completed her set of Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony wins.

In which year was Hepburn appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador?

She said she wanted to repay the international aid she had received as a child after the occupation.

Hepburn's first UNICEF field mission in 1988 was to which country?

She visited an orphanage in Mek'ele housing 500 starving children and said afterwards, 'I have a broken heart.'

Which country did Hepburn visit in September 1992, four months before her death, and call 'apocalyptic'?

'I walked into a nightmare... so much worse than I could possibly have imagined,' she said.

Which US president presented Hepburn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in December 1992?

The Academy also gave her the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award posthumously.

What was the name of Hepburn's country estate in the Swiss village of Tolochenaz?

'The Peaceful One' had 21 rooms and high walls; she chose French-speaking Switzerland so her son would not learn German at school.

What was the profession of Hepburn's second husband, Andrea Dotti?

They met on a Mediterranean cruise in 1968, married in 1969 and had a son, Luca; the marriage was dissolved in 1982.

Robert Wolders, Hepburn's partner from 1980 until her death, was the widower of which actress?

She called their years together the happiest of her life and considered them married 'just not officially'.

Hepburn died of a rare abdominal cancer belonging to which group?

It had grown slowly for years as a thin coating over her small intestine and was found at Cedars-Sinai in November 1992.

Whose flower-filled private jet flew Hepburn home to Geneva for her last Christmas?

Givenchy arranged it because she was too weak after surgery to fly commercially.

How old was Hepburn when she died in January 1993?

Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan gave a eulogy at her funeral in Tolochenaz, attended by Alain Delon and Roger Moore among others.

Where does the American Film Institute rank Hepburn among the greatest female screen legends?

The Times also named her among the top 10 British actresses of all time in 2009.

Which fashion photographer called Hepburn the 'public embodiment of our new feminine ideal'?

He wrote that 'nobody ever looked like her before World War II'; alongside Twiggy she made being very slim fashionable.

Which British actress caused a stir in 2010 by saying Hepburn 'can't sing and she can't really act'?

Hepburn's son Sean replied that his mother 'wasn't the best actress in the world. But she was a movie star.'

Which chocolate bar used a computer-manipulated Hepburn in a 2013 British TV advert?

In Japan, colourised Roman Holiday clips sold Kirin black tea.

Which singer-songwriter released a song titled 'Audrey Hepburn' in 2025?

Google had marked what would have been her 85th birthday with a doodle in 2014.

Which Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer song did Hepburn sing herself in Breakfast at Tiffany's?

After a San Francisco preview, Paramount's head of production wanted the song replaced with a version sung by somebody else; it went on to win the Oscar for Best Song.

Who directed Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)?

George Axelrod adapted Truman Capote's 1958 novella; the film took two Oscars, both for its music.

Who directed the 1967 thriller Wait Until Dark, in which Hepburn plays the blind Susy Hendrix?

Young, best known for the early Bond films, later reunited with Hepburn on Bloodline (1979); her husband Mel Ferrer produced Wait Until Dark.

In Green Mansions (1959), Hepburn's jungle girl Rima falls for a traveller played by which actor?

The film was directed by her husband Mel Ferrer and got a lukewarm reception; Perkins made Psycho the following year.

What was the name of Hepburn's second son, born in February 1970?

After earlier miscarriages, Hepburn rested for months during the pregnancy and delivered him by caesarean section.

In Love in the Afternoon (1957), Hepburn starred alongside Maurice Chevalier and which leading man?

It was her second film with director Billy Wilder after Sabrina, and it came out the same year as Funny Face.

In which English county did Hepburn attend boarding school before the Second World War?

Known as Audrey Ruston or 'Little Audrey', she attended a small private school in the village of Elham from 1937.

Hepburn's grandfather Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra was governor of which colony in the 1920s?

He had earlier been mayor of Arnhem, the city where Hepburn would study ballet at the conservatory during the war.

In which 1948 West End revue at the London Hippodrome did Hepburn appear as a chorus girl?

She followed it with Cecil Landeau's revues Sauce Tartare (1949) and Sauce Piquante (1950) at the Cambridge Theatre while her mother worked menial jobs.