Audrey Hepburn - 1929-1993
British Actress
Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Tara
Audrey Hepburn is a legend.
Alison, A Wonderful Woman
I quite agree with Alison's sentiments about Audrey... another fantastic suggestion from Tara.
Like Marilyn Monroe (Wonderful Woman No. 5 - http://iamawonderfulwoman.blogspot.com/2012/01/marilyn-monroe-wonderful-woman-no-5.html ), Audrey has that indescribable something, that just makes her a little more special than the rest. A sparkle, that is instantly captured in the imagination, that thing that can't be bottled or manufactured, it just... is.
The first time I remember seeing the sparkle of Audrey Hepburn was watching her as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. I was captivated by her transformation from coarse eastender to well-spoken lady. I actually remember practising "Hurricanes
Audrey later sparkled into my life again when I saw her as Holly Golightly in the iconic 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's. I was mesmerised by her sashaying through the film in the most exquisite wardrobe, carefree, bohemian and a complete individual. I have read that this was her most challenging role, funny that the most challenging was also her most recognisable.
She appeared in many other films, was an oscar winner, a grammy winner and recieved countless other accolades in her career. She was and remains, one of the biggest style icons the world has ever known and has been an inspiration to many designers, fashion editors and women of style.
You look at Audrey Hepburn. She had that kind of elegance and yet was accessible.
Tom Cruise
As well as a wonderful film career and a legacy of timeless style, Audrey should also be considered a wonderful woman for her humanitarian work with UNICEF. Audrey had been born in Brussels (her father was English, her mother Dutch) and had spent some of her early life in Britain before moving to The Netherlands in 1939 because her parents believed that the country would remain neutral during the second World War. When the country was occupied by the Nazis, the Hepburn family found themselves trapped. After the D-Day Landings in 1944, living conditions within The Netherlands became ever more difficult, the Nazis blocked supply routes, leaving the people without food or fuel often starving or freezing to death.
Audrey survived this but the impact of living through such hardship had a profound effect on her. She is said to have often spoken of the thought of children suffering and dying, the thoughts consumed her. She became a Ambassador of UNICEF and went on numerous missions with the cause, including work in Ethiopia, Turkey, South America and Somalia.
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.
Audrey Hepburn
There are a great many things that made Audrey sparkle, a great many things that made her different and wonderful.
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