Audrey Hepburn

At 63 years old, Audrey Hepburn has this physical status:

Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston, 19 May 1929 – January 19, 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian.

She was ranked as the third-best female screen icon in Golden Age Hollywood by the American Film Institute and inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. Hepburn, a girl born in Ixelles, Belgium, England, and the Netherlands spent a portion of her childhood in Belgium, England, and the Netherlands.

She studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell in Amsterdam beginning in 1945 and then joined Marie Rambert in London in 1948.

She began appearing in West End musical theatre productions and later had minor roles in several films.

Hepburn appeared in the 1951 Broadway play Gigi after being asked by French novelist Colette on whose site the play was based. She came to fame in Roman Holiday (1953), with Gregory Peck, for whom she was the first actress to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award for a single role.

Hepburn received the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play the same year, for her appearance in Ondine.

She went on to act in a number of hit films, including: Sabrina (1954), in which Humphrey Bogart and William Holden competed for her love; Funny Face (1957), a drama in which she performed her own song parts; and My Fair Lady (1964), which received the Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Picture.

She appeared in the thriller Wait Until Dark, which received an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA nomination in 1967.

She appeared in films for the first time, one being Robin and Marian (1976) with Sean Connery, and her last recorded appearances were in the 1990 documentary television series Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn.

In a Leading Role, she received three BAFTA Awards for Best British Actress in a Leading Role.

She was given the BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award, the Screen Actor Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Special Tony Award in recognition of her film work.

She is one of only 15 people to have earned Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards. Later in life, she devoted a large portion of her time to UNICEF, which she had supported since 1954.

Between 1988 and 1992, then worked in some of Africa's poorest communities, South America, and Asia.

In December 1992, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

She died of appendiceal cancer at her home in Switzerland a month later at the age of 63.

Early life

Audrey Ruston (later, Hepburn-Ruston) was born in Ixelles, Belgium, on May 4, 1929, at number 48 Rue Keyenveld. Adriaantje was known to her family as Adriaantje.

Baroness Ella van Heemstra, Hepburn's mother (June 1900-84), was a Dutch noblewoman. Ella was the granddaughter of Count Dirk van Hogendorp, who served as mayor of Arnhem from 1910 to 1928, and Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra, who served as mayor of Dutch Suriname from 1910 to 1928. She married Jonkheer Gustaaf Quarles van Ufford, an oil executive based in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, where they later lived. Jonkheer Arnoud Robert Alexander Quarles van Ufford (1920–1979) and Jonkheer Ian Quarles van Ufford (1924–2010), two sons who died before Hepburn's birth in 1925.

Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, Hepburn's father, was born in Auschitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, on November 21. Victor John George Ruston, of British and Austrian origins, and Anna Juliana Franziska Wels were both born in Kovarce. Joseph lived in Semarang, the Netherlands East Indies, from 1923 to 1904, and before his marriage to Hepburn's mother, he married Cornelia Bisschop, a Dutch heiress. Despite being born with the surname Ruston, he later double-barrelled his name to Hepburn-Ruston, perhaps at Ella's behest, as he mistakenly believed he descends from James Hepburn, the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.

In September 1926, Hepburn's parents were married in Batavia, the Dutch East Indies. Ruston worked for a brokerage firm at the time, but soon after the wedding, the couple moved to Europe, where he began working for a loan company; reportedly, tin merchants MacLaine, Watson, and Company in London. After a year in London, they migrated to Brussels, where they had been sent to open a branch office. The family settled in Linkebeek, Belgium, after three years of traveling between Brussels, Arnhem, The Hague, and London. Hepburn's early childhood was both safe and wealthy. Due to her father's work, her multinational experience was enhanced by her transferring between three countries with her family.

Hepburn's parents were recruited and paid for the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s. Joseph left the family in 1935 after a "scene" in Brussels when Adriaantje (as she was known in the family) was six years old; later she discussed the effect on a child who had been "dumped" as "children must have two parents." Joseph left London, where he became more involved in Fascist politics and never visited his daughter in another country. Hepburn later revealed that her father's departure was "the most painful event of my life." Her mother moved with Hepburn to her family's house in Arnhem the same year; her half-brother Alex and Ian (then 15 and 11) were sent to The Hague to live with relatives. Joseph wanted her to be educated in England, so Hepburn was sent to live in Kent, England, where she, also known as Audrey Ruston or "Little Audrey," was educated at a small independent school in Elham. In 1938, Hepburn's parents officially divorced. Hepburn revived contact with her father after locating him in Dublin through the Red Cross in the 1960s; although he remained emotionally distraught, Hepburn continued to support him financially until his death.

Hepburn's mother took her daughter to Arnhem in the hopes that the Netherlands would remain neutral and not be spared a German attack during the First World War. Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to 1945. She had started taking ballet lessons during her last years at boarding school and then began training in Arnhem under Winja Marova's tutelage, becoming her "star pupil." Hepburn used the name Edda van Heemstra because the German settlers invaded the Netherlands in 1940 because a "English-sounding" name was considered dangerous during the German occupation. Her family was greatly affected by the occupation, with Hepburn later stating that "had we known that we were going to be occupied for five years, we may have all shot ourselves." We thought it would be over next week, but it turns out we didn't live through the year. Otto van Limburg Stirum (husband of her mother's older sister, Miesje) was executed in 1942 as a result of an act of sabotage by the resistance movement; although he was not involved in the crime, he was arrested due to his family's prominence in Dutch society. Ian, Hepburn's half-brother, was transferred to Berlin to work in a German labor camp, and her other half-brother Alex went into hiding to avoid the same fate.

Hepburn, Ella and Miesje left Arnhem to live with her grandfather, Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra, who lives in nearby Velp after her uncle's death. Hepburn's simulcast dance performances to raise funds for the Dutch resistance campaign around the same time. It had been long believed that she was involved in the Dutch resistance movement, but the Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein' in 2016 reported that after extensive research, no evidence of such activities had been found. However, author Robert Matzen's book "underground concerts" to raise funds, distributing the underground newspaper, and delivering newspapers and food to downed Allied flyers hiding in the woods north of Velp. She worked at a hospital in Velp, which was also the epicenter of resistance campaigning, and her family hid a paratrooper in their home during the Battle of Arnhem for a short time. In addition to other tragic events, she witnessed the transport of Dutch Jews to concentration camps, later stating that "more than once I was at the station seeing trainloads of Jews being transported, seeing all these faces over the wagon's roof. I recall one little boy on the platform with his parents, very pale, blond, wearing a jacket that was much too large for him, he stepped on the train. I was a child observing a child. "I was a child watching a child."

Living conditions deteriorated after the Allied landing on D-Day, and Arnhem was then severely damaged during Operation Market Garden, which was later destroyed. The Germans blocked the resupply routes of already limited food and fuel as retaliation for railway strikes that were held to hinder German occupation during the Dutch famine that followed in 1944. Hepburn's family resorted to making flour out of tulip bulbs to bake cakes and biscuits, a source of starchy carbohydrates; Dutch doctors gave tips for using tulip bulbs throughout the famine; As a result of hunger, Hepburn's acute anaemia, respiratory difficulties, and oedema emerged. During the occupation, the Van Heemstra family was also severely affected financially, causing that many of their buildings, including their principal residence in Arnhem, were badly damaged or lost.

Personal life

Hepburn proposed to industrialist James Hanson, who had known him since her early days in London, in 1952. She referred to it as "love at first sight" after having her wedding dress sampled and the date planned, but she decided that the marriage would not work because the demands of their jobs would keep them apart the majority of the time. "I want to be completely married" when she first married, she wrote in a public statement about her decision. She also dated Michael Butler, the future hair stylist, in the early 1950s.

Hepburn met American actor Mel Ferrer at a cocktail party hosted by mutual friend Gregory Peck and suggested that they act together in a play. The meeting led to their work in Ondine, which culminated in a friendship between the two people. They were married in Bürgenstock, Switzerland, eight months later, when they were preparing to appear together in the film War and Peace (1955). Sean Hepburn Ferrer, Ferrer's son, was a member of She and Ferrer.

Despite the fact that gossip columns' insistence that their marriage would not last, Hepburn said that she and Ferrer were inseparable and happy together, though she admitted to having a bad temper. Ferrer was rumored to be too controlling, and some had referred to her as her "Svengali" – an allegation that Hepburn laughed off. "I think Audrey encourages Mel to believe he has influence her," William Holden said. The couple divorced in 1968 after a 14-year marriage.

On a Mediterranean cruise with friends in June 1968, Hepburn met her second husband, Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti. She expected more children and may well stop working. They married on January 18, 1969, and their son Luca Andrea Dotti was born on February 8, 1970. Hepburn, who was pregnant with Luca in 1969, was more conservative, recovering for months before delivering the baby by caesarean section. Both Dotti and Hepburn were unfaithful, with Dotti having affairs with younger women and Hepburn having a romantic relationship with actor Ben Gazzara during the filming of the film Bloodline (1979). The Dotti-Hepburn family was married for thirteen years but then divorced in 1982.

Hepburn, the widow of actress Merle Oberon, was in a relationship with Dutch actor Robert Wolders from 1980 to her death. During the later years of her second marriage, she encountered Wolders through a friend. She called the nine years she spent with him the best years of her life in 1989, but not necessarily.

Hepburn began abdominal pain when returning from Somalia to Switzerland in late September 1992. Though initial medical tests in Switzerland had inconsistent results, a laparoscopy at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in early November revealed a rare form of abdominal cancer related to a group of cancers named pseudomyxoma peritonei. The cancer had progressed slowly over the previous years as a thin layer over her small intestine. Hepburn began chemotherapy after surgery.

To celebrate her last Christmas, Hepburn and her family returned to Switzerland. She was unable to fly on commercial aircraft as a result of her recovery from injury. Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon, her longtime friend, arranged a helicopter ride from Los Angeles to Geneva, delivering her private Gulfstream jet packed with flowers. She spent her remaining days in hospice care at her home in Tolochenaz, Vaud, and was occasionally able to walk in her garden, but eventually returned to bedrest.

Hepburn died in her sleep at home on the evening of 20 January 1993. Gregory Peck paid tribute to Hepburn in which he recited Rabindranath Tagore's poem "Unending Love" after her death. On January 24, 1993, funeral services were held at Tolochenaz's village church. Maurice Eindiguer, the same pastor who baptized her son Sean in 1960, presided over her funeral, though UNICEF Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan paid a eulogy. Many family members and friends attended the funeral, including her sons, collaborator Robert Wolders, half-brother Ian Quarles van Ufford, ex-husbands Andrea Dotti and Mel Ferrer, UNICEF chiefs, and fellow actress Alain Delon and Roger Moore. Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor, and the Dutch royal family made flower arrangements at the funeral. Hepburn was laid to rest at the Tolochenaz Cemetery later that day.

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Entertainment career

Hepburn and her mother and siblings migrated to Amsterdam after the war ended in 1945, where she began ballet training under Sonia Gaskell, a leading figure in Dutch ballet, and Russian teacher Olga Tarasova.

Ella helped them during the war by serving as a cook and housekeeper for a wealthy family. In Seven Lessons (1948), an educational travel documentary made by Charles van der Linden and Henry Josephson, Hepburn made her film debut in the Netherlands as an air stewardess. Hepburn left London in January after receiving a ballet scholarship with Ballet Rambert, which was then based in Notting Hill. She earned her income by doing part-time as a model and dropped the word "Ruston" from her surname. Following Rambert's warning that despite her talent, her height, and weak constitution (the after-effects of wartime malnutrition) would make primaria ballerina unattainable, she decided to concentrate on acting.

Ella worked in menial jobs to help them, Hepburn performed as a chorus girl in the West End musical theatre revues, including Cecil Landeau's Sauce Tartare (1949) and Sauce Piquante (1950) at the Cambridge Theatre, and Cecil Landeau's Sauce Tartare (1949) and Sauce Piquante (1950) in the West End musical theatre revues. In addition, she appeared in an extremely "ambitious" revue, Summer Nights, at Ciro's London, a well-known nightclub, in 1950.

She took elocution lessons with actor Felix Aylmer to help her develop her voice during her theatre career. Hepburn was listed as a freelance actor with the Associated British Picture Corporation after being spotted by Margaret Harper-Nelson, the casting director of Ealing Studios, while performing in Sauce Piquante. She appeared in The Silent Village, a BBC Television production, and In minor roles in the films One Wild Oat, Laughter in Paradise, Young Wives' Tale, and The Lavender Hill Mob (all 1951). She appeared in her first major supporting role in Thorold Dickinson's The Secret People (1952), as a prodigious ballerina with all of her own dancing sequences.

Hepburn was then involved in a film shot in Monte Carlo, both English and French, titled "Westerns à Monte Carlo, 1952," which was shot in Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo, France. Coincidentally, French novelist Colette was filming in Monte Carlo and decided to cast Hepburn in the title role in the Broadway play Gigi. Hepburn had never performed on stage, and needed private instruction. Despite criticism that the stage version was inferior to the French film version, Gigi opened at the Fulton Theatre on November 24th, 1951. Life called her a "hit," while the New York Times said that "her talent is so winning and so right that she is the evening's queen." Hepburn has also been recognized for his work in the Theatre World Award category. The play ran for 219 performances, closing on May 31 in 1952, before going on tour, which started in Pittsburgh and visited Cleveland, Detroit, Washington, D. C., and Los Angeles on May 16, 1953.

Hepburn appeared in Roman Holiday (1953), playing Princess Ann, a European princess who flees the reins of dynasy and has a wild night out with an American newsman (Gregory Peck). Thorold Dickinson conducted a screen test with the young actress on September 18, 1951, shortly after its completion, but just after its premiere, who sent it to director William Wyler, who was in Rome preparing Roman Holidays. "As a result of the examination, a number of Paraphrasedoutput producers at Paraphrasedoutput have expressed interest in casting her," Wyler wrote a glowing note of thanks to Dickinson. Elizabeth Taylor had been a target for the role at first, but Wyler was so impressed by Hepburn's screen test that she was cast instead. "She had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence, and natural," Wyler later said. She was also very funny. She was enthralling, and we said, "She's the girl!"" The film was supposed to have only Gregory Peck's name above the title, with "Introducing Audrey Hepburn" below in smaller font. Peck, on the other hand, suggested to Wyler that he bring her name up to equal billing so that her name would appear before the title, and in a form as large as her: "You've got to change that because she'll be a big jerk."

The film was a box-office hit, and Hepburn earned critical acclaim for her portrayal, including a BAFTA Award for Best British Actress in a Leading Role, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama in 1953. A. H. Weiler's essay in The New York Times reflected: "Although she is not strictly a newcomer to film, Audrey Hepburn, the British actress who is playing Princess Anne for the first time, is a slender, elfin, and a wistful beauty, regal and childlike in her glowing admiration of newly discovered, simple pleasures and love." Although she bravely smiles at the conclusion of the affair, she remains a tragic figure facing a bleak future.

Hepburn was hired on a seven-picture contract with Paramount Pictures, with 12 months in between films allowing her to spend time on stage work. She appeared on the Time magazine's front page on September 7, 1953, and then became well known for her personal style. Hepburn appeared in Billy Wilder's romantic Cinderella-story comedy Sabrina (1954), in which wealthy brothers (Humphrey Bogart and William Holden) compete for the affections of their chauffeur's innocent daughter (Hepburn). She was nominated for the 1954 Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as winning the Best Actress Award in a Leading Role the year before. "A young lady of a remarkable variety of subtle and touching expressions within the confines of such a narrow frame," Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said. She is even more vibrant as the daughter and pet of the servants' hall than she was as princess last year, and no more than that can be said."

In the fantasy play Ondine on Broadway, Hepburn appeared onstage in 1954, playing a water nymph who falls in love with a human. "Somehow, Miss Hepburn is able to translate [its intangibles] into the language of the theater without artfulness or precociousness," a writer for The New York Times said. All grace and enchantment are present in her show, but she is limited by an instinct for the stage's realities." Her performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Play three days after she received the Academy Award for Roman Holiday, making her one of three actresses to receive the Academy and Tony Awards for Best Actress in the same year (the other two are Shirley Booth and Ellen Burstyn). Hepburn and her co-star Mel Ferrer began a friendship during the film and were married in Switzerland on September 25.

Despite the fact that Hepburn appeared in no new film releases in 1955, this year she was named World Film Favorite by the Golden Globe. She starred in a number of hit movies during the remainder of the decade, including BAFTA- and Golden Globe-nominated Natasha Rostova in War and Peace (1956), an adaptation of the Tolstoy novel set during the Napoleonic wars starring Henry Fonda and her husband Mel Ferrer. In her debut musical film, Funny Face (1957), wherein Fred Astaire, a fashion photographer, discovers a beatnik bookstore clerk (Hepburn) who, lured by a free trip to Paris, becomes a stunning model. In another romantic comedy, Love in the Afternoon (also 1957), Hepburn appeared alongside Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier.

In The Nun's Story (1959), Hepburn played Sister Luke, which chronicles the character's attempts to succeed as a nun alongside co-star Peter Finch. Hepburn's third Academy Award nomination was granted, as she received her second BAFTA Award. According to a Variety article, "Hepburn has her most demanding film role, and she gives her best appearance," while Films in Review says that her appearance "will forever exclude those who have deemed her less a performer than a symbol of the mature woman." Sister Luke's portrayal on film is one of the finest performances of the film. "I gave more time, passion, and concern to this role than to any of my previous television appearances," Hepburn said.

Hepburn's story was followed by a lukewarm reception at her only western film, in which she appeared alongside Burt Lancaster and Lillian Gish in a story of bigotry against a group of Native Americans.

Holly Golightly, a New Yorker, appeared in Blake Edwards' Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), a film loosely based on the Truman Capote novella of the same name. Capote condemned many of the changes made to sanitize the film version, and he would have preferred Marilyn Monroe to play the role, although he also stated that Hepburn "did a marvelous job." The character is considered one of the best-known in American cinema, as well as a key role for Hepburn. The dress she wears during the opening credits has been described as one of the twentieth century's greatest "little black dress" of all time. "I'm an introvert," Hepburn said about his work. Playing the extraverted girl was the hardest thing I've ever done." For her appearance, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Hepburn appeared in William Wyler's drama The Children's Hour (1961), in which she and Shirley MacLaine played teachers whose lives became difficult after two students accuse them of being lesbians. The film "is not well acted," according to Bosley Crowther of The New York Times, with the exception of Hepburn, who "gives the appearance of being sensitive and pure" of the film's "muted theme." Hepburn's "soft sensitive, amazing projection, and emotional understatement," according to Variety magazine, adding that Hepburn and MacLaine "beautifully complement each other."

In the comedic thriller Charade (1963), Hepburn played a young widow pursued by several men after her husband's money was stolen. Grant, 59, had previously been barred from male lead roles in Roman Holiday and Sabrina, was concerned about his age with 34-year-old Hepburn, who was suspicious of the romantic interplay. To please Hepburn's hesitance, the filmmakers decided to rewrite the script so Hepburn's character was pursued. The film turned out to be a positive experience for him; he said, "All I want for Christmas is another picture with Audrey Hepburn." Hepburn's third and best BAFTA Award as a result of her work as an administrator and another Golden Globe nomination. "Hepburn has cheerfully committed to a mood of how-nuts-can-you-be in an obviously comforting collection of expensive Givenchy costumes," critic Bosley Crowther said of her appearance.

When It Sizzles (1964), a screwball comedy in which she played the young assistant of a Hollywood screenwriter, helps him solve his writer's block by expounding on his imaginations of possible plots, Hepburn reunited with her Sabrina co-star William Holden in Paris. Several issues had affected the company's production. Holden's attempts to revive a romance with the now-married Hepburn were unsuccessful, and his alcoholism was starting to influence his work. After principal photography began, she demanded the dismissal of cinematographer Claude Renoir after seeing what she felt were unflattering dailies. She stayed in dressing room 55 because it was her lucky number and demanded that Hubert de Givenchy, her long-time designer's, be praised in the film for her perfume. On its first appearance in April, Variety's "marshmallow-weight hokum" was "uniformly panned," but critics were more sympathetic to Hepburn's performance, describing her as "a refreshingly personal being in an age of the exaggerated curve."

George Cukor's film adaptation of the stage musical My Fair Lady, which premiered in October, was Hepburn's second film since being released in 1964. "Not since Gone with the Wind has a motion picture ignited such ferocious excitement as My Fair Lady," Soundstage said, although Hepburn's role as Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle was a point of contention. Julie Andrews, who had originated the role on stage, was turned down for the role because producer Jack L. Warner felt Hepburn was a more "bankable" option. Hepburn had initially begged Warner to assist Andrews, but was eventually directed. Although non-singer Hepburn had performed in Funny Face and had long vocal preparations for her role in My Fair Lady, Marni Nixon's vocals were still dubbed by her as the role was more appropriate. Hepburn was initially furious and walked away from the restaurant when told.

Hepburn's success was lauded by critics. "The best part of [My Fair Lady] is that Audrey Hepburn so convincingly defends Jack Warner's decision to ask her to play the title role," Crowther wrote. "Audrey Hepburn is awesome," Gene Ringgold of Soundstage said. "Everyone agreed that if Julie Andrews was not going to be in the film, Audrey Hepburn would be the right choice." "Her" "graceful, glamorous appearance" was "the best of her career," the reviewer wrote in Time magazine. At the 1964-19th Academy Awards, Andrew Poppins received an Academy Award for Mary Poppins, but Hepburn was not even nominated. On the other hand, Hepburn did receive Best Actress accolades for both Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Circle awards.

Hepburn appeared in a number of genres throughout the decade, including the heist comedy How to Steal a Million (1966). Hepburn was the daughter of a well-known art dealer, whose collection was mainly made up of forgeries that were about to be revealed as fakes. Her character portrays a dutiful father who is trying to assist her father with the assistance of a man played by Peter O'Toole. In 1967, two films were followed by a film. Two for the Road, a non-linear and innovative British dramedy that follows the course of a couple's turbulent marriage. Hepburn was younger and happier than he's ever seen her, according to director Stanley Donen, who praised her co-star Albert Finney. Hepburn's second film, Wait Until Dark, is a suspense thriller in which Hepburn demonstrated her acting talent by playing a terrified blind woman. It was a difficult film for her, considering that husband Mel Ferrer was the film's producer. She lost fifteen pounds under the strain, but she found solace in co-star Richard Crenna and producer Terence Young. "Hepburn plays the traumatic role, the quickness with which she changes, and the confidence with which she reveals fear give her genuine confidence in the final scenes."

Hepburn spent more time with her family in the ensuing decades, but only occasionally. She attempted a comeback playing Maid Marian in the time piece Robin and Marian (1976), with Sean Connery co-starring as Robin Hood, which was moderately successful. "Connery and Hepburn seem to have arrived at a tacit understanding of their characters," Roger Ebert wrote about Hepburn. They glow. They do seem to be in love. They're planning to be incredibly diverse, fond, tender people; the passage of 20 years has given them grace and wisdom." Hepburn was reunited with director Terence Young (1979), releasing top-billing with Ben Gazzara, James Mason, and Romy Schneider. The film, which was an international intrigue set in the jet age, was a critical and box-office setback. Hepburn's last appearance in a film was opposite Gazzara in the comedy They All Laughed (1981), directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Dorothy Stratten, one of the film's actresses, was overshadowed by the death of one of its actors, and only a limited number was released. Hepburn co-starred with Robert Wagner in Love Among Thieves (1987), a made-for-television caper film.

Hepburn completed only two more entertainment-related projects after completing her last motion picture role — a cameo appearance as an angel in Steven Spielberg's Always (1989)—but not before that. Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn was a PBS documentary film that was shot in seven countries in the spring and summer of 1990. A one-hour special appeared in March 1991, and the series's national PBS premiere debuted on January 24, 1993, the day of her funeral services in Tolochenaz. Hepburn received the 1993 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming for his "Flower Gardens" episode. Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales, a spoken word collection, was the other project, which featured excerpts from classic children's stories and was released in 1992. It earned her a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.

Humanitarian career

Hepburn narrated two radio programs for UNICEF in the 1950s, re-telling children's tales of war. Hepburn was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF in 1989. After living the German occupation as a child, she expressed her gratitude for receiving international assistance and expressed her admiration to the organization.

Of the trip, she said,

Hepburn immunization campaign in Turkey in August 1988. Turkey was "the loveliest example" of UNICEF's capabilities, according to her. "The army gave us their trucks, the fishmongers donated their wagons for the vaccines, and when the time was set, the entire world was vaccinated." Not bad," the author says. Hepburn moved to South America in October. "I saw tiny mountain villages, slums, and shantytowns receive water systems for the first time by some miracle," Hepburn recounted in Venezuela and Ecuador, and UNICEF is the humanitarian organisation. Boys learned how to build their own schoolhouse using UNICEF bricks and cement."

Hepburn toured Central America in February 1989 and visited leaders in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. In April, she and Wolders traveled Sudan as part of a project called "Operation Lifeline." Aid organisations' meals had been cut off due to the civil war. The project was to carry food from Sudan to southern Sudan. "I saw but one shining truth: these are not natural disasters, but man-made tragedies for which there is only one man-made solution – peace," Hepburn said. Hepburn and Wolders went to Bangladesh in October 1989. "Often the children will have flies all over them," John Isaac, a UN photographer, told them, "but she would just hug them." I had never heard of it. Some people were concerned about a certain degree of uncertainty, but she would not be concerned about it. Children would only come up to take her hand and touch her – she was like the Pied Piper."

Hepburn moved to Vietnam in October 1990 in an attempt to collaborate with the government on national UNICEF-funded immunization and clean water projects. Hepburn went to Somalia in September 1992, four months before she died. "I stepped into a nightmare," she described as apocalyptic. I have lived in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, but I have never seen anything like this, and I can't have predicted it. I wasn't prepared for this." Despite being scared by what she had seen, Hepburn had a ray of hope: despite being afraid of what she had seen.

President George H. Bush presented Hepburn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in honor of her contributions to humanity, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded her the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her lifetime of service to humanity. UNICEF's New York headquarters unveiled a statue in 2002 commemorating Hepburn's lifetime of humanitarian work by unveiling "The Spirit of Audrey," in honor of UNICEF's New York headquarters. The United States Fund for UNICEF's Audrey Hepburn Society has also lauded her service for children.

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