Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Audrey Hepburn Rocks!



On May 4. 1929 - Audrey Kathleen Ruston, a.k.a. Audrey Hepburn, was born in Ixelles, Belgium. She spent her childhood growing up in Nazi occupied Arnhem, Netherlands during World War II where she learned to be a little ballerina (and you thought her graceful movements just came naturally). When she was 21, she moved to London to continue her ballet training and also got some work as a model. In a few short years, she moved to New York and got the lead role in the Broadway show Gigi in 1951.And two years later in 1953, she was starring with Gregory Peck in one of her best films, Roman Holiday. During her film career, she worked with many other stars including Humphrey Bogart, Rex Harrison, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, William Holden, Fred Astaire, Peter O'Toole, George Peppard, and Albert Finney.

One of my favorite Audrey Hepburn movies is Charade, where she plays a woman who gets tangled in a crazy web of international intrigue and falls in love with a man (Cary Grant) who loves her, but is also not very truthful to her because of his job as a secret agent of sorts. The film also stars Walter Matthau, James Coburn, and George Kennedy, The film is directed by the great Stanley Donen, with a killer musical score by Henry Mancini.