Audrey Hepburn was an award-winning British actress and a humanitarian. Although she will always be remembered as the little-black-dress-wearing onscreen personification of Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, there are lots of curious facts about her. Read on to know more about Audrey Hepburn.
Audrey Hepburn was an EGOT.
She is one of only 16 EGOTS which means she won all of the four major entertainment awards: an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. She won an Emmy for ‘Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn’, a Grammy for children’salbum ‘Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales’, an Oscar for best actress in ‘Roman Holiday, and a Tony for best actress in ‘Ondine’. She was also nominated for five Oscars.
Audrey was not Truman Capote's first choice for Holly Golightly.
Sam Wasson, author of Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn and Breakfast at Tiffany's informed the media that Marilyn Monroe was Truman Capote’s choice for the role of Holly Golightly. However, Monroe declined the offer as her advisor and acting coach, Paula Strasberg insisted she not play ‘lady of the evening’.
She almost died during World War II.
Her son Dotti told the People magazine in 2017 that Audrey Hepburn almost died as a teenager during the Nazi occupation. As the war neared ending, she has jaundice and edema that gave her lifelong complications as she developed anemia for the rest of her life. However, rumours implied her famously slim figure was due to an eating disorder.
Audrey Hepburn was multi-talented.
Originally Audrey trained as a dancer and aspired to be a prima ballerina. At the age of 15, she relocated to London from the Netherlands and studied ballet. However, her malnutrition and lack of physical strength shattered her dream of being a professional dancer. Also, she could speak five languages, English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Italian.
Gregory Peck was intimidated by Hepburn.
Peck was an established star when Hepburn was cast along with him as Princess Ann in the 1953’s Roman Holiday. At that time, Hepburn was an unknown actress and her name was scheduled to appear in smaller font in the introduction, however, Peck insisted, ‘You've got to change that because she'll be a big star and I'll look like a big jerk’. Later, Hepburn won an Oscar for her role whereas Peck was not even nominated!
Hepburn has been bestowed the ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’.
She was given the U.S.’s highest civilian honor in 1992 by George Bush. There is also a statue of Hepburn at UNICEF headquarters recognizing her tireless contribution as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
