Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993)

On May 4, 1929, Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston—who will
one day be better known to legions of film fans as Audrey
Hepburn—was born near Brussels, Belgium.

The daughter of an English banker and a Dutch baroness, Hepburn
was attending school in London when World War II erupted in
Europe. During the war, the Nazis occupied Holland, where the
young Audrey and her mother were staying, and the family
suffered many hardships. Hepburn continued to pursue her
ballet studies, and at war’s end, she returned to London, where
she modeled and began acting in small parts on stage and screen.

In 1951, Hepburn was “discovered” by the French writer Colette
while in Monaco shooting a film. Colette insisted Hepburn be cast
in the title role of the Broadway version of her novel Gigi, and the
young actress made her Broadway debut that same year.