History Made Every Day™

Broadway play Gigi opens, based on the novel by French writer Colette. Colette herself insisted that little known actress Audrey Hepburn play the lead. The show ran for six months and brought Hepburn enormous attention, leading to her film debut in Roman Holiday (1953).

Hepburn was born Audrey Hepburn-Ruston in 1929 near Brussels; she dropped the "Ruston" from her name when she began acting.

Hepburn's father, an English banker, left Hepburn and her mother, a Dutch baroness, when Hepburn was six. Hepburn attended school in England, but when World War II broke out, her mother brought her to Holland, thinking her daughter would be safer there. During the war, the Nazis occupied Holland. Delicate-looking Audrey continued to attend school and study ballet-while reportedly smuggling messages to the Resistance in her ballet shoes.

After the war, Hepburn studied ballet in Amsterdam and London and went on to study acting. She played bit parts on stage and screen until 1951, when she met the French writer Colette. The meeting led to her role in Gigi, which launched her on the road to stardom. Hepburn won the Oscar for Best Actress in her first film, Roman Holiday, and continued to win lead roles in strong films, including Sabrina (1951), opposite Humphrey Bogart, Funny Face (1957), The Nun's Story (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and My Fair Lady (1964).

Hepburn married actor and director Mel Ferrer in 1954, and he produced her Oscar-nominated 1967 film, Wait Until Dark. The couple divorced in 1968, and she married an Italian psychiatrist in 1969. The couple moved to Europe, and Hepburn largely retired from Hollywood, devoting her time to charitable causes. She became a special ambassador for UNICEF in the 1970s.

In 1976, after a nine-year hiatus, Hepburn appeared as a middle-aged Maid Marian in Robin and Marian opposite Sean Connery. She made a handful of film appearances in the 1970s and 1980s, including her final film appearance, as an angel in Always (1989), directed by Steven Spielberg. Hepburn continued to work for charitable causes until her death in 1993.