I just read a bio about her at IMDb.
“Christened simply Audrey Kathleen Ruston, her mother Baroness Ella Van Heemstra temporarily changed her daughter’s name from ‘Audrey’ to ‘Edda’ during the war, feeling that ‘Audrey’ might indicate her British roots too strongly. During the war, being English in occupied Netherlands was not an asset; it could have attracted the attention of the occupying German forces and resulted in confinement or even deportation.”
“While she vacationed with her mother in Arnhem, Netherlands, Hitler’s army took over the town. It was here that she fell on hard times during the Nazi occupation. Audrey suffered from depression and malnutrition.”
“During the battle of Arnhem, 16-year-old Audrey was a volunteer nurse in a Dutch hospital. The hospital received many wounded Allied soldiers, one of whom young Audrey helped nurse back to health was a young British paratrooper – and future director – named Terence Young. More than 20 years later, Young directed Hepburn in Wait Until Dark (1967).”
“Turned down a role in the film The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) because, as a young girl in the Netherlands during the war, she had witnessed Nazi soldiers publicly executing people in the streets and herding Jews onto railroad cars to be sent to the death camps. She said that participating in the film would bring back too many painful memories for her. Years later, in 1990, during her humanitarian career, she accompanied composer Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony orchestra to narrate portions of Frank’s diary for a symphonic work he had written, “From The Diary of Anne Frank”, which she performed on a small tour in the United States and London. Proceeds from all the concerts benefited UNICEF.”
“Was fluent in English, Dutch, Spanish, French, and Italian. She was raised bilingually; speaking English and Dutch (resulting in her unique accent). Throughout her life, she used multilingualism to great advantage with international press in both her careers as an actress and humanitarian.”
“When she failed to receive an Academy Award nomination for her role as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1964), Katharine Hepburn wired her with a message of encouragement: ‘Don’t worry about it. You’ll get it one day for a part that doesn’t rate it.’ Ironically, when Audrey’s next (and last) nomination came for Wait Until Dark (1967) in 1967, Hepburn beat her in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) – in a part that arguably didn’t rate it.”
“After Wait Until Dark (1967) was offered the leads in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), 40 Carats (1973), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), The Exorcist (1973), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and The Turning Point (1977) but decided to stay in retirement and raise her sons.”
Even though my previous post was an attempt to satirize her reported desire to never exceed 103 pounds, I have so much respect and admiration for her now that I’ve read the above excerpts. I think her life story was greater than the sum of her movies.
Composing members:
0
Composing members:
0
