BIOGRAPHY
In Belgium On May 4th, 1929, the famous British actress Audrey Kathleen Ruston was born to Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston and to Baroness Ella van Heemstra.
At the age of 5, Audrey started studying ballet and was training to be a prima ballerina, compared to her peers at her ballet class she was taller than all her peers, due to this she couldn't become a prima ballerina, and her teacher instead suggested her to become a second ballerina.
When Audrey was 6 years old, her parents divorced due to conflicting views of the Nazi party. Later Audrey said that the divorce was the most traumatic incident that happened in her life. She and her mother then moved to Arnhem in the Netherlands, her mother thought they would be safe from the Nazi invasion. Unfortunately, in 1940, the Netherlands fell under the Nazi control until 1945. During the occupation, she witnessed her uncle and other family members get shot in the street by the Nazis and trains filled with Jewish children being deported. During the war, she suffered from anaemia, respiratory problems, and oedema. This resulted in a lasting effect on her, and her malnutrition during the war continued to affect her throughout her life.
When Audrey was first getting into acting, Audrey played several minor roles in films until a director noticed her in 1952 and helped her to get her name out through the film "Roman Holiday". This filmed helped Audrey to establish her talent and allowed her to continue to have roles with many of the leading actors.
Audrey was very popular during her time due to many factors. She was naturally beautiful and had an innocent atmosphere. Audrey was highly respected in the film industry and was often voted the most beautiful woman of the century. Nonetheless, Audrey never allowed her fame and popularity change who she was.
Eventually, in 1961, she played a
more demanding and famous role of Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". She considered it one of the most hardest roles for her to carry out due to the social nature of the character, which contradicted to her more restrained nature. She the auctioned off her "little black dress" from the film, and with the $.5 million dollars its sold for was donated to one of her charities.
After 15 years of successful years of acting, she began to move away from acting and spent more time with her family and working with UNICEF. She was a special ambassador for UNICEF and was actively involved in many campaigns to help and improve the conditions in which children lived around the world. She visited homeless children in south America and was outraged at the conditions in which they lived in. This experience kindled her involved participation in UNICEF and her generous financial donations. Unfortunately, she passed away after a year-long struggle with colon cancer on January 20th, 1993 at the age of 63.
Audrey Hepburn is very inspirational to me because she survived her parents divorce at the age of 5, she was told she couldn't become a prima ballerina when dancing was her passion, she survived a Nazi invasion she even suffered 4 miscarriages but even after all that she didn't give up, and even when all those hardships were thrown at her she wasn't selfish and instead helped others, she used her money, not for herself but for charities, she used her fame to give back to others to help children in similar situations that she faced in her childhood and because of all she has done and faced she went on to become one of the most widely respected women. For this reason, Audrey Kathleen Ruston will forever remain an icon not only in the United States, not only in England but around the world.