May 4
FUNNY FACE DAY
Edda Kathleen Hepburn van Heemstra was born on this day in Brussels, Belgium in the year 1929. This is quite a large name for the gamine-faced, petite charmer we knew as Audrey Hepburn. At the young age of thirteen, she had already developed the need to provide relief to the human suffering surrounding her and enlisted in the Dutch underground in their fight against the Nazi occupation of Holland.
Nine years later, performing on the Broadway stage, critics found her to be charming, honest and talented in the title role of Gigi. She achieved stardom a mere two years later with her Academy award-winning performance in Roman Holiday. Audrey married Mel Ferrer on September 25, 1954 and co-starred with him and Henry Fonda in War and Peace. A year later, Funny Face premiered with Fred Astaire as her co-star. (The title role stuck to her like glue.) Love in the Afternoon opened the same year with Gary Cooper sharing the spotlight.
The seemingly fragile actress -- she fainted at the premiere of Farewell to Arms when the scene showed a difficult childbirth; and fell off a horse, fracturing several vertebrae while filming The Unforgiven -- received four Oscar nominations for Best Actress and made no less than two dozen movies in her film career including Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Children’s Hour in 1961, Charade [1963], My Fair Lady [1964] (Marni Nixon dubbed her singing), Two for the Road in 1967 and Robin and Marian with Sean Connery [1976]. Both stars received France’s Commander of Arts and Letters Award in 1987.
In later years, the diminutive star turned her attentions once more to affairs of the world, serving as spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund.
The world lost a great benefactor and a beautiful funny face when Audrey Hepburn died January 20, 1993.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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