Audrey's Biography

Actress, philanthropist.
Born on May 4, 1929, in Brussels, Belgium.

A talented performer, Audrey Hepburn was known for her beauty, elegance, and grace. Often imitated, she remains one of Hollywood’s greatest style icons. A native of Brussels, Hepburn spent part of her youth in England at a boarding school there. During much of World War II, she studied at the Arnhem Conservatory in The Netherlands. After the Nazis invaded the country, Hepburn and her mother struggled to survive. She reportedly helped the resistance movement by delivering messages, according to an article in The New York Times.
After the war, Hepburn continued to pursue an interest in dance. She studied ballet in Amsterdam and later in London. In 1948, Hepburn made her stage debut as a chorus girl in the musical High Button Shoes in London. More small parts on the British stage followed. She was a chorus girl in Sauce Tartare (1949), but was moved to a featured player in Sauce Piquante (1950).
That same year, Hepburn made her feature film debut in 1951’s One Wild Oat in an uncredited role. She went on to parts in such films as Young Wives’ Tales (1951) and The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) starring Alec Guiness. Her next project on the New York stage introduced her to American audiences.
At the age of 22, Audrey Hepburn went to New York to star in the Broadway production of Gigi, based on the book by the French writer Colette. Set in Paris around 1900, the comedy focuses on the title character, a young teenage girl on the brink of adulthood. Her relatives try to teach her ways of being a courtesan, to enjoy the benefits of being with a wealthy man without having to marry. They try to get a friend of the family, Gaston, to become her patron, but the young couple has other ideas.
Only a few weeks after the play premiered, news reports indicated that Hepburn was being wooed by Hollywood. Only two years later, she took the world by storm in the film Roman Holiday (1953) with Gregory Peck. Audiences and critics alike were wowed by her portrayal of Princess Ann, the royal who escapes the constrictions of her title for a short time. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this performance.

For the rest of the 1960s, Hepburn took on a variety of roles. She starred with Cary Grant in the romantic thriller Charade (1963). Playing the lead in the film version of the popular musical My Fair Lady (1964), she went through one of the most famous metamorphoses of all time. As Eliza Doolittle, she played an English flower girl who becomes a high society lady. Taking on more dramatic fare, she starred a blind woman in the suspenseful tale Wait Until Dark (1967) opposite Alan Arkin. Her character used her wits to overcome the criminals that were harassing her. This film brought her a fifth Academy Award nomination. That same year, Hepburn and her husband separated and later divorced. She married Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti in 1969, and the couple had a son, Luca, in 1970.

In her later years, acting took a back seat to her work on behalf of children. She became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF in the late 1980s. Traveling the world, Hepburn tried to raise awareness about children in need. She understood too well what it was like to go hungry from her days in The Netherlands during the German Occupation. Making more than 50 trips, Hepburn visited UNICEF projects in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. She won a special Academy Award for her humanitarian work in 1993, but she did not live long enough to receive it. Hepburn died on January 20, 1993, at her home in Tolochenaz, Switzerland after a battle with colon cancer.
Her work to help children around the world continues. Her sons, Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti, along with her companion Robert Wolders, established the Audrey Hepburn Memorial Fund to continue Hepburn’s humanitarian work in 1994. It is now known as the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.


~biography.com

ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953)

Audrey Hepburn's delectable, Oscar-winning American debut. She plays a teenage princess on holiday in Rome who ditches her royal chaperones to gallivant around town on the arm of Gregory Peck. Unbeknownst to her, he's a reporter angling for a big scoop. What might have been a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy turned out to be one of the most charming films of the '50s under the sure hand of director William Wyler.

Click the link below to watch the tralier for Roman Holiday

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?o_cid=mediaroomlink&cid=98669
B/W 118m directed by William Wyler
Starring: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power, Laura Solari, Harcourt Williams, Margaret Rawlings, Tullio Carminati, Paolo Carlini, Claudio Ermelli

In the Spotlight: Audrey Hepburn

One of a kind to say the very least, Audrey Hepburn came to Hollywood, skinny, with bushy eyebrows and rat-gnawed bangs-- yet she changed the definition of class and glamour for a generation and the effects can still be seen today. But Audrey was not a fashion model. Besides a pretty face, she was a fine actress and scored hits in several romantic comedies as well as a few dramas-- overall earning five Best Actress Nominations.

~reelclassics.com

Laurence Olivier Tribute

Fast Fact & Quote

Fast Fact: Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh were married for 20 years...

"We were young. We were beautiful. We lived for each other."--Vivien Leigh on her marriage to Laurence Olivier after their divorce. "

Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh

In the Spotlight: Laurence Olivier

He is an actor who many consider to be the greatest in the English-speaking world during the twentieth century. Though Sir Laurence Olivier was based mostly in England, he made a significant number of Hollywood films. He was nominated for Academy Awards as either an actor, producer or director twelve times, winning twice, while also being honored with two special Oscars. In his long and versatile career, Olivier appeared in more than 120 stage roles, nearly 60 films and more than 15 television productions.

As a sought after actor, Olivier heeded the call to Hollywood again and was considerably more successful. He starred as Heathclifff in the scintillating romance, Wuthering Heights (1939), and became an international matinee idol. He followed that hit with several others, including Rebecca and That Hamilton Woman. Olivier's most productive period came from directing and producing. He did this, while also starring in Henry V (1944) and Hamlet (1948). He won Best Film and Best Actor awards for Hamlet from the Academy. No matter what country has produced his films, Olivier remains an international star whose talent belongs to all nations.

Burdened by ill health for more than a decade, Olivier fought cancer and other ailments while working at a furious pace. He was knighted in 1947, and in 1970 he was made "Baron Olivier of Brighton," for services to the theater, which allowed him to sit in the House of the Lords. If that wasn't enough, in 1981 he was given the Order of Merit. In America, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bestowed its version of knighthood on "Lord Larry," awarding him a special Oscar "for the full body of his work, the unique achievement of his entire career and his lifetime of contribution to the art of film.

source..www.laurenceolivier.com

Fast Fact:

Did you know that Laurence Olivier was originally going to play Don Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" (1972) because he had a perfect italian accent which was needed for the part, but at the last moment he fell ill and he was replaced by Marlon Brando.

~Contribution by Cecilia

Larry gets tongue-tied

Laurence Olivier gets tongue-tied while making an award acceptance speech.

A 1983 Interview with Laurence Olivier

Oliviers Quotes.....

"Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult."

"Have a very good reason for everything you do."

"I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture."

"I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor-to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself."

"I often think that could we creep behind the actor's eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book."

"I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act."

"I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it."

"I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman."

"If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey."

"Lead the audience by the nose to the thought."

"Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word."

"My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself."

"Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it."

"The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand."

"The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass."

"We ape, we mimic, we mock. We act."

"We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings."

In the Spotlight: GREGORY PECK

Real Name: Eldred Gregory Peck

Birthday: 04/05/1916

Birthplace: La Jolla, CA, USA

Occupation: Actor

Death date: 07/12/2003

Any ideas for something you would like to see here about Gregory Peck,

or suggestions in general, would very much appreciated.

Thank you, Audrey

Movies on Amazon!

These links will take you to Amazon.com for purchasing info. :o) (VHS)

The Adventures of Marco Polo

Along Came Jones

Ball of Fire

Beau Geste

Blowing Wild

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

Casanova Brown

Cloak and Dagger

The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell

The Cowboy and the Lady

Dallas

Desire

Distant Drums

A Farewell to Arms

Fighting Caravans

For Whom the Bell Tolls

The Fountainhead

Friendly Persuasion

The General Died at Dawn

Good Sam

The Hanging Tree

High Noon

Gary Cooper -Face of a Hero

Gary Cooper: American Life, American Legend

It

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer

Love in the Afternoon

Man of the West

Meet John Doe

Morocco

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

The Naked Edge

Now and Forever

The Plainsman

The Pride of the Yankees

The Real Glory

Return to Paradise

Saratoga Trunk

Sergeant York

Souls at Sea

Springfield Rifle

The Story of Dr. Wassell

Task Force

They Came to Cordura

Today We Live

Unconquered

Vera Cruz

The Virginian

The Wedding Night

The Westerner

Wings

The Wreck of the Mary Deare

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

A video clip from "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town". This is the last part of the film, with Cooper giving (as usual ;o) an outstanding performance. Don't miss it! You can watch the whole film on YouTube. Check out leslie04film's channel.

Sergeant York

A Brief Synopsis

Alvin York (Gary Cooper), a poor Tennessee hillbilly, is an exceptional marksman, but a ne'er-do-well prone to drinking and fighting, which doesn't make things any easier for his patient mother (Margaret Wycherly). He undergoes a religious awakening and turns his life around, assisted by Pastor Rosier Pile (Walter Brennan).
When York is drafted into the army for World War I, he tries to get out as a conscientious objector due to his religious beliefs, but a sympathetic commanding officer persuades him to stay.

Fact: In 1942, he won his first Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as the title character in Sergeant York.
Fact: The real Alvin York refused to authorize a movie about his life unless Gary Cooper portrayed him.

Sergeant York Trailer link:
http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=2526&titleId=1386

Did you Know? Trivia

Who was considered for Gone with the Wind?





Part- Rhett Butler
Actors:

Gary Cooper

Ronald Coleman

Errol Flynn

Tyrone Power

Victor Mature

Groucho Marx

Basil Rathbone

Part- Scarlett O'Harra
Actresses:

Jean Aurther

Lucille Ball

Joan Bennett

Claudette Colbert

Bette Davis

Katherine Hepburn

Free Film!

"Meet John Doe"






Director: Frank CapraProduction
Company: Warner Brothers
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w
Keywords: Comedy

This is a Creative Commons film, and is therefore public domain.
Due to the fact that some people may not be able to get Adobe FlashPlayer to work on their computers, here is a link that will take you directly to the movie:

http://www.archive.org/details/meet_john_doe

In the Spotlight: GARY COOPER

Cooper was born Frank James Cooper in Helena Montana, the son of a Bedfordshire England, farmer turned American lawyer and judge, Charles Henry Cooper and England-born Alice (née Brazier) Cooper.
Once a guide in Yellowstone National Park and an aspiring cartoonist, Gary Cooper began his movie career as an extra in many-a low-budget western and later went on to play starring roles in a variety of film genres, becoming one of Hollywood's most popular leading men for almost thirty years. -reelclassics.com





Top Suggested movie:
Mr. Deeds Goes To Town