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152-911: Audrey Kathleen Hepburn (née Ruston ; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Hepburn had a successful career in Hollywood and was recognised as a film and fashion icon , she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Hollywood cinema and was inducted into the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List . Born into an aristocratic family in Ixelles , Brussels, Hepburn spent parts of her childhood in Belgium, England and

304-662: A BAFTA Award for Best British Actress in a Leading Role , and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama in 1953. In his review in The New York Times , A. H. Weiler wrote: "Although she is not precisely a newcomer to films, Audrey Hepburn, the British actress who is being starred for the first time as Princess Anne, is a slender, elfin, and wistful beauty, alternately regal and childlike in her profound appreciation of newly-found, simple pleasures and love. Although she bravely smiles her acknowledgement of

456-460: A UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador . A month later, she died of appendix cancer at her home in Tolochenaz , Vaud, Switzerland at the age of 63. Audrey Kathleen Ruston (later, Hepburn-Ruston) was born on 4 May 1929 at number 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles , a municipality of Brussels, Belgium. She was known to her family as Adriaantje . Hepburn's mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra (1900–1984), was

608-670: A chorus girl in the West End musical theatre revues High Button Shoes (1948) at the London Hippodrome , and Cecil Landeau's Sauce Tartare (1949) and Sauce Piquante (1950) at the Cambridge Theatre . Also, in 1950, she worked as a dancer in an exceptionally "ambitious" revue, Summer Nights, at Ciro's London , a prominent nightclub . During her theatrical work, she took elocution lessons with actor Felix Aylmer to develop her voice. After being spotted by

760-487: A Dutch noblewoman. Ella was the daughter of Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra , who served as the mayor of Arnhem from 1910 to 1920 and as the governor of Dutch Guiana from 1921 to 1928, and Baroness Elbrig Willemine Henriette van Asbeck (1873–1939), a granddaughter of Count Dirk van Hogendorp . At age 19, she married Jonkheer Hendrik Gustaaf Adolf Quarles van Ufford—an oil executive based in Batavia, Dutch East Indies , where

912-472: A European princess who escapes the reins of royalty and has a wild night out with an American newsman ( Gregory Peck ). On 18 September 1951, shortly after Secret People was finished but before its premiere, Thorold Dickinson made a screen test with the young starlet and sent it to director William Wyler , who was in Rome preparing Roman Holiday . Wyler wrote a glowing note of thanks to Dickinson, saying that "as

1064-619: A Wonderful Life , It Happened One Night , the original King Kong , Mutiny on the Bounty , Top Hat , City Lights , Red River , The Lady from Shanghai , Rear Window , On the Waterfront , Rebel Without a Cause , Some Like It Hot , and The Manchurian Candidate . The studio system and the Golden Age of Hollywood succumbed to two forces that developed in the late 1940s: In 1938, Walt Disney's Snow White and

1216-532: A ballet scholarship with Ballet Rambert , which was then based in Notting Hill . She supported herself with part-time work as a model, and dropped "Ruston" from her surname. After she was told by Rambert that despite her talent, her height and weak constitution (the after-effect of wartime malnutrition) would make the status of prima ballerina unattainable, she decided to concentrate on acting. While Ella worked in menial jobs to support them, Hepburn appeared as

1368-513: A chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions and then had minor appearances in several films. Hepburn rose to stardom in the romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953) alongside Gregory Peck , for which she was the first actress to win an Oscar , a Golden Globe Award , and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. That year, she also won a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for her performance in Ondine . Hepburn went on to star in

1520-559: A compromise with Arnold in October 1940 and signing a consent decree agreeing to, within three years: The "Little Three" ( Universal Studios , United Artists , and Columbia Pictures ), who did not own any theaters, refused to participate in the consent decree. A number of independent film producers were also unhappy with the compromise and formed a union known as the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers and sued Paramount for

1672-419: A computer and manipulate them digitally. The possibilities became apparent in director James Cameron 's Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), in images of the shape-changing character T-1000 . Computer graphics or CG advanced to a point where Jurassic Park (1993) was able to use the techniques to create realistic looking animals. Jackpot (2001) became the first film that was shot entirely in digital. In

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1824-547: A fashion photographer, discovers a beatnik bookshop clerk (Hepburn) who, lured by a free trip to Paris, becomes a beautiful model. Hepburn starred in another romantic comedy, Love in the Afternoon (also 1957), alongside Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier . Hepburn played Sister Luke in The Nun's Story (1959), which focuses on the character's struggle to succeed as a nun, alongside co-star Peter Finch . The role produced

1976-528: A homegrown supply of actors—lured west from the New York City stage after the introduction of sound films—to form one of the 20th century's most remarkable growth industries. At motion pictures' height of popularity in the mid-1940s, the studios were cranking out a total of about 400 movies a year, seen by an audience of 90 million Americans per week. Sound also became widely used in Hollywood in

2128-531: A jungle girl who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller, and The Unforgiven (1960), her only western film , in which she appeared opposite Burt Lancaster and Lillian Gish in a story of racism against a group of Native Americans. Hepburn next starred as New Yorker Holly Golightly in Blake Edwards 's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), a film loosely based on the Truman Capote novella of

2280-460: A larger version of the same badge, which is worn as a star on the left chest. It comes with a sash that is worn over the right shoulder (similarly to the Grand Cross of an order of chivalry ), with its rosette (blue with a white edge, bearing the central disc of the badge at its center) resting on the left hip. When the medal with Distinction is awarded, the star may be presented hanging from

2432-588: A leading figure in Dutch ballet, and Russian teacher Olga Tarasova. Due to the loss of the family fortune, Ella had to support them by working as a cook and housekeeper for a wealthy family. Hepburn made her film debut playing an air stewardess in Dutch in Seven Lessons (1948), an educational travel film made by Charles van der Linden and Henry Josephson. Later that year, Hepburn moved to London after accepting

2584-519: A limited release. Six years later, Hepburn co-starred with Robert Wagner in a made-for-television caper film , Love Among Thieves (1987). After finishing her last motion picture role—a cameo appearance as an angel in Steven Spielberg 's Always (1989)—Hepburn completed only two more entertainment-related projects, both critically acclaimed. Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn

2736-640: A major film production center. In Colorado , Denver was home to the Art-O-Graf Film Company, and Walt Disney 's early Laugh-O-Gram Studio was based in Kansas City , Missouri . From 1908, Jacksonville, Florida's motion picture industry saw more than 30 silent film companies establish studios in town, including Kalem Studios , Metro Pictures (later MGM ), Edison Studios , Majestic Films, King-Bee Films Corporation , Vim Comedy Company , Norman Studios , Gaumont Film Company and

2888-414: A mission called "Operation Lifeline". Because of civil war, food from aid agencies had been cut off. The mission was to ferry food to southern Sudan . Hepburn said, "I saw but one glaring truth: These are not natural disasters but man-made tragedies for which there is only one man-made solution – peace." In October 1989, Hepburn and Wolders went to Bangladesh. John Isaac , a UN photographer, said, "Often

3040-400: A neck ribbon and can be identified by its size, which is larger than the standard badge. In addition to the full-size insignia, the award is accompanied by a service ribbon for wear on military service uniforms, a miniature medal pendant for wear on mess dress or civilian formal wear , and a lapel badge for wear on civilian clothes, all of which comes in the full presentation set. There

3192-583: A nightmare. I have seen famine in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, but I have seen nothing like this – so much worse than I could possibly have imagined. I wasn't prepared for this." Though scarred by what she had seen, Hepburn still had hope stating: As we move into the twenty-first century, there is much to reflect upon. We look around us and see that the promises of yesterday have to come to pass. People still live in abject poverty, people are still hungry, people still struggle to survive. And among these people we see

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3344-419: A number of successful films such as Sabrina (1954), in which Humphrey Bogart and William Holden compete for her affection; Funny Face (1957), a musical in which she sang her own parts; the drama The Nun's Story (1959); the romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); the thriller-romance Charade (1963), opposite Cary Grant ; and the musical My Fair Lady (1964). In 1967, she starred in

3496-815: A number of theaters in the late 1920s, and would hold a monopoly on theaters in Detroit, Michigan . By the 1930s, almost all of the first-run metropolitan theaters in the United States were owned by the Big Five studios— MGM , Paramount Pictures , RKO , Warner Bros. , and 20th Century Fox . Motion picture companies operated under the studio system . The major studios kept thousands of people on salary—actors, producers, directors, writers, stunt men, crafts persons, and technicians. They owned or leased Movie Ranches in rural Southern California for location shooting of westerns and other large-scale genre films, and

3648-525: A play. The meeting led them to collaborate in Ondine , during which they began a relationship. Eight months later, on 25 September 1954, they were married in Bürgenstock , Switzerland, while preparing to star together in the film War and Peace (1956). She and Ferrer had a son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer , born on 17 June 1960. Prior to Sean's birth, Hepburn had two other pregnancies that ended in miscarriages,

3800-430: A result of the test, a number of the producers at Paramount have expressed interest in casting her." The producers of the film had initially wanted Elizabeth Taylor for the role, but Wyler was so impressed by Hepburn's screen test that he cast her instead. Wyler later commented, "She had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence, and talent. She also was very funny. She was absolutely enchanting, and we said, 'That's

3952-488: A row. Muybridge's accomplishment led inventors everywhere to attempt to make similar devices. In the United States , Thomas Edison was among the first to produce such a device, the kinetoscope and kinetograph . The history of cinema in the United States can trace its roots to the East Coast , where, at one time, Fort Lee, New Jersey , was the motion-picture capital of America. The American film industry began at

4104-619: A series of successful films during the remainder of the decade, including her BAFTA- and Golden Globe-nominated role as Natasha Rostova in War and Peace (1956), an adaptation of the Tolstoy novel set during the Napoleonic wars, starring Henry Fonda and her husband Mel Ferrer. She exhibited her dancing abilities in her debut musical film , Funny Face (1957), wherein Fred Astaire ,

4256-428: A spoken-word recording titled Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales earned her a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children . She stands as one of few entertainers who have won competitive Academy, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards known as EGOT . Hepburn won three BAFTA Awards for Best British Actress in a Leading Role . In recognition of her film career, she received BAFTA's Lifetime Achievement Award,

4408-572: A star decoration but without a sash). The executive order calls for the medal to be awarded annually on or around July 4, and at other convenient times as chosen by the president, but it has not been awarded every year (e.g., 2001, 2010). The recipient selection process is not made public, but the Trump administration stated that it included recommendations and nominations from the public, Cabinet , White House senior staff, and other presidential advisory bodies, which were then vetted prior to presentation to

4560-561: A third Academy Award nomination for Hepburn, and earned her a second BAFTA Award. A review in Variety reads: "Hepburn has her most demanding film role, and she gives her finest performance", while Henry Hart in Films in Review stated that her performance "will forever silence those who have thought her less an actress than a symbol of the sophisticated child/woman. Her portrayal of Sister Luke

4712-652: A time to theaters and use the lock-in to cover for releases of mediocre quality. Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold —a noted " trust buster " of the Roosevelt administration—took this opportunity to initiate proceedings against the eight largest Hollywood studios in July 1938 for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act . The federal suit resulted in five of the eight studios (the "Big Five": Warner Bros. , MGM , Fox , RKO and Paramount ) reaching

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4864-401: A vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. While there, the company decided to explore new territories, traveling several miles north to Hollywood: a little village that was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, In Old California , a Biograph melodrama about California in the 19th century, when the state

5016-494: A young widow pursued by several men who chase after the fortune stolen by her murdered husband. The 59-year-old Grant, who had previously withdrawn from the starring male lead roles in Roman Holiday and Sabrina , was sensitive about his age difference with 34-year-old Hepburn, and was uncomfortable about the romantic interplay. To satisfy his concerns, the filmmakers agreed to alter the screenplay so that Hepburn's character

5168-479: Is a suspense thriller in which Hepburn demonstrated her acting range by playing the part of a terrorised blind woman. Filmed on the brink of her divorce, it was a difficult film for her, as husband Mel Ferrer was its producer. She lost fifteen pounds under the stress, but she found solace in co-star Richard Crenna and director Terence Young . Hepburn earned her fifth and final competitive Academy Award nomination for Best Actress; Bosley Crowther affirmed, "Hepburn plays

5320-404: Is even more luminous as the daughter and pet of the servants' hall than she was as a princess last year, and no more than that can be said." Hepburn also returned to the stage in 1954, playing a water nymph who falls in love with a human in the fantasy play Ondine on Broadway . A critic for The New York Times commented that "somehow, Miss Hepburn is able to translate [its intangibles] into

5472-401: Is one of the great performances of the screen." Hepburn spent a year researching and working on the role, saying, "I gave more time, energy, and thought to this role than to any of my previous screen performances". Following The Nun's Story , Hepburn received a lukewarm reception for starring with Anthony Perkins in the romantic adventure Green Mansions (1959), in which she played Rima ,

5624-650: Is so winning and so right that she is the success of the evening". Hepburn also received a Theatre World Award for the role. The play ran for 219 performances, closing on 31 May 1952, before going on tour, which began 13 October 1952 in Pittsburgh and visited Cleveland , Chicago, Detroit, Washington, D. C., and Los Angeles, before closing on 16 May 1953 in San Francisco. Hepburn had her first starring role in Roman Holiday (1953), playing Princess Ann,

5776-462: Is that Audrey Hepburn superbly justifies the decision of Jack Warner to get her to play the title role." Gene Ringgold of Soundstage also commented that, "Audrey Hepburn is magnificent. She is Eliza for the ages", while adding, "Everyone agreed that if Julie Andrews was not to be in the film, Audrey Hepburn was the perfect choice." The reviewer in Time magazine said her "graceful, glamorous performance"

5928-572: Is the supreme civilian decoration that can be awarded in discretion of the president, whereas its predecessor, the Medal of Freedom, was inferior in precedence to the Medal for Merit ; the Medal of Freedom was awarded by any of three Cabinet secretaries, whereas the Medal for Merit was awarded by the president, as is the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President John F. Kennedy established

6080-400: Is too much for me. The 'Third World' is a term I don't like very much, because we're all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering. In August 1988, Hepburn went to Turkey on an immunisation campaign. She called Turkey "the loveliest example" of UNICEF's capabilities. Of the trip, she said, "The army gave us their trucks, the fishmongers gave their wagons for

6232-752: The Ealing Studios casting director, Margaret Harper-Nelson, while performing in Sauce Piquante , Hepburn was registered as a freelance actress with the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC). She appeared in the BBC Television play The Silent Village , and in minor roles in the films One Wild Oat , Laughter in Paradise , Young Wives' Tale , and The Lavender Hill Mob (all 1951). She

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6384-740: The Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award , the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award and the Special Tony Award . Later in life, Hepburn devoted much of her time to UNICEF , to which she had contributed since 1954. Between 1988 and 1992, she worked in some of the poorest communities of Africa, South America and Asia. In December 1992, Hepburn received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as

6536-531: The Great Seal of the United States ) within a golden ring. Golden bald eagles with spread wings stand between the points of the star. It is worn around the neck on a blue ribbon having white edge stripes. Women may choose to receive the award as a bow worn on the left chest (as for Margaret Thatcher ). A special and rarely granted award, called the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, has

6688-997: The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her contribution to humanity. In 2002, at the United Nations Special Session on Children , UNICEF honoured Hepburn's legacy of humanitarian work by unveiling a statue, "The Spirit of Audrey", at UNICEF's New York headquarters. Her service for children is also recognised through the United States Fund for UNICEF 's Audrey Hepburn Society. Alongside her native English and Dutch, Hepburn also had some fluency in French (which she learned at school in Belgium), German, Italian, and Spanish. Throughout her life, Hepburn lived in many countries, including spending her childhood in Belgium, England, and

6840-1107: The Kalem Company began using Fort Lee as a location for filming in the area, other filmmakers quickly followed. In 1909, a forerunner of Universal Studios , the Champion Film Company , built the first studio. Others quickly followed and either built new studios or leased facilities in Fort Lee. In the 1910s and 1920s , film companies such as the Independent Moving Pictures Company, Peerless Pictures Studios , Solax Studios , Eclair , Goldwyn Pictures Corporation , Star Film ( Georges Méliès ), World Film Company , Biograph Studios , Fox Film Corporation , Société Pathé Frères , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. , Victor Film Company , and Selznick International Pictures were all making pictures in Fort Lee. Such notables as Mary Pickford got their start at Biograph Studios. In New York,

6992-703: The Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens , which was built during the silent film era, was used by the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields . The Edison Studios were located in the Bronx . Chelsea, Manhattan , was also frequently used. Other Eastern cities, most notably Chicago and Cleveland , also served as early centers for film production. In the West, California was already quickly emerging as

7144-497: The Lubin Manufacturing Company . Picture City, Florida was a planned site for a movie picture production center in the 1920s, but due to the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane , the idea collapsed and Picture City, Florida returned to its original name of Hobe Sound . An attempt to establish a film production center in Detroit also proved unsuccessful. The film patents wars of the early 20th century helped

7296-885: The Red Cross ; she supported him financially until his death although he remained emotionally detached. After Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, Hepburn's mother moved her daughter back to Arnhem in the hope that, as during the First World War , the Netherlands would remain neutral and be spared a German attack. While there, Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to 1945. She had begun taking ballet lessons during her last years at boarding school, and continued training in Arnhem under

7448-637: The antagonist and protagonist may be blurred. The roots of post-classical storytelling may be seen in film noir , in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and in Hitchcock's storyline-shattering Psycho . The New Hollywood is the emergence of a new generation of film school-trained directors who had absorbed the techniques developed in Europe in the 1960s as a result of the French New Wave;

7600-473: The most commercially successful and most commercially successful movies in the world. Hollywood is considered to be the oldest film industry, where the earliest film studios and production companies emerged. It is the birthplace of various genres of cinema —among them comedy , drama , action , musical , romance , horror , science fiction , and epic —and has set the example for other national film industries. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated

7752-407: The studios and Hollywood grew. Before World War I , films were made in several American cities, but filmmakers tended to gravitate towards southern California as the industry developed. They were attracted by the warm, predictable climate with reliable sunlight, which made it possible to film their films outdoors year-round alongside the varied scenery that was available. War damage contributed to

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7904-538: The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde marked the beginning of American cinema rebounding as well, as a new generation of films would afterwards gain success at the box offices as well. Filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola , Steven Spielberg , George Lucas , Brian De Palma , Stanley Kubrick , Martin Scorsese , Roman Polanski , and William Friedkin came to produce fare that paid homage to the history of film and developed upon existing genres and techniques. Inaugurated by

8056-615: The 1969 release of Andy Warhol 's Blue Movie , the phenomenon of adult erotic films being publicly discussed by celebrities (like Johnny Carson and Bob Hope ), and taken seriously by critics (like Roger Ebert ), a development referred to, by Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times , as " porno chic ", and later known as the Golden Age of Porn , began, for the first time, in modern American culture. According to award-winning author Toni Bentley , Radley Metzger 's 1976 film The Opening of Misty Beethoven , based on

8208-527: The 1990s had access to technological, political and economic innovations that had not been available in previous decades. Dick Tracy (1990) became the first 35 mm feature film with a digital soundtrack. Batman Returns (1992) was the first film to make use of the Dolby Digital six-channel stereo sound that has since become the industry standard. Computer-generated imagery was greatly facilitated when it became possible to transfer film images into

8360-465: The Academy and Tony Awards for Best Actress in the same year (the other two are Shirley Booth and Ellen Burstyn ). During the production, Hepburn and her co-star Mel Ferrer began a relationship, and were married on 25 September 1954 in Switzerland. Although she appeared in no new film releases in 1955, Hepburn received the Golden Globe for World Film Favorite that year. Having become one of Hollywood's most popular box-office attractions, she starred in

8512-433: The B.U.F. Joseph left the family abruptly in 1935 after a "scene" in Brussels. He subsequently moved to London, where he became more deeply involved in the Fascist activity and never visited Hepburn abroad. That same year, Ella moved to her family's estate in Arnhem with her daughter; her sons, Alex and Ian, were sent to The Hague to live with relatives. Joseph wanted Hepburn to be educated in the United Kingdom, so in 1937, she

8664-418: The Catholic watchdog organization The Legion of Decency —appalled by some of the provocative films and lurid advertising of the era later classified Pre-Code Hollywood —threatened a boycott of motion pictures if it did not go into effect. The films that did not obtain a seal of approval from the Production Code Administration had to pay a $ 25,000 fine (equivalent to $ 455,976 in 2023) and could not profit in

8816-428: The Dutch resistance effort. It was long believed that she participated in the Dutch resistance itself, but in 2016 the Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein' reported that after extensive research it had not found any evidence of such activities. A 2019 book by Robert Matzen provided evidence, based on Hepburn's personal statements, that she had supported the resistance by giving "underground concerts" to raise money, delivering

8968-417: The Fox Film Corporation owned the Fox Theatre . RKO (a 1928 merger between Keith-Orpheum Theaters and the Radio Corporation of America ) also responded to the Western Electric/ERPI monopoly over sound in films, and developed their own method, known as Photophone , to put sound in films. Paramount, which acquired Balaban and Katz in 1926, would answer to the success of Warner Bros. and RKO by purchasing

9120-401: The Hollywood antitrust case, as did the Little Three studios. The United States Supreme Court eventually ruled in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. that the major studios ownership of theaters and film distribution was a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act . As a result, the studios began to release actors and technical staff from their contracts with the studios. This changed

9272-466: The Hollywood studios. The Classical style began to emerge in 1913, was accelerated in 1917 after the U.S. entered World War I , and finally solidified when the film The Jazz Singer was released in 1927, ending the silent film era and increasing box-office profits for the film industry by introducing sound to feature films. Most Hollywood pictures adhered closely to a formula— Western , slapstick comedy , musical , animated cartoon , biographical —and

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9424-411: The Netherlands, and her adult years in the United States, Italy, and Switzerland, and traveled extensively during her later years of life as part of her humanitarian work with UNICEF. In 1952, Hepburn became engaged to industrialist James Hanson , whom she had known since her early days in London. She called it "love at first sight", but after having her wedding dress fitted and the date set, she decided

9576-446: The Netherlands. She attended boarding school in Kent, England from 1936 to 1939. With the outbreak of World War II , she returned to the Netherlands. During the war, Hepburn studied ballet at the Arnhem Conservatory and by 1944, she performed ballet to raise money to support the Dutch resistance . Hepburn studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell in Amsterdam beginning in 1945 and with Marie Rambert in London from 1948. She began performing as

9728-980: The President. The order establishing the medal also expanded the size and the responsibilities of the Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board so it could serve as a major source of such recommendations. The medal may be awarded to an individual more than once. Colin Powell received two awards, his second being with Distinction; Ellsworth Bunker received both of his awards with Distinction. It may also be awarded posthumously; examples include John F. Kennedy , Steve Jobs , Pope John XXIII , Lyndon Johnson , John Wayne , Paul "Bear" Bryant , Thurgood Marshall , Cesar Chavez , Walter Reuther , Roberto Clemente , Jack Kemp , Harvey Milk , James Chaney , Andrew Goodman , Michael Schwerner , Elouise Cobell , Grace Hopper , Antonin Scalia , Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth . Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, civil rights workers murdered in 1964, were awarded their medals in 2014, 50 years later. In 1970, President Richard Nixon awarded

9880-437: The Seven Dwarfs was released during a run of lackluster films from the major studios, and quickly became the highest grossing film released to that point. Embarrassingly for the studios, it was an independently produced animated film that did not feature any studio-employed stars. This stoked already widespread frustration at the practice of block-booking , in which studios would only sell an entire year's schedule of films at

10032-400: The US film industry. They were able to make their mark in a brand-new business: the exhibition of short films in storefront theaters called nickelodeons , after their admission price of a nickel (five cents). Within a few years, men like Samuel Goldwyn , William Fox , Carl Laemmle , Adolph Zukor , Louis B. Mayer , and the Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to

10184-455: The United States The cinema of the United States , consisting mainly of major film studios (also known metonymically as Hollywood ), has remained a significant influence on the global film industry beginning in the early 20th century . Classical Hollywood cinema , which developed from 1910 to 1962, is still typical of most films made in America today. While French filmmakers Auguste and Louis Lumière are generally credited with

10336-420: The Wind has a motion picture created such universal excitement as My Fair Lady ", although Hepburn's casting in the role of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle was a source of dispute. Julie Andrews , who had originated the role on stage, was not offered the part because producer Jack L. Warner thought Hepburn was a more "bankable" proposition. Hepburn initially asked Warner to give the role to Andrews but

10488-419: The actors who appeared in it; MGM , for example, claimed it had contracted "more stars than there are in heaven." Each studio had its own style and characteristic touches which made it possible to know this—a trait that rarely exists today. For example, To Have and Have Not (1944) is notable not only for the first pairing of actors Humphrey Bogart (1899–1957) and Lauren Bacall (1924–2014), but because it

10640-406: The affections of their chauffeur's innocent daughter (Hepburn). For her performance, she was nominated for the 1954 Academy Award for Best Actress, while winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role the same year. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times stated that she was "a young lady of extraordinary range of sensitive and moving expressions within such a frail and slender frame. She

10792-491: The award should come in two degrees, and hence any decision to award the higher degree is entirely at the discretion of the president. In 2017, President Barack Obama stated that receiving the award with distinction indicates "an additional level of veneration" in a class of individuals already held in the highest esteem. As of June 2024 , the medal has been awarded with distinction at least 55 times, amounting to approximately 8% of all awards. The Presidential Medal of Freedom

10944-471: The birth of modern cinema, American cinema soon came to be a dominant force in the emerging industry. With more than 600 English-language films released annually as of 2017 , it has produced the fourth-largest number of films of any national cinema , after India , Japan , and China . While the national cinemas of the United Kingdom , Canada , Australia , and New Zealand also produce films in

11096-521: The children, always the children: their enlarged bellies, their sad eyes, their wise faces that show the suffering, all the suffering they have endured in their short years. United States president George H. W. Bush presented Hepburn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work with UNICEF , and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences posthumously awarded her

11248-529: The couple subsequently lived. Before divorcing in 1925, they had two sons, Jonkheer Arnoud Robert Alexander Quarles van Ufford (1920–1979) and Jonkheer Ian Edgar Bruce Quarles van Ufford (1924–2010). Hepburn's father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston (1889–1980), was a British subject born in Auschitz , Bohemia , Austria-Hungary. He was the son of Victor John George Ruston, who was of British and German-Austrian background, and Anna Juliana Franziska Karolina Wels, who

11400-399: The decline of the then-dominant European film industry, in favor of the United States , where infrastructure was still intact. The stronger early public health response to the 1918 flu epidemic by Los Angeles compared to other American cities reduced the number of cases there and resulted in a faster recovery, contributing to the increasing dominance of Hollywood over New York City. During

11552-506: The early New Hollywood films like Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider had been relatively low-budget affairs with amoral heroes and increased sexuality and violence, the enormous success enjoyed by Friedkin with The Exorcist , Spielberg with Jaws , Coppola with The Godfather and Apocalypse Now , Scorsese with Taxi Driver , Kubrick with 2001: A Space Odyssey , Polanski with Chinatown , and Lucas with American Graffiti and Star Wars , respectively helped to give rise to

11704-550: The early times of talkies, American studios found that their sound productions were rejected in foreign-language markets and even among speakers of other dialects of English. The synchronization technology was still too primitive for dubbing . One of the solutions was creating parallel foreign-language versions of Hollywood films. Around 1930, the American companies opened a studio in Joinville-le-Pont , France, where

11856-602: The end of that affair, she remains a pitifully lonely figure facing a stuffy future." Hepburn was signed to a seven-picture contract with Paramount , with 12 months in between films to allow her time for stage work. She was featured on 7 September 1953 cover of Time magazine, and also became known for her personal style. Following her success in Roman Holiday , Hepburn starred in Billy Wilder 's romantic Cinderella -story comedy Sabrina (1954), in which wealthy brothers ( Humphrey Bogart and William Holden ) compete for

12008-613: The end of the 19th century, with the construction of Thomas Edison's " Black Maria ", the first motion-picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey . The cities and towns on the Hudson River and Hudson Palisades offered land at costs considerably less than New York City across the river, and benefited greatly as a result of the phenomenal growth of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century. The industry began attracting both capital and innovative work forces. In 1907, when

12160-528: The end of their careers or used the same creative teams on their films so that a DeMille film still looked like one whether it was made in 1932 or 1956. Post-classical cinema is the changing methods of storytelling in the New Hollywood. It has been argued that new approaches to drama and characterization played upon audience expectations acquired in the classical period: chronology may be scrambled, storylines may feature " twist endings ", and lines between

12312-617: The eventual shift of virtually all filmmaking to the West Coast by the 1930s. At the time, Thomas Edison owned almost all the patents relevant to motion picture production and movie producers on the East Coast acting independently of Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company were often sued or enjoined by Edison and his agents while movie makers working on the West Coast could work independently of Edison's control. In Los Angeles,

12464-489: The famine. Suffering from the effects of malnutrition , after the war ended Hepburn became gravely ill with jaundice , anaemia , oedema , and a respiratory infection. In October 1945, a letter from Ella asking for help was received by Micky Burn , a former lover and British Army officer with whom she had corresponded while he was a prisoner of war in Colditz Castle . He sent back thousands of cigarettes, which she

12616-549: The film Titanic , Cameron wanted to push the boundary of special effects with his film, and enlisted Digital Domain and Pacific Data Images to continue the developments in digital technology which the director pioneered while working on The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day . Many previous films about the RMS Titanic shot water in slow motion , which did not look wholly convincing. Cameron encouraged his crew to shoot their 45-foot-long (14 m) miniature of

12768-424: The film "is not too well acted", with the exception of Hepburn, who "gives the impression of being sensitive and pure" of its "muted theme". Variety magazine also compliments Hepburn's "soft sensitivity, marvelous projection and emotional understatement", adding that Hepburn and MacLaine "beautifully complement each other". Hepburn next appeared opposite Cary Grant in the comic thriller Charade (1963), playing

12920-518: The film for her perfume. Dubbed " marshmallow -weight hokum" by Variety upon its release in April, the film was "uniformly panned" but critics were kinder to Hepburn's performance, describing her as "a refreshingly individual creature in an era of the exaggerated curve". Hepburn's second film released in 1964 was George Cukor 's film adaptation of the stage musical My Fair Lady , which premiered in October. Soundstage wrote that "not since Gone with

13072-572: The filming, and decided to cast Hepburn in the title role in the Broadway play Gigi . Hepburn went into rehearsals having never spoken on stage, and required private coaching. When Gigi opened at the Fulton Theatre on 24 November 1951, she received praise for her performance, despite criticism that the stage version was inferior to the French film adaptation. Life called her a "hit", while The New York Times stated that "her quality

13224-459: The foreign language. The Spanish-language crews included people like Luis Buñuel , Enrique Jardiel Poncela , Xavier Cugat , and Edgar Neville . The productions were not very successful in their intended markets, due to the following reasons: Classical Hollywood cinema , or the Golden Age of Hollywood, is defined as a technical and narrative style characteristic of American cinema from 1913 to 1962, during which thousands of movies were issued from

13376-507: The girl! ' " Originally, the film was to have had only Gregory Peck's name above its title, with "Introducing Audrey Hepburn" beneath in smaller font. Peck suggested Wyler elevate her to equal billing so her name appears before the title, and in type as large as his: "You've got to change that because she'll be a big star, and I'll look like a big jerk." The film was a box-office success, and Hepburn gained critical acclaim for her portrayal, unexpectedly winning an Academy Award for Best Actress ,

13528-612: The kids would have flies all over them, but she would just go hug them. I had never seen that. Other people had a certain amount of hesitation, but she would just grab them. Children would just come up to hold her hand, touch her – she was like the Pied Piper ." In October 1990, Hepburn went to Vietnam, in an effort to collaborate with the government for national UNICEF-supported immunisation and clean water programmes. In September 1992, four months before she died, Hepburn went to Somalia. Calling it "apocalyptic", she said, "I walked into

13680-462: The language of the theatre without artfulness or precociousness. She gives a pulsing performance that is all grace and enchantment, disciplined by an instinct for the realities of the stage". Her performance won her the 1954 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play three days after she won the Academy Award for Roman Holiday , making her one of three actresses to receive

13832-544: The late 1920s. After The Jazz Singer , the first film with synchronized voices was successfully released as a Vitaphone talkie in 1927, Hollywood film companies would respond to Warner Bros. and begin to use Vitaphone sound—which Warner Bros. owned until 1928—in future films. By May 1928, Electrical Research Product Incorporated (ERPI), a subsidiary of the Western Electric company, gained a monopoly over film sound distribution. A side effect of these " talkies "

13984-472: The major studios owned hundreds of theaters in cities and towns across the nation in 1920 film theaters that showed their films and that were always in need of fresh material. In 1930, MPPDA President Will Hays created the Hays (Production) Code , which followed censorship guidelines and went into effect after government threats of censorship expanded by 1930. However, the code was never enforced until 1934, after

14136-438: The marriage would not work because the demands of their careers would keep them apart most of the time. She issued a public statement about her decision, saying "When I get married, I want to be really married". In the early 1950s, she also dated future Hair producer Michael Butler . At a cocktail party hosted by mutual friend Gregory Peck , Hepburn met American actor Mel Ferrer , and suggested that they star together in

14288-422: The medal to the entire Apollo 13 mission operations team, as well as to the mission's crew. Athlete and activist Simone Biles is the youngest person to receive this award at the age of 25. The badge of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in the form of a golden star with white enamel , with a red enamel pentagon behind it; the central disc bears thirteen gold stars on a blue enamel background (taken from

14440-615: The modern " blockbuster ", and induced studios to focus ever more heavily on trying to produce enormous hits. In the US, the PG-13 rating was introduced in 1984 to accommodate films that straddled the line between PG and R, which was mainly due to the controversies surrounding the violent content of the PG films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins (both 1984). Film   makers in

14592-566: The monopoly they still had over the Detroit Theaters—as Paramount was also gaining dominance through actors like Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, Betty Hutton, crooner Bing Crosby, Alan Ladd, and longtime actor for studio Gary Cooper too- by 1942. The Big Five studios did not meet the requirements of the Consent of Decree during WWII, without major consequence, but after the war ended they joined Paramount as defendants in

14744-577: The most successful film of its time, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . This distinction was promptly topped in 1939 when Selznick International created what is still, when adjusted for inflation, the most successful film of all time in Gone with the Wind . Many film historians have remarked upon the many great works of cinema that emerged from this period of highly regimented filmmaking. One reason this

14896-533: The movie-making process. Nestor Studios of Bayonne, New Jersey , built the first studio in the Hollywood neighborhood in 1911. Nestor Studios, owned by David and William Horsley, later merged with Universal Studios; and William Horsley's other company, Hollywood Film Laboratory, is now the oldest existing company in Hollywood, presently called the Hollywood Digital Laboratory. California 's more hospitable and cost-effective climate led to

15048-399: The northern port of Shoa . It can't be distributed. Last spring, Red Cross and UNICEF workers were ordered out of the northern provinces because of two simultaneous civil wars... I went into rebel country and saw mothers and their children who had walked for ten days, even three weeks, looking for food, settling onto the desert floor into makeshift camps where they may die. Horrible. That image

15200-404: The now-married Hepburn, and his alcoholism was beginning to affect his work. After principal photography began, she demanded the dismissal of cinematographer Claude Renoir after seeing what she felt were unflattering dailies . Superstitious, she also insisted on dressing room 55 because that was her lucky number and required that Hubert de Givenchy , her long-time designer, be given a credit in

15352-511: The pandemic, public health officials temporarily closed movie theaters in some jurisdictions, large studios suspended production for weeks at a time, and some actors came down with the flu. This caused major financial losses and severe difficulties for small studios, but the industry as a whole more than recovered during the Roaring Twenties . In the early 20th century, when the medium was new, many Jewish immigrants found employment in

15504-437: The paradigm of film making by the major Hollywood studios, as each could have an entirely different cast and creative team. The decision resulted in the gradual loss of the characteristics which made Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Columbia Pictures, RKO Pictures, and 20th Century Fox films immediately identifiable. Certain movie people, such as Cecil B. DeMille , either remained contract artists until

15656-513: The part of a dutiful daughter trying to help her father with the help of a man played by Peter O'Toole . The film was followed by two films in 1967. The first was Two for the Road , a non-linear and innovative British dramedy that traces the course of a couple's troubled marriage. Director Stanley Donen said that Hepburn was freer and happier than he had ever seen her, and he credited that to co-star Albert Finney . The second, Wait Until Dark ,

15808-477: The play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (and its derivative, My Fair Lady ), and due to attaining a mainstream level in storyline and sets, is considered the "crown jewel" of this ' Golden Age '. At the height of his fame in the early 1970s, Charles Bronson was the world's No. 1 box office attraction, commanding $ 1 million per film. In the 1970s, the films of New Hollywood filmmakers were often both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. While

15960-483: The poignant role, the quickness with which she changes and the skill with which she manifests terror attract sympathy and anxiety to her and give her genuine solidity in the final scenes." After 1967, Hepburn chose to devote more time to her family and acted only occasionally. She attempted a comeback playing Maid Marian in the period piece Robin and Marian (1976) with Sean Connery co-starring as Robin Hood , which

16112-465: The power of photography to capture motion. In 1894, the world's first commercial motion-picture exhibition was given in New York City , using Thomas Edison 's kinetoscope and kinetograph. In the following decades, the production of silent films greatly expanded, studios formed and migrated to California , and the films and stories they told became much longer. The United States produced

16264-564: The presidential version of the decoration in 1963 through Executive Order 11085 (signed February 22, 1963), with unique and distinctive insignia, vastly expanded purpose, and far higher prestige. It was the first U.S. civilian neck decoration and, if awarded with Distinction, is the only U.S. sash and star decoration (the Chief Commander degree of the Legion of Merit —which may only be awarded to foreign heads of state—is

16416-454: The production of Bloodline (1979), sharing top-billing with Ben Gazzara , James Mason , and Romy Schneider . The film, an international intrigue amid the jet-set , was a critical and box-office failure. Hepburn's last starring role in a feature film was opposite Gazzara in the comedy They All Laughed (1981), directed by Peter Bogdanovich . The film was overshadowed by the murder of one of its stars, Dorothy Stratten , and received only

16568-629: The production side of the business. Soon they were the heads of a new kind of enterprise: the movie studio . The US had at least two female directors, producers and studio heads in these early years: Lois Weber and French-born Alice Guy-Blaché . They also set the stage for the industry's internationalism; the industry is often accused of Amero centric provincialism . Other movie makers arrived from Europe after World War I: directors like Ernst Lubitsch , Alfred Hitchcock , Fritz Lang and Jean Renoir ; and actors like Rudolph Valentino , Marlene Dietrich , Ronald Colman , and Charles Boyer . They joined

16720-449: The same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio. For example, Cedric Gibbons and Herbert Stothart always worked on MGM films, Alfred Newman worked at 20th Century Fox for twenty years, Cecil B. De Mille 's films were almost all made at Paramount , and director Henry King 's films were mostly made for 20th Century Fox . At the same time, one could usually guess which studio made which film, largely because of

16872-705: The same fate. "We saw young men put against the wall and shot, and they'd close the street and then open it, and you could pass by again... Don't discount anything awful you hear or read about the Nazis. It's worse than you could ever imagine." —Hepburn on the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands After her uncle's death, Hepburn, Ella, and Miesje left Arnhem to live with her grandfather, Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra, in nearby Velp . Around that time Hepburn gave silent dance performances that reportedly raised money for

17024-521: The same language, they are not part of the Hollywood system. Because of this, Hollywood has also been considered a transnational cinema , and has produced multiple language versions of some titles, often in Spanish or French. Contemporary Hollywood often outsources production to the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The major film studios of Hollywood are the primary source of

17176-483: The same name. Capote disapproved of many changes that were made to sanitise the story for the film adaptation, and would have preferred Marilyn Monroe to have been cast in the role, although he also stated that Hepburn "did a terrific job". The character is considered one of the best-known in American cinema , and a defining role for Hepburn. The dress she wears during the opening credits has been considered an icon of

17328-477: The same sets and wardrobe and even mass scenes were used for different time-sharing crews. Also, foreign unemployed actors, playwrights, and winners of photogenic contests were chosen and brought to Hollywood, where they shot parallel versions of the English-language films. These parallel versions had a lower budget, were shot at night and were directed by second-line American directors who did not speak

17480-511: The scale of George Lucas 's $ 1 billion prequel to the Star Wars Trilogy , The Blair Witch Project earned the distinction of being the most profitable film of all time, in terms of percentage gross. Presidential Medal of Freedom Occasionally, the medal award is further denoted as, "with distinction." There are no specific criteria for receiving the award with distinction; Executive Order 11085 simply specifies that

17632-630: The second one at six months. Ferrer was rumoured to be too controlling, and had been referred to by others as being her " Svengali " – an idea that Hepburn laughed off. William Holden was quoted as saying, "I think Audrey allows Mel to think he influences her." After a 14-year marriage, the couple divorced in 1968. Hepburn met her second husband, Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti , on a Mediterranean cruise with friends in June 1968. She believed she would have more children and possibly stop working. They married on 18 January 1969, and their son Luca Andrea Dotti

17784-473: The ship as if "we're making a commercial for the White Star Line". Even The Blair Witch Project (1999), a low-budget indie horror film by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick , was a huge financial success. Filmed on a budget of just $ 35,000, without any big stars or special effects, the film grossed $ 248 million with the use of modern marketing techniques and online promotion. Though not on

17936-499: The spread of film companies to other parts of the US, outside New York. Many filmmakers worked with equipment for which they did not own the rights to use. Therefore, filming in New York could be dangerous, as it was close to Edison's company headquarters, and close to the agents the company sent out to seize cameras. An alternative was Los Angeles , which had mild winters, a large selection of places to film, and, most importantly, it

18088-451: The studios in order to achieve their artistic visions. The apogee of the studio system may have been the year 1939, which saw the release of such classics as The Wizard of Oz , Gone with the Wind , Stagecoach , Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Wuthering Heights , Only Angels Have Wings , Ninotchka and Midnight . Among the other films from the Golden Age period that are now considered to be classics: Casablanca , It's

18240-487: The suburban Brussels municipality of Linkebeek in 1932. Hepburn's early childhood was sheltered and privileged. Due to her father's job, the family travelled back and forth between three countries, enhancing her multinational background. In the mid-1930s, Hepburn's parents recruited and collected donations for the British Union of Fascists (B.U.F). Ella met Adolf Hitler and wrote favourable articles about him for

18392-476: The summer of 1962 before Charade, Hepburn reunited with her Sabrina co-star William Holden in Paris When It Sizzles (1964), a screwball comedy in which she played the young assistant of a Hollywood screenwriter, who aids his writer's block by acting out his fantasies of possible plots. Its production was troubled by several problems. Holden unsuccessfully tried to rekindle a romance with

18544-727: The theaters, as the MPPDA controlled every theater in the country through the Big Five studios. Throughout the 1930s, as well as most of the golden age, MGM dominated the film screen and had the top stars in Hollywood, and they were also credited for creating the Hollywood star system altogether. Some MGM stars included "King of Hollywood" Clark Gable , Lionel Barrymore , Jean Harlow , Norma Shearer , Greta Garbo , Joan Crawford , Jeanette MacDonald , Gene Raymond , Spencer Tracy , Judy Garland , and Gene Kelly . Another great achievement of American cinema during this era came through Walt Disney's animation company . In 1937, Disney created

18696-481: The thriller Wait Until Dark , receiving Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. After that, Hepburn only occasionally appeared in films, one being Robin and Marian (1976) with Sean Connery . Her last recorded performances were in the 1990 documentary television series Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn , for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming . In 1994, Hepburn's contributions to

18848-666: The time was an independent city. In the Sultan's Power, directed by Boggs for Selig Polyscope Company, also starring Bosworth, is considered the first film shot entirely in Los Angeles, with shooting at 7th and Olive Streets, in 1909. In early 1910, director D. W. Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the West Coast with his acting troupe, consisting of actors: Blanche Sweet , Lillian Gish , Mary Pickford , Lionel Barrymore and others. They started filming on

19000-471: The time, Joseph worked for a trading company, but soon after the marriage, the couple moved to Europe, where he began working for a loan company; reportedly tin merchants MacLaine, Watson, and Company in London. After a year in London, they moved to Brussels, where he had been assigned to open a branch office. After three years spent traveling between Brussels, Arnhem, The Hague and London, the family settled in

19152-719: The tutelage of Winja Marova, becoming her "star pupil". After the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Hepburn used the name Edda van Heemstra, because an "English-sounding" name was considered dangerous during the German occupation . Her family was profoundly affected by the occupation, with Hepburn later stating that "had we known that we were going to be occupied for five years, we might have all shot ourselves. We thought it might be over next week… six months… next year… that's how we got through". In 1942, her uncle, Otto van Limburg Stirum (husband of her mother's older sister, Miesje),

19304-718: The twentieth century, and perhaps the most famous "little black dress" of all time. Hepburn stated that the role was "the jazziest of my career" yet admitted: "I'm an introvert. Playing the extroverted girl was the hardest thing I ever did." She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. The same year, Hepburn also starred in William Wyler's drama The Children's Hour (1961), in which she and Shirley MacLaine play teachers whose lives are destroyed after two pupils accuse them of being lesbians. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times writes that

19456-580: The underground newspaper, and taking messages and food to downed Allied flyers hiding in the woodlands north of Velp. She also volunteered at a hospital that was the center of resistance activities in Velp, and, according to Hepburn, her family temporarily hid a British paratrooper in their home during the Battle of Arnhem . In addition to other traumatic events, she witnessed the transportation of Dutch Jews to concentration camps , later stating that "more than once I

19608-867: The vaccines, and once the date was set, it took ten days to vaccinate the whole country. Not bad." In October, Hepburn went to South America. Of her experiences in Venezuela and Ecuador, Hepburn told the United States Congress, "I saw tiny mountain communities, slums, and shantytowns receive water systems for the first time by some miracle – and the miracle is UNICEF. I watched boys build their own schoolhouse with bricks and cement provided by UNICEF." Hepburn toured Central America in February 1989, and met with leaders in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. In April, she visited Sudan with Wolders as part of

19760-428: The world's first sync-sound musical film , The Jazz Singer , in 1927, and was at the forefront of sound-film development in the following decades. It was fully released to the public on October 6, 1927. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has primarily been based in and around the thirty-mile zone centered in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles County, California . Director D. W. Griffith

19912-487: Was "the best of her career". Andrews won an Academy Award for Mary Poppins at the 1964 37th Academy Awards and Hepburn earned Best Actress nominations for Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Circle awards. Hepburn appeared in an assortment of genres including the heist comedy How to Steal a Million (1966). Hepburn played the daughter of a famous art collector, whose collection consists entirely of forgeries that are about to be exposed as fakes. Her character plays

20064-566: Was a PBS documentary series, which was filmed on location in seven countries in the spring and summer of 1990. A one-hour special preceded it in March 1991, and the series itself began its national PBS premiere on 24 January 1993, the day of her funeral services in Tolochenaz. For the "Flower Gardens" episode, Hepburn was posthumously awarded the 1993 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming. The other project

20216-437: Was a spoken word album, Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales , which features readings of classic children's stories and was recorded in 1992. It earned her a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children . In the 1950s, Hepburn narrated two radio programmes for UNICEF , re-telling children's stories of war. In 1989, Hepburn was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF . On her appointment, she stated that she

20368-501: Was able to sell on the black market and thus buy the penicillin which saved Hepburn's life. The Van Heemstra family's financial situation changed significantly through the occupation, during which time many of their properties (including their principal estate in Arnhem) were damaged or destroyed. After the war ended in 1945, Hepburn moved with her mother and siblings to Amsterdam , where she began ballet training under Sonia Gaskell ,

20520-462: Was at the station seeing trainloads of Jews being transported, seeing all these faces over the top of the wagon. I remember, very sharply, one little boy standing with his parents on the platform, very pale, very blond, wearing a coat that was much too big for him, and he stepped on the train. I was a child observing a child." After the Allied landing on D-Day , living conditions grew worse, and Arnhem

20672-415: Was born on 8 February 1970. While pregnant with Luca in 1969, Hepburn was more careful, resting for months before delivering the baby via caesarean section . Hepburn suffered a miscarriage in 1974. Dotti and Hepburn were unfaithful, he with younger women and she with actor Ben Gazzara during the filming of Bloodline (1979). The marriage lasted twelve years and was dissolved in 1982. Cinema of

20824-648: Was cast in her first major supporting role in Thorold Dickinson 's Secret People (1952), as a prodigious ballerina, performing all of her own dancing sequences. Hepburn then took a small role in a bilingual film, Monte Carlo Baby (French: Nous Irons à Monte Carlo , 1952), which was filmed in Monte Carlo . Coincidentally, French novelist Colette was at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo during

20976-456: Was central to the development of a film grammar . Orson Welles 's Citizen Kane (1941) is frequently cited in critics' polls as the greatest film of all time . The first recorded instance of photographs capturing and reproducing motion was a series of photographs of a running horse by Eadweard Muybridge , which he took in Palo Alto, California , using a set of still cameras placed in

21128-511: Was claimed as the first to have been filmed in Los Angeles , in 1907. A plaque was unveiled by the city, in 1957, at Dearden's flagship store on the corner of Main Street and 7th Street, to mark the filming on the site when it had been a Chinese laundry. Bosworth's widow suggested the city had got the date and location wrong, and that the film was actually shot in nearby Venice , which at

21280-560: Was eventually cast. Further friction was created when, although non-singer Hepburn had sung in Funny Face and had lengthy vocal preparation for the role in My Fair Lady , her vocals were dubbed by Marni Nixon , whose voice was considered more suitable to the role. Hepburn was initially upset and walked off the set when informed. Critics applauded Hepburn's performance. Crowther wrote that, "The happiest thing about [ My Fair Lady ]

21432-455: Was executed in retaliation for an act of sabotage by the resistance movement; while he had not been involved in the act, he was targeted due to his family's prominence in Dutch society. These family events were the turning point in the attitude of Hepburn's mother, who had flirted with Nazism up to this point. Hepburn's half-brother Ian was deported to Berlin to work in a German labour camp , and her other half-brother Alex went into hiding to avoid

21584-649: Was grateful for receiving international aid after enduring the German occupation as a child, and wanted to show her gratitude to the organisation. Hepburn's first field mission for UNICEF was to Ethiopia in 1988. She visited an orphanage in Mek'ele that housed 500 starving children and had UNICEF send food. Of the trip, she said, I have a broken heart. I feel desperate. I can't stand the idea that two million people are in imminent danger of starving to death, many of them children, [and] not because there isn't tons of food sitting in

21736-410: Was moderately successful. Roger Ebert praised Hepburn's chemistry with Connery, writing, "Connery and Hepburn seem to have arrived at a tacit understanding between themselves about their characters. They glow. They really do seem in love. And they project as marvellously complex, fond, tender people; the passage of 20 years has given them grace and wisdom." Hepburn reunited with director Terence Young in

21888-665: Was of German-Austrian origin and born in Kovarce . In 1923–1924, he was an Honorary British Consul in Semarang , Dutch East Indies and, prior to his marriage to Hepburn's mother, was married to Cornelia Bisschop, a Dutch heiress. Joseph later changed his surname to the more "aristocratic" double-barrelled Hepburn-Ruston, perhaps at Ella's insistence, as he mistakenly believed himself descended from James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell . Hepburn's parents were married in Batavia in 1926. At

22040-501: Was only 90 miles to the border of Mexico , in case they needed to run if Edison's enforcement agents found them. By 1912, most major film companies had set up production facilities in Southern California , near or in Los Angeles , because of the region's favorable year-round weather. The 1908 Selig Polyscope Company production of The Count of Monte Cristo , directed by Francis Boggs and starring Hobart Bosworth ,

22192-464: Was possible is that, with so many movies being made, not everyone had to be a big hit. A studio could gamble on a medium-budget feature with a good script and relatively unknown actors: Citizen Kane , directed by Orson Welles (1915–1985) and often regarded as the greatest film of all time , fits this description. In other cases, strong-willed directors like Howard Hawks (1896–1977), Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980), and Frank Capra (1897–1991) battled

22344-489: Was pursuing him. The film turned out to be a positive experience for him; he said, "All I want for Christmas is another picture with Audrey Hepburn." The role earned Hepburn her third, and final, competitive BAFTA Award, and another Golden Globe nomination. Critic Bosley Crowther was less kind to her performance, stating that, "Hepburn is cheerfully committed to a mood of how-nuts-can-you-be in an obviously comforting assortment of expensive Givenchy costumes." Although filmed in

22496-621: Was sent to live in Kent, where she, known as Audrey Ruston or "Little Audrey", was educated at a small private school in Elham . Her parents officially divorced the next year. Later in her life, she often spoke of the effect on a child of being "dumped" as "children need two parents"; she professed that her father's departure was "the most traumatic event of my life". In the 1960s, Hepburn renewed contact with her father after locating him in Dublin through

22648-475: Was subsequently heavily damaged during Operation Market Garden . During the 1944–45 Dutch famine , the Germans hindered or reduced the already limited food and fuel supplies to civilians in retaliation for Dutch railway strikes that were held to disrupt the occupation. Like others, Hepburn's family resorted to making flour out of tulip bulbs to bake cakes and biscuits, a source of starchy carbohydrates; Dutch doctors provided recipes for using tulip bulbs throughout

22800-608: Was that many actors who had made their careers in silent films suddenly found themselves out of work, as they often had bad voices or could not remember their lines. Meanwhile, in 1922, US politician Will H. Hays left politics and formed the movie studio boss organization known as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). The organization became the Motion Picture Association of America after Hays retired in 1945. In

22952-499: Was under Mexican rule . Griffith stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York. Also in 1910, Selig Polyscope Company of Chicago established the first film studio in the Los Angeles area in Edendale , and the first studio in Hollywood opened in 1912. After hearing about Griffith's success in Hollywood, in 1913, many movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Thomas Edison , who owned patents on

23104-649: Was written by two future winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature : Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961), the author of the novel on which the script was nominally based, and William Faulkner (1897–1962), who worked on the screen adaptation. After The Jazz Singer was released in 1927, Warner Bros. gained huge success and were able to acquire their own string of movie theaters after purchasing Stanley Theaters and First National Productions in 1928. In contrast, Loews theaters owned MGM since forming in 1924, while

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