Why Audrey Hepburn?

First off let me be absolutely blunt about one thing, I do not dislike Audrey Hepburn. That being said, I don't understand why people are so in awe of her. Yes, she was beautiful, she had poise, grace, charm, and a designer who built amazing outfits for her. She had a very limited range and very few of her performances were exceedingly brilliant. Her films are enjoyable with only a few being very brilliant. She only had two films that were brilliant The Nun's Story and The Children's Hour. However, these are not the films that she is best known for. She is of course known for My Fair Lady, Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Roman Holiday, which, coincidentally, is the only film she won an Oscar for. She, of course, did other films but her list of screen credits os very small. In fact, her most notable credentials, her charity work later in life, have mostly gone unnoticed by her fans today. She is best known for being pretty and stylish and rocking Givenchy, which really anybody in the '50s and early '60s could have done. my point is this, she is a cultural icon solely because of her looks and clothes.

Before I move on, there are reasons to like Audrey Hepburn, she was a Holocaust survivor. She and her family escaped Belgium during WWII to England, but only after hiding in attics and safe houses. Because of their hiding, their family was forced to go hungry. Because of Audrey's young age, this stunted her metabolism and gave her, her now iconic, waif looks. Later in her life, she dedicated herself to humanitarian work in Africa, in fact, she was a Unicef Ambassador. These are the main reasons that Audrey is awesome, yet most people don't know this information, they just know her as the pretty skinny lady with the big hat and sunglasses from Breakfast at Tiffany's. This lack of knowledge is insulting to her legacy.

Audrey and her iconic style have contributed a lot to the film industry and to women around the world. However, there are many women who have done as much if not more to contribute to the film industry and have done as much humanitarian work as Audrey. Here is a list of just a few women who are her contemporaries that are equally laudable.

Ida Lupino: She is first on my list because she was the first actress to turn professional director. Because of her notoriety as an actress, when she transitioned to working behind the camera as well, she was received very well and most actors that worked her as a director loved working with her. She was the only woman to direct in the American film genre Film Noir, and she continued to act while she was directing even directing films she starred in. As her directing took off, she even starting writing her own screenplays. Beautiful in her own right, she was not the standard beauty girl of '40s and '50s Hollywood. She did very few comedies and became known for playing gritty, hard characters.

Edith Head: She is considered one of the greatest costume designers in movie history. She designed the costumes for many major films including Double Indemnity, The Great Gatsby (1949), Sunset Boulevard, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Roman Holiday. Yes, before Givenchy, Edith Head dressed Audrey Hepburn. She is probably best known for her work with Alfred Hitchcock since she worked on many of his major films. According to IMDB, she worked on 444 films in her lifetime. She became a costume designer when costume designing was still a male-dominated industry. She was one of the female pioneers of costume designing along with Irene, who is also very famous and just as deserving of respect.






Hedy Lamarr: There is no doubting her beauty. There is no doubting her seductive sensuality on the screen. She is simply one of the most beautiful and seductive actresses of all time. Her sultry accented voice charmed millions and gave her the money she needed to set up her own laboratory so she could continue to do her scientific research. That's right she was a brilliant scientist along with being a good actress. Her greatest invention, as detailed by the website dedicated to her, was the patented "Secret Communication System," which she created with composer George Antheil, was used in military communication and is the bases for cell phones. Thank you, Hedy, for cell phones.

Hedy Lamarr also left us with this great quote: "Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

Katherine Hepburn: She is potentially the greatest actress of all time. Her acting career spanned from the '30s to the early '90s. With 52 film credits, and most all of them iconic films that have shaped the portrayal of women in films for all time. Moreover, she shared the screen with some of the finest actors of all time and even help shape Sir Anthony Hopkins acting style. Her non-traditional beauty saved her from always having to play the same part twice though even during her time as an ingenue she was able to play a wide array of ingenues. She convinced Howard Hughes to buy the rights to The Philadelphia Story so that she could play the part of Tracy Samantha Lord, one of her most iconic roles. She worked in screwball comedies and had a comedic sense of timing that was impeccable and hard to beat. She almost always portrayed strong confident women and was an early pioneer in the feminist movement in Hollywood. She played several feminist characters and helped show women that they didn't have to be subservient to men. Four of these films are Adams Rib, Woman of the Year, Pat and Mike, and Desk Set. All four of these films starred Hepburn with her longtime lover Spencer Tracy. These films showed that woman didn't have to be superior to men but had to be treated equally, and Hepburn portrayed each character beautifully with charm and grace. Also, her Jo March in Little Woman is one of the best though Winona Rider also did a hell of a job. Katherine Hepburn also did something amazing for women in film. She was one of the largest purveyors of woman's trousers in films and one of the first major Hollywood stars to wear them in films. Katherine Hepburn is just plain awesome and her movies are to die for, especially the version of Suddenly Last Summer with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, which is just heaven in a film.


Ava Gardner: One of the most striking beauties to ever grace the silver screen Ava Gardner is just gorgeous and amazing and super talented. If you've never seen anything with her in it your Snows of Kilimanjaro, Mogambo, Showboat, Bhowani Junction, The Sun Also Rises, The Little Hut, and The Night of the Iguana. Ava Gardner made this list for two reasons: she is an incredible actress who was a spitfire on the screen and she played several mixed raced characters during her career. She was a strong confident leading woman who was unabashed about her sensuality, but never let her body outweigh her acting ability and her characters were always at least clever and street smart. Plus, Technicolor was her best friend.
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Gloria Swanson: She is amazing. Gloria Swanson is best known for her role in Sunset Boulevard, one of the most iconic films ever made. She was not the first choice to play Norma Desmond because no one remembered her. Gloria Swanson got her start in silent movies and was a huge success. After the advent of talking pictures, she had gone back to the stage and mostly pursued her theater career. She was asked to the part and she accepted the part. Beyond her ability to act supremely creepy and crazy, she is a hugely talented person who spent a lot of her time sculpting and being all kinds of crazy cool artsy person. She was a stunning beauty her entire life and had a seriously awesome sense of style. Gloria Swanson is kind of who I want to be when I grow up. She was unburdened by the silliness of life and allowed herself to be herself. If she didn't get a movie part, she went and found another or went and found a play. She never let her glory days be her defining time. Even when doing small parts she threw herself into the role and loved it.


Elizabeth Taylor: Very few actresses have ever been as instantly recognizable and as public as Elizabeth Taylor. Her messy marriage with Sir Richard Burton supplied the fuel for many of their on-screen partnerships. Her acting ability was amazing. She was one of the few stars who was able to transition fairly smoothly from adorable child star to breathtaking leading woman. Her role choices were always risky and she was unafraid of taking on difficult or messy roles. Her very public extra-marital affairs and multiple marriages and divorces gained her a reputation, which she didn't fight. She knew that fighting it would only make her look worse, so she accepted that as public opinion and carried on with her life. Her most notable affair was of course with Eddie Fisher who was married, at the time to Debbie Reynolds. Reynolds and Fisher divorced and Taylor married Fisher shortly after. Carrie Fisher talks about this whole ordeal in her autobiography Shockaholic, which is an excellent read.

Beyond her beauty and acting talent, there was also her musical ability. Many times in her younger years she sang in films showing off a very high soprano voice very similar to that of Amanda Seyfried's in Les Miserables (2012). However, my favorite musical performance of her's is in the 1977 film adaption of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music. Her portrayal of the waning star of stage Desiree Armfeldt is amazing and her version of "Send in the Clowns" is beautiful. Plus, Diana Rigg is also in this production and I love her.

Alongside of her acting career, Elizabeth Taylor was one of the first celebrities to stand with the victims of HIV/AIDS helping raise funds for research and supporting the victims. She was also good friends with many closeted gay actors in Hollywood and helped them keep their secrets including, Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson, and even help keep the bisexual rumors about James Dean quiet. She did a lot for the LGBT community and was a very vocal ally. She was also involved with numerous other charities.


Doris Day: What can one say about the incredibly talented beautiful and generous Doris Day? Best Friend to animals and gay men everywhere, Doris Day has been a champion for animal rights and even runs a shelter for animals on her ranch in California. Her longtime screen partnership and friendship with Rock Hudson is the stuff of Hollywood legend and she was one of several people who helped keep his homosexuality secret. Her voice is legendary and she made her least favorite song in the world famous "Que Serai, Serai." Her acting ability is showcased in her ability to easily transfer from musical comedy, comedy roles, and dramatic roles. She left Hollywood after working in the industry for around 20 years. She has lived her life from then on out of the public eye and focusing her time and money on helping animals in Southern California.

Lucille "Lucy" Ball: One of the funniest women of all time, Lucille Ball brightened up black and white television and managed to shape sitcom history with her perennial classic show I Love Lucy. Having made a major success in radio and a minor success in film, Lucille Ball brought her humor to the small screen and changed the face of sitcoms forever. She was one of a very small group of woman to be trained in the classic style of film comedy by Buster Keaton. She was a distant cousin of Ginger Rogers, which is pretty neat in and of itself. She was a bit player in many films and worked with the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers. She co-created I Love Lucy as a vehicle for her then-husband Desi Arnaz and helped found Desilu studies, which she later ran in the late '60s through the '70s. She gave Gene Roddenberry's show Star Trek its break. She continued to start in television and movies into the '80s. She shared the screen with many great actors including, Van Johnson, Henry Fonda, Red Skelton, and Bob Hope; and, she always held her own. Lucy is also one of the major inspirations to Carol Burnett.

This list is very small. Again, This list is not to diminish Audrey's fame, nor is it to diminish her career. Admittedly, Audrey Hepburn is beautiful and she survived a very hard life and had many iconic roles that have helped shape actresses and films to this day. I still enjoy watching her films and I love many of them; however, she is not the greatest actress of all time nor is she the most influential. Each of these women has contributed exponentially to film and the world, and are as deserving of respect. This list is simply to put some context around Audrey and her career and shine a light on other women in Hollywood who have helped shape the film industry.