FAYE MOSS: Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Superstars in History, the talk show featuring famous people from the past. Today's guest is one of the most beloved and glamorous movie stars of all time. She's an EGOT, a rare individual who's won every major American entertainment award: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. And she's equally famous for her humanitarian work on behalf of the world's children. Straight from history, please welcome Audrey Hepburn!
AUDREY HEPBURN: Hello, Faye.
FAYE MOSS: I'm so excited to finally meet you! I'm such a huge fan. I know you were born in Belgium in 1929, but I don't know anything about your family.
AUDREY HEPBURN: My mother was my main influence because my father left us when I was six. She was a Dutch baroness and had wanted to study opera, but her family disapproved of a career on the stage. So she put all her creative energy into encouraging my interest in ballet. I had two half brothers, Alexander and Ian, from my mother's first marriage. They were much older than I, but we were very close.
FAYE MOSS: You grew up to be an actress—you must have been an outgoing child.
AUDREY HEPBURN: On the contrary, I was quite shy. My mother sent me away to boarding school in England when I was only five years old, thinking it would make me more outgoing. When World War II started in 1939, she took me to the Netherlands, where her family lived. She thought we'd be safer there because Great Britain and Nazi Germany were at war, and the Netherlands was a neutral country. But we were still in danger because we lived near the German border. My mother warned me never to speak English in public for fear that German soldiers might overhear me and think I was British.
FAYE MOSS: I learned in history class that being neutral didn't help the Netherlands. The Germans occupied the country for five years, starting in 1940. That sounds so frightening!
AUDREY HEPBURN: It was! My dear uncle was executed by the Nazis; my brother Ian was forced to work in a German munitions factory; and Alexander went into hiding to avoid the same fate. I was among a group of girls rounded up to work in German kitchens. I managed to escape, but that's another story.
FAYE MOSS: Is it true that you secretly worked against the Nazis as part of the Dutch Resistance?
AUDREY HEPBURN: Oh, my role has been exaggerated over the years! Keep in mind that I was only 11 when the occupation started. I delivered a few messages and danced in clandestine recitals to benefit the Resistance. By the way, the audience never applauded for fear that the Nazis might discover us!
FAYE MOSS: I've heard that many in the Netherlands were starving during the war.
AUDREY HEPBURN: Sometimes my family was so desperate for food that we made flour out of tulip bulbs! When the war ended in 1945, I was in poor health and suffering from malnutrition. A United Nations relief agency gave us food and clothing. I was so eager for a sweet treat that I drank a whole can of condensed milk at once!
FAYE MOSS: Oh my! What happened to your family after the war?
AUDREY HEPBURN: Amazingly both my brothers returned safely to us. After that I returned to dancing. My mother and I soon moved to Amsterdam so I could take ballet lessons. In 1948 we moved to London, again for my dancing.
FAYE MOSS: How did you start acting?
AUDREY HEPBURN: When my teacher told me I wasn't talented enough to be a professional ballerina, I joined the chorus line of a London musical. I later had a few bit parts in British movies and the lead in a French film.
FAYE MOSS: This might be a good time to talk about your influence on fashion and beauty. You certainly looked different from most actresses in the 1950s.
AUDREY HEPBURN: I was thin and had short hair and thick eyebrows. While most women wore dresses and heels, I preferred pants and flat shoes because I was tall. I also looked best in a limited range of colors: black, white, and beige. I didn't consider myself pretty, so I was surprised when women wanted "the Audrey Hepburn look."
FAYE MOSS: And women still do today! Let's get back to your career. You came to the United States in 1951.
AUDREY HEPBURN: Yes, I had the lead role in the Broadway play Gigi. My first Hollywood movie was Roman Holiday, which won me an Academy Award—or Oscar—in 1954. That same year I also earned a Tony Award for the play Ondine.
FAYE MOSS: Suddenly you were an international star at age 24! You're probably most famous for playing the lead in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, but my favorite is My Fair Lady.
AUDREY HEPBURN: I'm glad you like it, but that movie was a difficult project for me. Julie Andrews played the lead role on Broadway, so many people thought she should have gotten the movie role instead of me. To prove them wrong, I worked very hard to master the songs. I was terribly disappointed when another woman was later hired to dub my singing.
FAYE MOSS: Oh no! Still, you were nominated for five Oscars during your career. Was that role one of them?
AUDREY HEPBURN: No. Ironically Julie Andrews won that year for her role in Mary Poppins!
FAYE MOSS: You had pretty much stopped making movies by the late 1960s.
AUDREY HEPBURN: Yes, I didn't like the parts I was being offered. By then I'd also started a family and wanted to devote more time to my two sons and home in Switzerland.
FAYE MOSS: Yet you came out of retirement in the 1980s to serve as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations agency that helps children and families.
AUDREY HEPBURN: This work was so important to me because a forerunner of UNICEF had given me aid at the end of World War II. I knew what it was like to starve during wartime, and I'd always loved children. Starting in 1988 I traveled the world to raise money and awareness for children in need of food and medical care.
FAYE MOSS: You've certainly led an interesting life, but I think it's time we let you return to history. Thank you, Audrey Hepburn!
AUDREY HEPBURN: Thank you, Faye!
FAYE MOSS: In December 1992 Audrey Hepburn received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. She died on January 20, 1993. The next day the first episode of her TV series, Gardens of the World, premiered. She was posthumously awarded an Emmy for that series, as well as a Grammy for an album of children's tales. And that's how she became one of the first EGOTs!
That's all for today. See you next time on Superstars in History.