Audrey Hepburn is undoubtedly a legend of the American film industry, ranked third in the American Film Institute’s ranking of the top 25 female screen icons of all time.  You might be surprised to learn that she also had impeccable credentials as a Third Culture Kid.

Born in 1929 in Belgium, Audrey’s father, Joseph Ruston, was a British subject who had been born Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic, whilst her mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra, was Dutch, and had been brought up in Dutch Guiana. Audrey’s parents met in Batavia, now part of Indonesia, where her father was working for a commercial trading company and her mother was living (having recently divorced from a Dutch oil executive).

What has been described as a privileged lifestyle allowed Audrey to travel extensively around the Continent during the 1930s and particularly to Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. When she was six, Audrey’s parents separated and she moved with her mother to Arnhem, in the Netherlands, although soon after she was sent to boarding school in the UK.

During the Second World War Audrey lived with her mother in Arnhem, experiencing grave hardship and lil health. After the war, she moved to Amsterdam and began to train at a ballet school, before making her film debut in 1948 as an air stewardess in ‘Dutch in Seven Lessons’, after which she took up a scholarship at Ballet Rambert in London. Audrey’s first ‘big break’ was playing Gigi on Broadway in 1951. This led to a starring role in ‘Roman Holiday’ two years later for which she received an Academy award. Audrey Hepburn received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 in recognition of her humanitarian work as an ambassador for UNICEF.

If you fancy a trip to Belgium, you can actually visit Hepburn’s first home, Rue Keyenveld 48 in Ixelles. Today, the house has a plaque dedicated to Hepburn’s legacy.

Audrey Hepburn – Famous Quotes

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible.”

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

“A woman can be beautiful as well as intellectual.”

“Why change? Everyone has his own style. When you have found it, you should stick to it.”

“You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.”