Happy Birthday Audrey Hepburn

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Audrey Hepburn
Today would have been the 85th birthday of eternally adored, and sadly deceased British actress, Audrey Hepburn (PeekYou profile here). Google has marked the occasion on their homepage with a Google Doodle, and as will happen in the wake of such an honor, Ms. Hepburn’s been heavily trending throughout the Web.

The star of such brilliant films as Charade, Sabrina, and Roman Holiday (her first major role, for which she also won an Oscar), she may be best known to modern audiences for her performance in Blake Edwards’ 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote’s short-story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s,

In her later life, Ms. Hepburn dedicated all of her energies to humanitarian efforts on behalf of UNICEF, being appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF by the first President Bush in 1988. The official Audrey Hepburn website is dedicated to the children’s fund which exists in her name. The site says this of her life and career:

The real Audrey Hepburn story begins with a little girl who experienced the cruelty and consequences of World War II and who never forgot what liberation felt like or the images of aid arriving to her and thousands like her in Holland.

Although she had dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina since childhood, the war rendered her physically incapable of it. Instead, Audrey turned a lost dream into the next best thing; she took modeling jobs where she learned to work in front of the camera, used her training to compete with 4,000 dancers for one of ten spots in a chorus line and, eventually, found herself in front of a motion picture camera. Within three years, the whole world would come to know Audrey as Princess Anne in Roman Holiday. And that is how we came to know her, be captivated by her, and why we are still in

While a bit lesser-known among her films, Wait Until Dark is a terrific, 1967 thriller (we guarantee you’ll jump out of your chair), and a personal favorite of ours, in which Audrey gave one of her all-time best performances. Below, we include the trailer. A visit to Ms. Hepburn’s PeekYou profile will provide ample chance to poke around the many corners of cyberspace where her legendary, beautiful, brilliant, and caring presence can still be felt.