In earlier Hollywood days, movie stars seemed to have left a more lasting impression upon individuals. Perhaps the infancy of Hollywood films had a lot to do with it and perhaps the content and subject matters were not so in your face as they are today. Regardless of the reasons, when someone says the name Audrey Hepburn, they think class, style, beauty, and an early Hollywood “it” girl. An icon then, she remains an icon in the hearts of many who reference movies such as Roman Holiday, Funny Face, My Fair Lady, and of course, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
While Audrey was known for her iconic roles in film, she also cared deeply about the world in which she lived. All of these reasons and more are what landed her on Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest Women on Coins list. Curated by author Ron Guth, we will take a look at a woman known for her iconic roles off-screen as well as on.
#69 - Audrey Hepburn
Born in May of 1929 in Brussels, Belgium, Audrey Kathleen Ruston was the daughter of a British father and a Dutch mother. While spending a better part of her youth in England, Hepburn ended up living with her mother in Arnhem in the Netherlands from 1939 to 1945 as a result of World War II. Hoping to avoid the turmoil of war by moving to a more neutral country, Germany ended up occupying the Netherlands which made it hard for Hepburn and her mother to survive. Nonetheless, Hepburn was able to become an accomplished ballet dancer which would, later on, help her in her role for Funny Face.
After the war, Audrey would continue to study ballet but was often told she was too petite (short and frail) to become a professional. This news would lead her to acting where she would appear in small roles in films in 1951. Her biggest break came when she appeared in Gigi on Broadway which would undoubtedly help her beat out Elizabeth Taylor in 1953 for the lead role in Roman Holiday. In 1954, Hepburn would meet and end up marrying Mel Ferrer. They would have a son named Sean in 1960. Later that same year, she would star in Breakfast at Tiffany’s which is perhaps her most famous of films. Later in 1964, she would star in My Fair Lady for which she would later come out to say that most of her singing in the film was dubbed. In the late 1960s, Audrey would slow down her film career and work sporadically throughout the years.
In her later years, acting took a back seat to her humanitarian work. As a child of war, Hepburn dedicated herself to work on the behalf of children. She became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) in the late 1980s as she traveled the world to raise awareness for children in need. She would eventually earn an Academy Award for her humanitarian work but did not live long enough to see it. She died in early 1993 of abdominal cancer. However, her work to help children around the world continued on as her sons, Sean and Luca, in addition to her companion at the time established the Audrey Hepburn Memorial Fund at UNICEF in 1994. The fund is now known as the Audrey Hepburn Society at the US Fund for UNICEF.
In 1994 and 1995, the country of France honored the 100th anniversary of cinema with silver and gold coins. One of the coins featured a three-quarter profile of Audrey Hepburn. In 1996, the country of Gibraltar did its own centennial celebration and produced a copper-nickel one crown coin that featured Audrey with the dates of life and death on the obverse. Other countries have honored Hepburn, including Samoa with a 2018 silver Kilo coin.
Author Ron Guth finds the collecting ability of coins featuring Hepburn easy as the copper-nickel and silver coins are not difficult to obtain and are just as affordable. Gold coins are harder as France only made 3,000 one-ounce coins and just 99 of the five-ounce versions.