Mark Shaw was one of the greatest american photographers of the golden era of magazines. He worked for iconic magazines like LIFE, Esquire and Harper's Bazaar. His amazing photographs of the Kennedy family were published in the bestseller "The John F. Kennedys: A Family Album." At the end of 1953 he goes to Audrey Hepburn's home to make a photo shoot to showcase a day in her life.
By 1953, Audrey Hepburn at the age of 24 has made only one American movie, Roman Holiday in which she costarred with Gregory Peck. But already in Hollywood's inner circles she has caused more talk than any recent actress, including Marilyn Monroe. The talk about Audrey has to do with her acting talents, charm, poise, dignity and beauty. Nobody ever quite sums her up because Audrey defies definition. She is both waif and woman of the world. She is disarmingly friendly and strangely aloof. She is all queen (her grandfather was a Dutch baron) and all commoner - you can imagine her lifting a lorgnette at a ball or milking a cow in a barn. She has benn called chic, soignee, ravissante and a lot of other fancy French words; she has also been called a slick chick. In this photographic essay Mark Shaw shows the elements that comprise Audrey's elusive charm.
Once inside the studio, Audrey concentrates sharply and assiduously on the business at hand. Well disciplined and cooperative, with an innate respect for the technical problems of movie-making, she inspires in her co-workers what one of them calls "almost compulsory respect." Her attitude toward her own acting is notably intelligent. "She gives the distinct impression," says her current director, Billy Wilder, "that she can spell schizophrenia. I ask her to decide which is the best take because her judgment is so sound. It may be she will get lost in the whirl of technical revolution going on in the movies. That would be too bad. There is no one like her."
Audrey's off hours in Hollywood are occupied largely by work which directly affects her carreer. This is nothing new for Audrey who has never been a girl with time on her hands. As a child in The Netherlands, where she lived with her Dutch mother during the Nazi occupation (her divorced father was English), Audry gave dance recitals to raise funds for the resistance movement. After the war she moved to London to study ballet and, to support herself, became a musical comedy chorus girl, did bit parts in movies and finally was picked by the famous french novelist Colette to act in her Broadway hit, Gigi. (a detailed look at this moment: https://www.themistervintage.com/2021/11/the-discovery-of-audrey-hepburn-and-her.html).
Audrey says she can't remember ever having more than two hours in a row to call her own. By resisting invitations and being determinedly aloof, she manages to get some free time in Hollywood. "I have to be alone very often," she says. "I'd be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night unitl Monday morning alone in my apartment. That's how I refuel."
Audrey has had no difficulty in becoming a director's darling, a critic's darling and a darling to her co-workers. She has yet to prove that she will become an all-out public darling. "Audrey," says director Wilder, "may be too good for most people." Se is not an easy symbol of sex, or sin, or purity - her mercurial beauty and her ability to switch from gamin to glamor girl prevent her being an obvious type. She is equipped, of course, with some standard attributes of stardom: she looks helpless enough to protect, courageous enough to admire and pretty enough to adore. But Hollywood is betting that the public will love Audrey for very qualities that raise her above most popular stars.
In her acting she communicates warmth and humanity, seeming to open up the private rooms of her mind to reveal what she is thinking and feeling. Audrey insists on going her own way and has her own idea about her future. It involves, she says, "living among all kinds of people. I don't understand a lot, but the more I learn, the better actress I'll be. That's why I don't want to be tied down to one spot, or work always in the same part of the country or world."
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images and info provided by the LIFE Magazine / LIFE Magazine International / LIFE Magazine Atlantic ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection
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